Scheduling 101

A schedule is responsible for defining,

• What content to play
• When to play the content
• Where to play the content

There are two types of scheduling strategies to choose from when creating a new schedule,

• Basic Scheduling, for simple date/time range scheduling
• Smart Scheduling, for more complicated schedules involving a set of logical rules

For the majority of scheduling needs Basic will be sufficient since in many cases content will simply be scheduled to run all day everyday. Smart scheduling becomes important when considering large scale deployments with complicated scheduling requirements based on region or language.

Basic Scheduling

A basic schedule is just that, basic, consisting of the minimum elements required to schedule content including date/time, content selection, and device selection. The date/time options consist of a date range, time range, and days of the week. The default date/time when creating a new basic schedule is for All Day, Everyday.

Basic scheduling requires either a playlist, or template to be selected as the content to play as well as one more devices on which to play the content.

Days

Days of the week on which to play the content. Deselecting a day will prevent the content from playing on that day of the week.

Date Range

Deselecting All Dates will display a Start and End date field.

Start date is inclusive which means the content will start on that date. End date is inclusive meaning the content will play on but not after that date. Both fields are optional.

Time Range

Deselecting All Day will display a Start and End time field.

Start time is inclusive which means the content will start at that time. End time is exclusive meaning the content will not play on or after that time. Both fields are optional.

Content

The content selection includes options for either playlist or template. Scheduling a playlist will play the content full screen.

Note that some devices only support playlists such as our FYI mobile app, also any device on the Basic service level can only be scheduled to a playlist, not a template.

Devices

Select individual devices as the target for playback of the scheduled content. Devices can be added/removed at any time. Clicking the green button will display a picker dialog with filtering and the ability to select multiple devices from a list.

Tags

Tags allow you to include additional meta-data along with your schedule and can be useful for organizing and searching for schedules.

Priority

The priority determines which schedule has precedence when multiple schedules overlap. If two schedules were defined for the same date/time and for the same device, the priority would be used to break the tie. Priority is useful for overriding content on previously scheduled devices.

Smart Scheduling

Smart Schedules are an advanced form of scheduling which provides a greater level of flexibility over basic scheduling. Smart schedules consist of a set of logical conditions which together determine what, when, and where content will be scheduled to play.

The What, When, and Where groups can contain any number of conditions which are combined to create a logical set. Conditions are evaluated in order using the logical operators And, Or, And Not, and Or Not. In the screenshot above you see the When group has two conditions, After this Date, and Days of the Week. These two conditions are combined using the And operator which means both conditions must be true in order to play the content. In other words, it must be after the 30th of July, AND it must be Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.

What

The What condition determines what you want scheduled. The following conditions are available to select from:

• Playlist by Name
  Selects a playlist by name. This value can be a regular expression for advanced matching.
• Playlist with Tag
  Selects a playlist by tag. This value can be a regular expression for advanced matching.
• Specific Playlist
  Pick a specific playlist from the list of available playlists in your account.
• Specific Template
  Pick a specific template from the list of available templates in your account.
• Command
  Sends a command to the player(s).
• Template by Name
  Selects a template by it's name. This value can be a regular expression for advanced matching.
• Template with Tag
  Selects a template by tag. This values can be a regular expression for advanced matching.

When

The When condition determines when content should play. The following conditions are available to select from:

• After this Date
  Plays after the selected date, but not on or before it.
• After this Time
  Plays after the selected time, but not on or before it.
• Always
  Plays always, no condition to match.
• Before this Date
  Plays before the selected date, but not on or after it.
• Before this Time
  Plays before the selected time, but not on or after it.
• Date Range
  Plays from start date to end date inclusive.
• Time Range
  Plays from start time inclusive to end time exclusive.
• Day of the Month
  Specific day of the month from 1 to 31. (eg. 15 = 15th)
• Month of Year
  Specific month of the year from 1 to 12. (eg. 1 = January)
• Week of Month
  Specific week of month from 1 to 5.
• Days of the Week
  Check individual days of the week on which to play.
• Never
  Never play
• Total Number of Viewers Less Than
  Play when the total number of detected viewers are less than the value. Requires audience analytics
• Total Number of Viewers Greater Than
  Play when the total number of detected viewers are greater than the value. Requires audience analytics
• % Child Viewers (under 5)
  Play when the provided percentage of viewers is less than 5 years of age. (eg. 50 = 50%). Requires audience analytics.
• % Young Viewers (6 - 17)
  Play when the provided percentage of viewers is between 6 and 17 years of age. (eg. 50 = 50%). Requires audience analytics.
• % Young Adult Viewers (18 - 24)
  Play when the provided percentage of viewers is between 18 and 24 years of age. (eg. 50 = 50%). Requires audience analytics.
• % Adult Viewers (25 - 64)
  Play when the provided percentage of viewers is between 25 and 64 years of age. (eg. 50 = 50%). Requires audience analytics.
• % Senior Viewers (65 and up)
  Play when the provided percentage of viewers is over 64 years of age. (eg. 50 = 50%). Requires audience analytics.
• Command
  Plays when the provided command is triggered
• % Male Viewers
  Plays when the provided percentage of viewers is male. (eg. 50 = 50%). Requires audience analytics.
• % Female Viewers
  Plays when the provided percentage of viewers is female. (eg. 50 = 50%). Requires audience analytics.
• Topics of Interest
  Deprecated
• GPS Within
  Plays when the device is within a certain number of feet of a geographic coordinate. Requires GPS.
• Motion Detected
  Plays when motion is detected by a sensor. Requires sonic, infrared, or camera.
• Key Pressed
  Plays when a key is pressed on the device touchscreen or physical keyboard.
• Touched Region
  Deprecated

Where

• Devices with Name
  Selects devices with a name matching the given value. Value may be a regular expression for advanced matching.
• Devices with Tag
  Selects devices with a tag matching the given value. Value may be a regular expression for advanced matching.
• Everywhere
  Selects all devices.
• Nowhere
  Selects no devices.
• Within
  Selects devices whose location is within X number of feet of a geographic coordinate.
• Specific Device
  Selects a specific device from a list of available devices in your account.
• Specific Template Zone
  Deprecated
• Devices in Group
  Selects all devices assigned to the specified device group.