What does a basic scheduling file look like?
An example basic scheduling file can be found here and should be opened in Notepad ( or your favourite text editor ) so you can change it. The default filename of the schedule playlist is the name of your playlist ( changable on the CDS control panel ) with the addition of the prefix 'schedule_' thus normally 'schedule_playlist.txt'. If you change the name of your playlist then you must also change the name of your schedule playlist.
The format of the schedule playlist has also been designed with simplicity in mind, so making it very simple to deploy. The entries are as follows:
- Time:Filename
The time should be in the format HHMM and be in 5 minute intervals an example of entry is:
- 1340:myadvert.mp3
- 1445:myadvert2.mp3
- 1500:myadvert3.mp3,myadvert4.mp3
- 1530:myadvert5.mp3
All the filenames must also reside in the 'Schedule' directory to be played, this is to allows you, the broadcaster to make sure your adverts/jingles/pre-programmed content is seperate from your normal material. If you have a comma seperated list of filenames they will be played one after another before the CDS returns to normal programming.
An important element of the scheduling system is to make sure you have your time synced correctly. All our servers are configured to Zulu time and this can be checked at all times on our Status page. All our graphs show the current time of the servers, as well as when you log into your CDS space ( via FTP ) the welcome banner shows the current time.
Enable Schedule Post Play is an option in the CDS configuration panel that will play your scheduled content after the current track has finished as opposed to cutting into the playing track.
New Features.
We have added some new features to allow scheduled tracks to be played after, rather than interrupting, the current track. This is selectable in the control panel under Enable Schedule Post Play and the default is to interrupt the current track at the specified time
Also added timed song title data functionality. If you have a file , MP3 or AAC, which is a mix of several songs and want the song title to change as the the track changes you can use this feature. This feature is only available via Shoutcast/Icecast CDS.
You need to upload a separate file for the mp3 or aac file to use.
If you have Songname.mp3 you would need to upload a file called Songname.txt
The format of the file is as follows:
- "00:00","your display text here"
- "00:50","another text string to send"
- "23:45","this is a change of title again"
This means the following, at the beginning of the track put 'your display text here' as a song title at 50 seconds into the track put 'another text string to send' as a song title at 23 minutes and 45 seconds put 'this is a change of title again'
