Studio365-Live Playlist Scheduler Window
The Playlist Scheduler is a powerful tool, which will let you play different collections of tracks at specific times throughout day. So for example, during the afternoon, you may have some light upbeat Jazz. While in the late evening you can automatically switch to down-tempo to ease your listeners towards bedtime. And in the early morning hours? Who knows! When done, this schedule will loop back around to the top and start over again. So during the week you may want to have one schedule, and another for the weekend.

The list window will simply show you the list of playlists and the time of day you want them to play. In addition to this, you will also see the duration of each, description and the actual filename. When in use, the current playlist will be highlighted with a red arrow on the left and will play continuously until the next one is loaded.

Studio365-Live - Scheduler Window

File drop-down Menu

  • New Schedule... - clears the current schedule in the window
  • New Playlist... - opens up the standard playlist window so you can create a new playlist without interfering with any current broadcast.
  • Open... - will load in a previously created schedule (".mpl" file)
  • Save... - saves the modified schedule
  • Save as... - saves the current schedule, but to a new name
  • Cue on Time... If checked, new playlists will be swapped in exactly as their start time specifies. This will have the effect of chopping off any currently playing track however. If you want a smoother transition, keep this unchecked, and the scheduler will let the current track finish before changing to a new playlist.
  • 24 Hour Mode... When selected, the Start time will use 24 hour mode.
  • Exit... - closes the scheduler window.
Activate button

This will "switch on" or activate the current schedule, which will load and start playing the most recently scheduled playlist. (Any non-scheduled playlist will be immediately swapped out). There is no magic in this. What it does is no different than if you were to load and start playing playlists at specific times by hand. If you have the standard playlist window open you can see each .M3U file loaded in as the time comes.

The scheduler uses the "clock wheel" model. Each playlist will run during its slice of the day until it is swapped out by the next one in the list at a later time. (This means that schedule with only one entry will play that playlist around the clock no matter what the start time is. That is, if you schedule a single entry starting an hour from now, as far as the scheduler is concerned it actually started 23 hours ago, so becomes the playlist that "should" currently be running.)

If you want to continue with a specific playlist, click on Activate a second time to turn off the scheduler.

Add button

You can add a new entry to the schedule via this button and the standard windows file dialog, or by dragging an existing playlist, ".m3u" file, into the window.

When a new entry is added, you will be asked to supply both a description and a time when the playlist is to be started. The description is the text seen by your listeners in the Live365 directory.

Delete button

To delete a track, select it and click the Delete button or the Delete key on the keyboard.

Edit button

The edit button will let you edit one playlist (in the "Build Playlist" window) while another is playing in the "Current Playlist" window.

24 Hour Mode checkbox

Selecting this will display the start time of each playlist in 24 hour mode.

Tips

To sound more professional, you may want to add a voice announcement in-between each new playlist to declare the change to your listeners. You can do this by merely making a one-track long playlist for each announcement that will be in-effect, a pre-roll.

For step-by-step instructions on how to use the Playlist Scheduler, please visit the Studio365-Live Playlist Scheduler page.

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