Nomenclature

Start asset 

While scheduling a media, you can choose the asset with which you want to start the program scheduling. The Start asset list is intended for this purpose. This list is visible in the Schedule Media window only when scheduling a series or a season with multiple episodes.

The first asset in the season is chosen as the starting asset for scheduling by default. You can choose a different asset from the list per your requirement. All you need to do is click the Start asset list to view all the available assets in the season and select the asset of your choice. Once you select a starting asset, all the assets from the selected one will play in sequence during playout and the assets previous to the chosen starting asset will be discarded.

In this example, the second asset in the season (Cookie Cookie) is chosen as the starting asset. Hence, during playout, the first asset (Little Kitchens) will be discarded, and all the assets starting from Cookie Cookie will be played in sequence.

Duration

While scheduling a media, you can choose a flexible or fixed duration block.

• Flexible - Choose flexible scheduling if you wish to schedule as much content as possible back to back in the available time slot as opposed to time-bound scheduling (fixed scheduling), which is prevalent in traditional TV broadcasting. In flexible scheduling, the moment the first program ends, the next program will start playing from the immediate next frame. For example, if the first program ends at 08:10:33:14, the second program starts at 08:10:33:15. When scheduled, the episode will occupy a slot of duration equal to the sum of the episodic program’s asset duration and the ad break duration. Flexible scheduling is commonly used in the new streaming TV era.

• Fixed - Choose fixed scheduling if you wish to schedule programs for a fixed amount of time, for example, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, etc. If the program ends before the allocated timeslot, a hole will be left for the remaining duration. For example, if the block duration is 60 minutes, and the program duration is only 50 minutes, a hole will be left for the remaining 10 minutes (60 minus 50). In this case, fillers need to be scheduled for the 10-minute duration. This ensures that the program runs for the exact duration in the fixed slot (60 minutes).

Programs/Day 

When scheduling a series or a season, you have to choose the number of programs you wish to schedule on a single day. The Programs/Day field is intended for this purpose. By default, 1 program is chosen per day. You can provide a value that  ranges from ‘1’ to the ‘total episode count’. For example, if the total number of episodes in the season is 10, you can enter a value that ranges from 1 to 10.

If you choose to schedule more than one program a day, the following scheduling options are available:

• Play back to back (default option)

If you want the scheduled programs to play back to back during playout, choose this option. During playout, the first program will be played at the scheduled start time. The moment the first program ends, the second program will start from the immediate next frame, and this process will be continued until all the scheduled programs are played completely.  

To disable the Play back to back option, turn off the toggle switch, as depicted.

• Different start times

If you wish to play the chosen programs at different start times during playout, turn off the Play back to back toggle switch. New start time fields will be displayed based on the number of programs you choose. For example, if you choose the Programs/Day as 3, three Start time fields will be displayed, where you can provide the different start times at which you want to schedule the programs. 

Start Time

This is the time from which you wish to start the program scheduling. Start time is automatically filled based on the time slot to which the media is dragged. You can edit it per your need.  

Schedule Pattern

While scheduling programs, you can choose a scheduling pattern.

Scheduling Start Date 

This is the date from which you wish to start the media scheduling. The start date is automatically filled based on the date to which the media is dragged. You can modify the start date in the Schedule Media window per your need.

End date

This is the date until which you wish to schedule the asset. The end date is filled automatically based on the start date, the count of assets chosen for scheduling pre day, whether the asset is scheduled back to back, and the scheduling pattern.

For example, if you are scheduling a media having 5 episodes from Feb 8, with 2 programs/day playing back to back, then the end date will be automatically updated as Feb 10.

ADD REPEAT

Sometimes, a need might arise to repeat the already scheduled programs on a different date and time slot. ADD REPEAT is intended for this purpose.

In the Repeat window, you can enter the details required to repeat the scheduling of a media on a different date and timeslot. You can add any number of repeat patterns, as required using ADD REPEAT.