Example setup:

  • Tracks: Songs and Jingles - Jingles have a title entered, but no artist.
  • Track Group: Songs
    • Listed track group containing song tracks
  • Track Group: Jingles
    • Listed track group containing jingle tracks
  • Playout Pattern: Songs, Jingles
  • Playout Policy: General policy:
    • Do not repeat the same track for 2 hours
    • Do not repeat the same artist for 1 hour
    • Applied to all track groups


Problem:

Playout log schedules tracks in the order: Song, Jingle, Song, Song, Song, Song instead of expected Song, Jingle, Song, Jingle, Song, Jingle.


Solution:
The empty artist is considered a unique artist. Because no artist was entered for the jingle tracks, once one jingle has been played the playout policy prevents any more jingle tracks from being played for another hour.

The solution here is to create two playout policies, one for songs, one for jingles and remove the general policy.
  • Playout Policy 1: Songs policy:
    • Do not repeat the same track for 2 hours
    • Do not repeat the same artist for 1 hour
    • Applied to Songs track group only.
  • Playout Policy 2: Jingles policy:
    • Do not repeat the same track for 30 minutes
    • Do not repeat the same artist for 0 hours (i.e. disabled)
    • Applied to Jingles track group only.