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Schedule Ads

The HyperCaster’s flexible programming features can be used to broadcast advertising spots on your channel without the need for additional ad insertion equipment or groomers. Ad runs are logged in the HyperCaster, and these reports can be exported for billing purposes.

Here are three different ways to use the HyperCaster to schedule ad runs in your programming lineup:

  1. Continuity Playlist – Run of Schedule (RoS) Playout to play a running list of ads into available gaps between scheduled programs.
  2. Ad Blocks to schedule groups of ads anywhere in your programming.
  3. Individual Ad Playout to run a specific ad at a specific time.

Schedule Ads as a Continuity Playlist – Run of Schedule (RoS) Playout.

The Continuity Playlist (Run of Schedule) remembers which item played last, and the next time the Channel goes to continuity, the playlist will pick up at the beginning of the next video in the queue. This ensures that ads in the playlist start cleanly, and that all ads will eventually be broadcast. All RoS Ad playouts are logged in the As Run log for billing.

Example: in the illustration below, “Squirrel” is the program. Between the three segments of “Squirrel” are two 1-minute gaps. (To create the one-minute gaps in the schedule, click the “Modify” link in either Calendar View or Classic View and schedule the segments accordingly.) The HyperCaster will automatically fill these gaps with your Continuity Playlist. Ads that are organized into a Continuity Playlist will play out in the un-scheduled slots in between the three “Squirrel” segments:

To organize and play Ads as a Continuity Playlist, follow these steps:

First, to build the playlist:

  1. Under the Content Tab, go to → Playlists → Create Playlist
  2. A popup will ask you to fill in the playlist  metadata
  3. Save, and a “Manage Playlist Items” link will appear
  4. Click on “Manage Playlist Items”
  5. Drag-and-drop all (RoS Ad) Content into Playlist
  6. Drag-and-drop to change the order, if you wish
  7. Save Changes

 

The Continuity Playlist you just created then needs to be assigned to a Channel, and Enabled:HC52EditContinuity

  1. Go to the Config Tab → Channel setup → Edit Channel
  2. To add to Reports: Check “Log As Run”
  3. Check “Resume” so that the playlist will move on to the next video instead of starting at the beginning
  4. Select your Ad Playlist from the Continuity Playlist pulldown.
  5. Save these changes.

If you are in live programming, and you want to interrupt the live stream with the ads in a Continuity Playlist:

  1. Go to Config –> Channel setup — Edit Channel to choose the Continuity Playlist and Channel
  2. Unschedule the live stream, and your ads will start to play (after about 5 seconds delay)
  3. To return to live programming, go back to the Programming tab –> Add Stream Event –> Stream Immediately.

Reports: Ads that run in the Continuity Playlist will show up in the As Run Reports as Continuity Playlist events.

 Schedule Ads using Block Copy

This method groups several ads to run together as a Block (for example, grouping four 30-sec ads into a 2-minute block), usually to be scheduled in between periods of longer-form programming.  Using the Block Copy/Paste feature, you can create and name any number of different blocks of ads, and then schedule these into an unlimited number of programming timeslots.

To organize ads into a Block, the videos can be anywhere in the programming schedule:

  1. Start in the Programming Tab
  2. Select videos by:
    1. Checkbox (in Classic View)
    2. Click (in Calendar View)
      1. Shift+Click for multiple videos in a row
      2. Command+Click to individually select multiple videos
  3. Click on the “Block Copy” button to open this popup:

To Create a new Block, Name your Block in the “Save selected events to Block” field under the “Manage” heading at the bottom of the pop-up.  Save, and your new Block has been created.

To Schedule the Ad Block:

  1. Under “Paste” heading, choose start time and channel
  2. Add (+) as many additional slots as you need
  3. Click on the “Paste” button to schedule

To schedule the Ad Block into live programming, it is recommended to first set the live feed as “Continuity”, then schedule your ad block for as close to the current time as possible.  Once the ad has run, the HyperCaster will return to the Continuity Live Stream.

Reports:  Ads that run in blocks will show up in the As Run Reports as Playout events.

Ads as individual playout items

This method works best when a specific ad needs to run at a specific time.

Schedule just as you would any other video.

To play an individual ad into live programming, it is recommended to first set the live feed as “Continuity”, then manually play the specific ad:

  1. Under the Content Tab, click on the Ad title to open the Content Display page
  2. Select Channel
  3. Select “Play Now”

Reports: Ads that run as individual files will show up in the As Run Reports as Playout events.

Best Practices

  • Categorize. This will simplify the sorting, browsing, and As-Run reporting of ads. For further granularity, you can also add Keywords to the metadata of each ad.
  • Timing. Where possible, consistent timeslot lengths gives you more flexibility in the scheduling of ads. It will also ensure smoother transitions when using the Continuity Playlist method of displaying ads.