Orphaned commercials
"Orphaned" commercials or spots are ads that exist outside a recognised commercial break.
PlayoutONE uses TRAFFICMERGE commands to tell your traffic/commercial scheduling tool where the ads should be inserted, and to provide reconciliation reports to the traffic system to prove the ads were played.
On this page, we'll explain how orphaned spots happen, how they can be fixed, and what can happen if they are left unresolved.
🤷🏼♂️ What causes orphaned spots?
Each ad break and corresponding TRAFFICMERGE point will have a rough time associated with it.
This doesn't have to match your PlayoutONE log exactly, but it should match your traffic logs. For example, if your traffic logs have ads scheduled for 12:20, the TRAFFICMERGE start point should match that time, although the break's actual airtime may be a few minutes out from that.
If your traffic logs include ads scheduled to play at a time where there is no commercial break/TRAFFICMERGE points scheduled, the spots will be orphaned.
They may still be inserted into the log and play at roughly that time, but it may affect the quality of your station output (no production/imaging in and out of breaks, isolated ads sticking out between music etc.) Orphaned spots will not be reported back to your commercial scheduling software, resulting in no record that the ad was played.
🛠️ How can I fix orphaned spots?
The first thing to check is the .TPL traffic log files sent to PlayoutONE. You should ensure that the traffic logs include a break time which corresponds to a scheduled TRAFFICMERGE point in your main logs.
Contact your commercial scheduling system provider if you need guidance configuring traffic logs.
Once your logs have been rectified, re-import them into PlayoutONE. Your existing traffic logs will be overwritten, so the ads should now be correctly placed.
🚨 Can I be alerted when commercials have not been placed correctly?
Monitor can monitor your traffic logs as they import into PlayoutONE and notify you by email if there are any issues. From Monitor, go to the appropriate Station Settings window, open the Alerts tab, then enable "Alert if traffic doesn't merge properly".