Sharing voicetracks on multiple stations

Shared voicetracks in PlayoutONE Pro allow content providers to record the same voicetracks across multiple stations.

To be able to do this, each station log has to have matching placeholder IDs.

Jump to:

Placeholder IDs explained
Inserting a shared voicetrack placeholder
Recording a shared voicetrack
Deleting a shared voicetrack

🏷️ Placeholder IDs explained

One example would be using the ID:

[SVT]VT-CO-100|O

In this case, '[SVT]' indicates it is a shared voicetrack placeholder. 'VT-CO-100' is the unique ID which must exist on each station where you want this voicetrack to be inserted. '|O' is an optional flag to indicate that this shared voicetrack is to be treated as an oversweep.

So in each station's log, you would have a number of these placeholders, but with different IDs.

Stations can have the same shared voicetracks in different log positions, as long as the IDs match.

So in this scenario, when a shared voicetrack for 'VT-CO-100 ' is recorded on one station, then it will also be shared with another and inserted wherever the matching placeholder ID is in the log.

To reduce the number of log notes in third-party scheduling systems, you can use time variables, which will be replaced by the corresponding days and hours when scheduled. For example:

NOTE:[SVT] {ddd}{HH}A|O
NOTE:[SVT] {ddd}{HH}B|O
NOTE:[SVT] {ddd}{HH}C|O
NOTE:[SVT] {ddd}{HH}D|O

In this case, {ddd} will be replaced with the day, {HH} will be replaced by the hour, and A/B/C/D will represent the break or intro within the hour.

When voicetracks are shared, you can re-record them either for all stations or just the station you are currently accessing.

📝 Inserting a shared voicetrack placeholder

If you wish to insert a shared voicetrack into a log you can easily do this in either PlayoutONE or WebVT®, by right-clicking on the log and from the popup menu, choose Insert > Shared Voicetrack.

You will then be prompted for an ID and if you wish it to be an oversweep.

The idea of being able to set this as an oversweep allows the system to work any shared voicetrack recording up to the intro mark of the next item.

These log notes can also be scheduled in your music scheduler.

They just need to be specified as notes and have the prefix '[SVT]' on them so the system knows that this is a shared voicetrack placeholder.

🔴 Recording a shared voicetrack

Recording is just as simple as recording a normal voicetrack, clicking on the placeholder and then clicking record.

Once you commit the recording then the system will distribute and assign it across all stations automatically.

Shared voicetracks are indicated by a small blue and white microphone icon.

If you want to re-record a shared voicetrack, you just click on the voicetrack and click record.

At this point, you will be prompted that this is a shared voicetrack and asked if you would like to re-record for all stations or just this station.

If you choose all stations then it will be distributed across all stations as when you first recorded it. Choosing to re-record just for the station you are currently accessing, then it will do just that and it will be re-recorded and assigned just to that station.

Re-recording for just the station you're on breaks this voicetrack from its shared siblings and this voicetrack in this station will be treated as a normal voicetrack. Other stations remain married to each other for this voicetrack.

❌ Deleting a shared voicetrack

Deleting is a little like recording, in that you will be prompted that the item you want to delete is a shared voicetrack and you will asked if you want to delete for all stations or just for the station you are accessing.

If you delete for all stations then the shared voicetrack ID will be removed from all.

If you delete just for the station you're on it will break the voicetrack from its shared siblings and will no longer exist as a shared voicetrack entity on that station.

Removing a shared voicetrack does not reinstate the placeholder.