Originally, I mentioned smaller groups should not have Playout Policies. I need to correct this to say "should not have playout policies regarding Artist. But Should have a Playout policy for Titles.
I recommend this policy be specific to each group based on how often the group repeats on your scheduled clock. For example:
My Hot Hits Group Plays 4 times an Hour, 13 Titles, making for a 3 & 1/4 hour rotation. So I create a Playout Policy for this group that says Titles within this group only should not repeat in the 3 hours.
This causes every title in the group to be played and not repeat within the 3 hours.
I'll delve deeper into Playout Policies in another discussion.
I am getting inconsistent rotation from my Track Groups. One group has 179 tracks. These tracks play about twice per hour. The playout policy is set to not play the same track for 3 hours. Yet I see tracks with "last played" times of 2 hours ago, 3, 5 even 18 hours ago! How can I get a more even rotation? I'd like to know that every song in a Track Group has played before it starts repeating.
Hi Maximillian,
Tracks are chosen at random within the playout policies so there is no guarantee that all tracks in a group will play before the same track is recycled.
I used the Edit Playout Policy option under Manage/Playout Policies to set PIL not to play the same track for at least 16 hours and not to play the same artiste for at least 4 hours then applied it only to certain track groups where I know I have a smaller number of tracks available.
I would prefer this option to be per track group really, so there is the option to manage them better, rather than this facility being on or off with one setting.
S Thel
Each Track Group will have a rotation based on the total tracks in that Group and the number of positions those groups occupy on clocks or in the Playout Pattern.
For example: Track Group A has 10 Tracks and it appears 3 times (an Hour) on our example clock. This means Tracks in group A will rotate 3 & 1/3 hours. *This may vary if you have Playout Policies that effect this Track Group.
I recommend that smaller Track Groups should not have Playout Policies.
Station Identification, Jingles, Sweepers, Liners, PSAs, Promotional Announcements, News, Weather, Traffic reports, and Music Group Rotations should use a clock for scheduling if you’d like each event to paly near the same time each hour.
To get an idea of how often a track will play, divide the total in each Track Group by the number of times they appear on your clock.
Tip: If you have two announcements: “P” & “Q” and you’d like “P” to play twice as many times as “Q”, Create a second “P” Audio File, and add to the same track group. PlayIt Live will see them as 3 files. P will seemingly play twice as much as Q.
Playout Patterns can also be built based on the above information, but only a clock can land specific Track Groups near the same time each hour.
To build a Playout Pattern, think of Music Tracks averaging near 3 minutes. This would require near 20 positions in your pattern to equal 60 minutes. (Based on 3 minutes per track) Remember Playout patterns are not sensitive to the time. If your pattern ends at :15 it will go to the top and start again. Using Patterns allows you to repeat the same pattern again and again. Playout Policies will keep the same Titles And/or the same Artist from playing in the time span you select.
If you assign and schedule Clocks, remember that if your Clocks lack enough Tracks, it will go to the Playout pattern to fill. If you fail to schedule a clock or schedule a Playout, PlayIt Live will go to the Playout Pattern.