Setting up Synchroniser
Synchroniser (or Synchronizer in the US) is the PlayoutONE component that allows you to sync data between two systems.
We recommend a direct WAN or VPN connection between the PlayoutONE systems, but you can also use a third-party application like SyncThing (our preferred option), Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive.
🚀 Launching Synchroniser
Synchroniser is included as a core PlayoutONE application, but if the optional shortcuts weren't created when PlayoutONE was installed, you can create one manually by going to:
C:/PlayoutONE/Modules/ONESynchroniser.exe
You may need to swap 'C:/PlayoutONE' for the installation path on your PC if it was set differently.
In addition to creating shortcuts, we recommend enabling Synchroniser as part of Ignition - PlayoutONE's auto-start utility. This will ensure the application runs each time PlayoutONE launches.
To add Synchroniser to Ignition:
- Open Monitor
- Click 'Main Settings' and go to the 'Ignition' tab
- Enable Synchroniser from the list of apps to start automatically when PlayoutONE launches.
- Go to the 'Applications' tab
- Enable Synchroniser from the list of apps to monitor and restart should they be closed.
- Press 'Save'
After adding Synchroniser to Ignition, check it works as expected by pressing the 'Ignition' button on the Monitor toolbar.
📻 Setting up stations
Once you have enabled Synchroniser on each PlayoutONE PC, the next step is to get them working together.
In Synchroniser, click 'Settings' from the toolbar and go to the 'Stations' tab.
Add the station you wish to sync with. (For example, if you are configuring a machine at your primary station, the station's name in Synchroniser would be your secondary station.)
If your PlayoutONE server powers multiple stations, you may wish to group the stations you set up in Synchroniser to make them easier to manage.
If the station you are syncing with is in another time zone, you can specify it here.
If the remote PC will be licensed by your main PlayoutONE Pro machine, tick 'Satellite License'.
Next, enter the remote PC's hostname. Synchroniser needs to be able to connect to the PC using this over your WAN or VPN, so it may be worth checking your network's DNS routing or modifying the 'hosts' file on your PCs to ensure each PC running Synchroniser can connect.
Under 'Paths,' select where you want Synchroniser to save the audio and log files it receives from the remote station.
🔄 Setting up sync jobs
Once you have set up your stations, you can begin syncing files.
Click 'Add' on the Synchroniser toolbar to create a sync job:
| Name | A name to identify the sync job |
| Source station | The station you are syncing from |
| Destination stations | The stations you are syncing to |
| Destination groups | If you have your stations set up in groups, this allows you to sync to multiple stations grouped together. |
| Debug logging level | How detailed Synchroniser's log files should be. (You only need to change this if requested by our support team). |
| Synchronise the log only when modified | If enabled, logs will only be sent from your source station if changes have been made. |
| Synchronise audio only | If enabled, logs will not be synchronised between stations, only audio files. |
| Synchronise the parent UID for child rotators | If enabled, this will send the rotator UID in the log, rather than the UIDs of the resolved audio items. |
| Don't synchronise commercials in the log | No traffic log items will be sent from your souce station if this is enabled. |
| Synchronise rotator audio information | Synchroniser will sync rotators if this is ticked. |
| Synchronise modified logs from the past | This will send past logs which have already played. |
| Clear the sync queue | Checking this and then pressing Save will clear any outstanding audio and logs waiting to be synced. |
| Remove older files | Before syncing, Synchroinser will check if there is older audio files in the folder and clear them. |
Once your sync job has been created, go to the Schedule tab and specify how often you want it to run. We recommend sync jobs are set to run constantly with a repeat interval of 10 minutes.
If you want to customise which audio gets synchronised, you can set criteria on the Audio Rules tab based on UID, Artist, Title, Type, Category or Extro length.
The Logs tab allows you to specify dayparts when the job should or should not run. (For example, if you only want audio to sync for certain hours of the day)
📥 Setting up your destination stations
Once you have created and scheduled your sync job on the source station end, you will need to configure Auto Importer at the destination stations to process the files Synchroniser has sent.
Importing audio
The first step is to create a new Auto Importer job for your synchronised audio. You can call this 'Sync Audio' or similar. Set it to use a Specific UID and the path to the folder where Synchroniser is saving files transferred from your source station. (You should also save your Synchroniser Library Export file in this folder). On the Options tab, check 'Synchroniser audio import'.
Importing logs
Next, you will need to do the same for synchronised logs. Once you have created a job in Auto Importer called 'Sync Logs' or similar, set it to the 'Log Import' type, and check 'Synchroniser log import' from the Options tab.