Seperate date related history for RVT playlists

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AFM-Radio
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Seperate date related history for RVT playlists

Post by AFM-Radio »

Hi Bernd,

Nowadays we often use the Remote Voicetrack option in Proppfrexx. Every working day between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. These are blocks of 2 hours. The only problem we run into is that duplicate songs are being planned. So one RVT program can contain songs from the RVT program after it. I know there is an option 'Look back to the future', but this only compares a normal script to an RVT playlist, doesn't it?

What we are actually looking for is a separate history. That made RVT playlists for that day are compared with a separate history. That if, for example, one person generates a playlist on Monday for Friday and the other person on Thursday for Friday. That these playlists are then compared with the scheduled songs on Friday in the special RVT history for that specific day, and are not compared and added to the current global history.

I don't know what is already possible and if you know what to advise to do, or if something similar can be developed with a separate date related history for RVT playlists?

So, for example, if an RVT playlist is made for Friday on Monday and Ava Max - sweet but psycho is scheduled. And on Thursday a new RVT playlist will be made for that same Friday but Ava Max - sweet but psycho has left the Global History but is still in the RVT history. And will Proppfrexx see that Ava Max - sweet but psycho is already scheduled for Friday on Monday, so it cannot be scheduled. Do you understand what I mean?

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Jesper
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radio42
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Re: Seperate date related history for RVT playlists

Post by radio42 »

Yes, there are two Back-To-The-Future options - both should be used.
So in the scenario you described when two subsequent playlists are created on different days, they should be concidered.
E.g. the surrounding playlists (if already created) would be considered as additional history entries.
I.e. exactly what do describe (which the additional history) is already in place.

However, the other question is, if that scenario is always true; i.e. when/how you create those RVT playlists in other cases.
I assume, that sometimes you create then almost in parallel at the same time, in which case this wouldn't work.

An alternative is to pre-create those RVT playlists for the related program entries upfront on the ProppFrexx (server) side; so that they are not created on-the-fly at the time when just the RVT session takes place.
AFM-Radio
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Re: Seperate date related history for RVT playlists

Post by AFM-Radio »

In most cases, the rvt will be made on the same day or the day before.

So if I understand correctly, rvt playlists are also checked against each other by an addtional history if it is made for the same day.

Both 'Back to the Future' options are on. See below. What are the hours for and how many hours should I set it if we have 8 hours rvt a day? 8 hours?
20200818_180644.jpg
The alternative solution could also be an option. Is there a way to generate multiple playlists at once and not one by one? For example for a whole week?

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Jesper
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radio42
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Re: Seperate date related history for RVT playlists

Post by radio42 »

That depends on far back/infront you like to look.
E.g. 3 hours means it would look 3 hours back resp. infront.
If it then finds an already pre-created playlist (i.e. a script with a LoadPlaylist as the 1st script-line), it would read in such playlist and load these tracks as additional history entries.
These additional history entries are then check with the current RVT/playlist creation for that RVT session.
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Re: Seperate date related history for RVT playlists

Post by AFM-Radio »

radio42 wrote: 18 Aug 2020 19:06 That depends on far back/infront you like to look.
E.g. 3 hours means it would look 3 hours back resp. infront.
Does this apply before the moment of rvt playlist generation or on the day of effective broadcast rvt.
So I make a rvt session that will be broadcast on Friday. Then the back to the future checks on that Friday, for example, 3 hours forward or backward whether a playlist is found?

I found the automatic playlist generation feature.
I'm also going to try this out to see if this works better for us.
Another quick question:
I see that some rvt playlists have already been made for tomorrow and Thursday. Will these be overwritten if I now enable the option to automatically generate playlist for rvt scheduler entries?
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radio42
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Re: Seperate date related history for RVT playlists

Post by radio42 »

No. The history checks are always executed, when the related playlist is effectively generated (and not when it is played).
I.e. at the time when the RVT playlist is generated or at the time when the automatic playlist generation generates it.

The automatic playlist generation feature does skip those program, for which a playlist has already been generated.
I.e. in case an RVT session already generated it, it would not be overwritten by the automatic playlist generation.

One last question:
Do you maybe have the script option 'UseLastTrackOnFinalFail' activated?
Because, in case your media libraries are too small to satisfy all these additional history entries, it might be, that script-lines are either skipped; or if the 'UseLastTrackOnFinalFail' option is set, that the last track regardless the invalid history check is used anyhow.
This also applies to all script-line where the 'SuppressHistory' check option is set.
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Re: Seperate date related history for RVT playlists

Post by AFM-Radio »

No. The history checks are always executed, when the related playlist is effectively generated (and not when it is played).
I.e. at the time when the RVT playlist is generated or at the time when the automatic playlist generation generates it.


Okay, that's what I meant with my first question at the beginning of this topic. The history check is indeed performed when an rvt playlist has been generated. As a result, if an rvt session is generated on Monday for Friday and Thursday a new one for Friday and those programs are broadcast one after the other, then you have a chance of double songs because that history of Monday when the 1st rvt playlist was generated is already out. the history has disappeared from the Global History.
Or am I wrong?


The automatic playlist generation feature does skip those program, for which a playlist has already been generated.
I.e. in case an RVT session already generated it, it would not be overwritten by the automatic playlist generation.


Okay, that's clear

One last question:
Do you maybe have the script option 'UseLastTrackOnFinalFail' activated?
Because, in case your media libraries are too small to satisfy all these additional history entries, it might be, that script-lines are either skipped; or if the 'UseLastTrackOnFinalFail' option is set, that the last track regardless the invalid history check is used anyhow.
This also applies to all script-line where the 'SuppressHistory' check option is set.


We do indeed use 'UseLastTrackOnFinalFail' as an option in the script. Furthermore, the script consists of 'random' and 'leastrecently played script lines.
Most media libraries are large enough.
Normally no problems. For example, if the non-stop plays all night, and then also a new playlist of the same script is generated every hour, I don't have duplicate songs.
I think the problem is indeed generating rvt playlist at different times and days. So I'm going to give it a try with pre-generating playlists. So that they are planned in order and not randomly.
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Re: Seperate date related history for RVT playlists

Post by radio42 »

You are wrong, as exactly for this reason, the Back-To-The-Future settings are there to load the surrounding playlist entries as additional history entries!
Eg. the playlist generated on Monday is added as a history for the generation happening on Thursday!

Just note, that in normal operation no additional history is used. While with the option explained above the history becomes bigger. Which might result in more checks to fail.
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Re: Seperate date related history for RVT playlists

Post by AFM-Radio »

Okay I get it. But in normal operation:
If I automatically create pre-generated (RVT) playlists in advance, then an additional history should not be used because the history will be larger. So then the option 'back to the future' can be unchecked?

p.s. Now you can only indicate the days in advance for automatic generation and the time at which it should be done. I just wanted to plan 3 days in advance, but then the system actually planned on the 3rd day and forgot the first two. Is it not possible to indicate an end date to what extent ProppFrexx may generate playlists?
For example: Date set to August 25th. Time 11:30 pm.
So at 11.30 pm ProppFrexx will generate playlists until August 25th at once.
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Re: Seperate date related history for RVT playlists

Post by radio42 »

You should leave it checked, as else the normal program/playlist couldn’t consider those pre-generated tracks, which might again lead to duplicates.

You can also pre-generate the Delta manually (initially only) from within the the program scheduler - right-click and select Create Playlist Template.
Also note, that you can define a filter for the automatic generation, to only pre-generate very specific ie. only the RVT Program playlists.

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