How To Manage A Two Hour Pre-recorded Show In Myriad Schedule

Introduction

Let's say you have a pre-recorded show that is two hours long that you want to include in your Myriad Playout Log.

Obviously, a typical Clock in Myriad Schedule (or AutoTrack) is only an hour long so what is the best way to handle this situation? 

Before we jump in to the detail, you have a decision to make!

If the pre-recorded show is longer than the required 2 hours (ie they send you a 2 hour 3 minute show) what do you want to happen?

• Option 1 - Myriad Playout will fade out the end of the pre-recorded show ready for the start of the next hour.
• Option 2 - Myriad Playout will play the pre-recorded show in it's entirety which will mean the following hour will start a few minutes late.

Let's solve both of these scenarios.

Option 1 - Myriad Playout will fade an over-running pre-recorded show to keep to time.

Let's use an example. You have a pre-recorded show show that is 2 hours and 3 minutes exactly and it is on Media ID 2500 and we want it to play from 3pm to 5pm.  You should make sure that this Media Item is set to be a "Song", and have a "Fades" ending - this is so Myriad Playout knows it can fade this item early if it needs to.

Here is what we need to do.

1. In Myriad Schedule, create a new Advanced Clock called Blank and make sure that there are NO Clock Items in the list in the Clock. You also need to ensure this is set to Live Mode.
   
   
2. Place this Clock into the first hour that you want your pre-recorded show to play in, in this example it should be the 3pm hour.
   
   
   
   This may not initially make much sense to you but it is so that the pre-recorded show technically starts in the hour in the schedule it will also finish in (although in actual time it will have started in the 3pm hour).
   
   
3. Next, create a new Advanced Clock called My Pre-recorded Show (or whatever you like). This Advanced clock should be in AutoFade mode and contain only a single Song Media Item which is your pre-recorded show. In this example it is Media ID 2500.
   
   
   
   Make sure that the Song clock position is set to Allow AutoFade but Not Allow Dropping. Click on the Song Clock Item to edit these settings.
   
   
   
   
4. Add this Clock to the hour after the Blank clock (from step 2). In this example it is the 4pm hour.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Your standard Clock should be placed in the 5pm hour on the Clock Assignment grid.

So with this in place, Myriad Playout will do the following:

• At 3pm, the system will find an totally blank 'Live' show with nothing in it so will move straight through that hour to the 4pm hour.
• The 4PM "hour" will then immediately start with the one and only item being your pre-recorded show. It is technically underrunning at this stage but as the only item in the 4pm hour is a Song Media Item with a run time of over two hours, the underrun is resolved.
• At 4:59.99pm, Myriad Playout will fade out the pre-recorded show and start the next hour.

N.B. You could also set some music Category Goals in the My Pre-recorded Show clock then if the pre-recorded show was shorter than 2 hours (say 1 hour 50) then Myriad Playout would use the Category Goals to autofill the last 10 minutes using the criteria you set.

Option 2 - Myriad Playout will play the pre-recorded show in it's entirety (even if that means overrunning into the 5pm hour)

The only difference in this scenario is that the My Pre-recorded Show Clock (created in step 3) needs to be in Live Mode (not Autofade).

This will mean that instead of fading then end of the pre-recorded show, it will play all of it. 

N.B. It will also run short in this scenario if the show is less than 2 hours and will not autofill!

For more information on Myriad Schedule, check the Myriad Training Course page on our website - https://www.broadcastradio.com/training-courses

AutoTrack users

Whilst this article was written for Myriad Schedule, the same principle will apply for AutoTrack SE users.