multiple overlay delays

[moogwill]

Hi Bernd

what is the difference between early start, late start and max overlay delay ? how do they affect each other ?

[radio42]

When you click on the '?' icon at the top right of each dialog you will get help for each option.

Max. Start Delay:
When an overlay is defined as soft start (so it doesn't have to start at exactly that time) it might be delayed by this maximum number of seconds.
When an overlay is about to be started the remaining time of the current track of the current playlist is checked. If the remaining time is less than this maximum delay time, the track will be played til the end before the overlay is started (which will then result in a delayed overlay start).
But if the remaining time is greater than this maximum delay time the current track is faded-out immediately and the overlay start will not be delayed (except a 'Max. Late' value is defined).
Note: Overlays defined as fixed start will always start on time.
In case of 'EndsAt' this value defines a maximum waiting time til the real effective end. In this waiting time a given 'Bridge Track' will be played looped!

Max. Early:
If the overlay is allowed to start early, this value defines how much early it might start (in seconds).
When set to 0, the 'Show in advance' time is used (as such, this value should be less).
Note, in case of EndsAt, the effective end time might be early! In that case you should specify a 'Bridge Track', which is then played looped until the 'Max. Start Delay'.

Max. Late:
If the overlay is allowed to start Soft (or EndsAt), this defines how soft it will start.
Setting the value to 0 is the default, which means, it starts at the end of the currently playing track, if its remaining time is less than the 'Max. Start Delay' - else it will start early immediately.
If the value is greater than 0, the overlay starts at latest this number of seconds late. This means, the 'Max. Early' and 'Max. Late' time frame define the soft starting time range and a currently playing track is at least playing this long and is only started early if it ends in that range - else it is started this late.
Note, in case of EndsAt, the effective end time might be late. In case a 'Bridge Track' is given AND the 'Max. Start Delay' is NOT reached yet, that bridge track will be played looped until the 'Max. Start Delay' is reached.

[moogwill]

thanks, so, when there is a news overlay embedded in the playlist (resolved to playlist), how does this affect the local slave computer overlay ?

what would result for if the embedded overlay from the master is moved in the playlist out of those time limits (defined by those delays parameters) ?

Note that i noticed that "max. Overlay delay" is greyed out when it's not a master/slave overlay

Hope my questions were clear enough...
thanks.

[radio42]

When an overlay is resolved to a playlist, an embedded overlay item is played like any other regular track, ie. the mentioned ‚delay‘ options don’t apply to these items.
These options are effective only when an overlay is not resolved, but played via the Overlay Player.

But when you talk about a local slave computer, it seams you are talking about either multi advert regions or remote voice tracking. This should not be mixed up.
So for remote voice tracking the above actually does apply.

[moogwill]

the fact is, that after many attempt to find the best way to create a multi region program, we finally choose to do the same program and use multi region news to create some short local announcements content inside the 4H program.
this program is previously recorded using RVT for global announcements, and multi region news using reference track's externally recorded for local content. we need this news overlays to be resolved to playlist to be sure of the place they'll have in the playlist (for the dj to be able to announce what's coming next).

I assume the slave overlays (locals) are still conditioned by those different delays. How to be sure to let the dj any freedom to move some of those if needed?

[radio42]

In a Multi Region setup, the master triggers the playback of the slave overlay. Ie. when the master overlay plays, the slave overlay plays. The master can contain embedded overlays. Ie. in the master either the Overlay Player or an embedded overlay will trigger the Slave.
But in the Slave any triggered overlay is always played via the Overlay Player. Ie. you can not have embedded overlays in the slave.

So I am not sure, what you want to achieve. On the master, a DJ could move embedded overlays around and even if moved, they will trigger the slave when they are effectively played.

The general idea of Multi Region setup is still, that the music is 100% played by the master and transmitted to the slave. Just the overlays are different.
Eg. see here: https://www.proppfrexx.radio42.com/foru ... php?p=9561

[moogwill]

Bernd,

I just had a look on the link, that's exactely what we're doing, but with a dj anouncement in it, there's a local id, and then the dj is anouncing next track, or something that got a "local" interest.
for different reason, when VT, the deejay have sometime to move the overlay inside the program, as resolved to playlist it's not an issue regarding the master program, but in the slave computer, those parallel overlays stay dependant of those overlay delays, right?

If right, how to garantee those slave overlays to be played? is there a way to set the slave computer waiting fo the master overlays over any delays? maybe only cancelled by the next one ?

thanks,

have a nice weekend

[radio42]

Are you sure you are doing exactly as in the link? I guess you still have a misunderstanding - as I still do not understand your question!?
Let me explain again...

The multi-advert functionality works like this:

• you play your music (main program) ONLY on the master PC
• all slave regions (slave PCs) receive the music directly via a (virtual) cable, i.e. via a line in signal
• as such, all slave regions (slave PCs) do NOT use any local program/playlist etc. you can NOT do or play any local (remote) voice tracking. This is only done on the master PC
• What is locally different are ONLY the adverts (overlays), but not any music or main program, e.g. you can not run any local program/playlist on the slaves
• An overlay can contain different content for each region (for each slave PC as well as for the master)
• As you only play the main program/playlist on the master, that master can play the overlay either via the Overlay Player OR via an embedded overlay container from within its playlist
• on the slave (region) PCs, the master music is received via line-in and as such, the local overlays are ALWAYS played via the Overlay Player (as there is no local playlist playing!).
• When an Overlay Scheduler Entry is now about to be played on the master playlist, related commands are send via TCP/IP connections from the master PC to all connected slave PCs. The master triggers the slaves
• As such, only the timing on the master matters! I.e. the delay settings (as explained above, apply only on the master). When the overlay on the master is played via the Overlay Player, the various delay settings are used. When the overlay on the master is played via an embedded overlay container (e.g. as resolved during VT) the delay settings are not used, as they don't apply to playlist items
• The slaves do in the end receive the mentioned commands via TCP/IP from the master in real-time when the overlay is finally played and the local overlays are being triggered and as such played exactly in snyc with the master
• so the master timing of the overlay controls when the slaves should (in sync) play the local overlays
• as a result, the master as well as the region (slave) overlays are played exactly synchronized at exactly the same time
• if the master/slave regional overlays have a different length, the used Fillers are played, so that not only the overlay start, but also the overlay length is synchronized
• once the overlays are all played, the master again plays its music program/playlist and the slaves are again in sync, as they receive this music via a direct (virtual) cable
• If you would play a local playlist on the slave PCs, nothing would be synchronized and a the remote trigger would still happen, but the effect is unpredictable.. E.g. the remote overlay trigger might just popup the Overlay Player and the overlay is just played on top of the playlist completely unsynchronized.

I hope you now understand, why I don't understand your question. The delay settings are not used and not needed at all on the slave PCs. They only apply to the master.
And once overlays are resolved on the master via VT to the playlist, the delay settings don't apply anyhow, but the overlay is treated as a regular track, but therefore you can rearrange the overlay within the playlist.

Or in other words, the slaves never start their local Overlays according to the Overlay Scheduler Entry settings, resp. the Overlay Scheduler should use and point to the exact same Advert Storage Path, e.g. via a common, global shared network drive! This guarantees that the exact same entries are being used. And for that single Advert Storage Path you maintain the master and slave campaigns separately per region - in the Advert and News Management you therefore can switch between the different regions and maintain the advert tracks individually per region (slave).