Schedules
Schedules are the resources that tell Campaigns which content to display and during which block of time to display it. A Campaign can have multiple Schedules that it will play through one by one every time their turn comes in the playlist.
The Schedules tab of the Campaign Properties contains the Calendar View, which allows you to see all active Schedules in a Campaign.
You can view the calendar in either List, Day, Week, or Month format with the View drop-down menu.
New Campaigns will automatically have a default Schedule assigned to them that covers the time range specified in the Reservation Wizard. If multiple Schedules are required within a campaign, they can be added via the Campaign Properties window. The Schedules themselves contain Ad Copies, which they iterate through and tell Broadsign Control Player to display when their turn comes. For more information on how Schedules are used to build the playlist, see Playlist Generation.
The Calendar View allows you to see all active Schedules within a Campaign in either List, Day, Week or Month format, which can be selected from the View drop-down menu.
Each Schedule will be automatically assigned a color code.
From the Calendar View, it is possible to rearrange the Schedules start and end dates by dragging and dropping the start or end of the bar. It is also possible to drag and drop the whole Schedule to move the start and end date at the same time.
If days are excluded from the Schedule using the weekday mask, this will be shown on the Schedule bar as a crosshatched color.
This section describes how to manage Schedules in the Schedules tab.
To add a Schedule:
- In the Campaign Properties window, click the Schedules section.
- Click the Add button.
- Welcome – Name the Schedule.
- Date and Time Range – Set the start and end dates as well as the time of day when a Schedule is in effect. See Date and Time Range.
- Day of Week Mask – Define on which days a Schedule is active. See Day of Week.
- Ad Copy Selection – Select the Ad Copies that will make up the Schedule. See Ad Copy Selection.
The Calendar view displays all active Schedules in the Campaign.
The Add Schedule Wizard is displayed.
By default, the wizard contains the following pages:
You can either edit Schedules one by one or batch edit multiple Schedules.
You can edit a single Schedule in one of the following manners:
- Click any of the Schedules fields and modify the value.
- Select a Schedule and click the Edit button to open the Schedule editor.
- Double-click a Schedule to open the Schedule editor.
The Schedule editor offers different tabs.
Tab | Description |
General |
Change the name of the Scheduled and define whether it is active. |
Range |
Set the start and end dates as well as the time of day when a Schedule is in effect. See Date and Time Range. |
Bundles |
Select the Ad Copies that will make up the Schedule. See Ad Copy Selection. |
Days |
Define on which days a Schedule is active. See Day of Week. |
Weight |
Set a precedence among overlapping Schedules. See Schedule Weight. |
It is possible to select multiple Schedules and click the Edit button to open the Multi-Edit Schedule Wizard.
The wizard offers two options:
- Copy the properties from another schedule – This allows you to copy some or all the properties of a selected Schedule to all other selected Schedules. You are prompted to select which Schedule to use as a template and which properties to copy.
Set new properties on all selected schedules – This allows you to define new values for some or all the properties of the selected Schedules. You are prompted to select which properties to edit and, based on the selection, a series of wizard pages will be presented, one for each selected property.
The following properties can be edited:
- Date and Time Range – Sets the start and end dates as well as the time of day when a Schedule is in effect. See Date and Time Range.
- Day of Week Mask – Defines on which days a Schedule is active. See Day of Week.
- Assigned Bundles – Selects the Ad Copies that will make up the Schedule. See Ad Copy Selection.
- Weight – Sets a precedence among overlapping Schedules. See Schedule Weight.
When adding a Schedule or editing an existing one, the following parameters are available.
Defines on which days a Schedule is active. A Schedule can be set to be active only on certain days of the week, so that a Campaign can display different content depending on the day of the week.
Selects the Ad Copies that will make up the Schedule. You can also select Bundles. If the Schedule contains more than one Bundle, it will display each one evenly.
A Schedule's weight is a numeric value that makes it possible to set a precedence among overlapping Schedules. When multiple Schedules are in effect at a given time block, the Schedule with the lowest weight value has the highest precedence and is displayed first, followed by the Schedule with the second lowest weight value, and so on. This makes it possible to specify an order to display Scheduled content.
Defines the start and end dates as well as the time of day when a Schedule is in effect. By default, when creating a Schedule, the dates are set to cover the full Campaign Duration, and the time is set to run for the whole day. They can be modified for the same Campaign to show different content depending on the time of day or year.
A Schedule's Time Range cannot begin before 12:00:00 AM or end after 11:59:59 PM. A Time Range cannot wrap around midnight, that is, it is not possible for a Schedule to begin at 10:00:00 PM and end at 03:00:00 AM; two Schedules would be necessary to do that, one that stretched from 10:00:00 PM to 11:59:59 PM, and another that covered 12:00:00 AM to 03:00:00 AM.