Schedule episodes using a collection such that each episode always starts with your preferred asset

Let's schedule a program using an automatic curation collection such that once scheduled, each episode in the program should start with the asset of your choice, for example, a ‘bumper’. You can achieve this when building a new collection or updating an existing collection that is not yet scheduled. 

Assumption: When a program is scheduled using the collection, the assets in the program should be arranged in a random order, which is different from the asset order chosen in the master collection. 

To schedule episodes using a collection such that each episode always starts with a bumper, do the following steps:

1. Ensure that the Media tab is currently selected in the CONTENT MANAGER pane.

2. Press Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (Mac), and select the required assets from the content manager using which you want to build the master collection.

3. Click the NEW COLLECTION button available below the Media tab to build a new collection.

4. In the New Collection window, keep the collection type as Automatic curation (selected by default).

5. Enter the name of the collection, and select the required tags.
   In the Assets tab, you can view all the assets that are grouped for building the master   collection.
   Note: You can add more assets to the master collection, delete the unwanted ones, and rearrange the order of assets based on your requirement. Check out this section for details.
   
   
   

6. Optional step: Move to the Metadata tab, and provide the metadata related to the series, season, and episode per your requirement. 

7. In the Rules tab, do the following:

1. Choose the asset order as Shuffle. This ensures that the assets grouped in the master collection will get shuffled and arranged in a random sequence when you schedule a program using this collection.

2. Define rules to pin the bumper at the top of the master collection.   

   1. Click ADD PIN to add a new pin rule.

   2. Locate the asset that you want to pin from the content manager and drag it to the box labeled Assets to be Pinned.
      

   3. Keep the position as Top (selected by default).
       This ensures that the pinned assets always remain at the top of the scheduled program, irrespective of the sequence chosen while building the master collection.                               

8. Click CREATE COLLECTION.
   

 The newly built automatically curated collection will be listed as the first item in the Collection tab, as depicted.

9. Ensure that the scheduling date (the day on which the non-episodic program has to be scheduled) is visible in the scheduling calendar.

10. Ensure that the ad media is configured for this collection before scheduling. 

    • If you want the episodes to occupy approximate block duration while scheduling, follow the steps outlined in this section.

    • If you want the episode to occupy the exact block duration while scheduling, follow the steps outlined in this section.

11. From the CONTENT MANAGER pane, drag the collection to the scheduled start time and start date in the calendar.

12. Configure the Schedule Collection window that is displayed on the right pane of the PLANNER application. 

    1. On the left pane in the Schedule Collection window, select the Schedule Type as Series-Season or Open Series per your requirement. 

• Choose Series-Season if the series needs to be split into various seasons, where each season will have multiple episodes that revolve around a specific topic.

• Choose Open Series if each series need to be directly split into multiple episodes without any seasons.

2. Provide the required target duration.

3. On the right pane in the Schedule Collection window, select the required programs/day.

Note: If you provide more than one program/day, ensure that you provide the corresponding start times. For example, if you choose programs/day as 2, in addition to Start Time 1 (by default, schedule start time is available here), you need to provide Start Time 2.

4. Ensure that the ‘Start time’ and ‘Scheduling Date’ chosen in the Schedule Collection window match the program’s start date and start time. 

5. Choose the Schedule Pattern per your requirement. For example, choose Daily if episodes need to be scheduled daily or choose any other specific pattern. 

6. Click the Rules tab on the right pane, and configure the following:

   1. Choose the number of ad breaks you wish to schedule in the program.

   2. Choose the asset order of the program as Shuffle. This ensures that the assets in the program will be arranged in a random order which is different from the asset order chosen in the master collection. 

Note: The bumper you pinned at the top while building the collection is visible in the Rules tab, as highlighted below.                                

13. Click the SCHEDULE button available in the bottom-right corner of the Schedule Collection window.
    In the Program Details window, you can see that each individual episode in the program always starts with a bumper.