So you’re getting ready for that long holiday weekend and then you realize, “Agh, I have so much to do before I can leave!” During this week’s RCS Live, we discussed how to prep for a holiday weekend so that you’re not stressing out. With GSelector and Zetta’s no limit design, programmers have the flexibility to work ahead on their logs, curate custom programming, talent can build their shows in advance and voice track as far into the future as they need.
When curating holiday programming, we should start in GSelector. Now there are multiple scheduling techniques users like to implement during holiday weekends, but for this exercise, we focused on Browse Lists and Theme attribute weekends. Working within GSelector’s Library | Browse, use the Browse List, blue paper with pencil icon, to add an additional workspace to drag and drop songs to isolate either a playlist or a collection of songs. Once isolated, use the Multi Song Changer to mass add a Theme attribute or reorganize the Browse List into a playlist for future playback. There are multiple Browse List scheduling options including right-click Shuffle, left click on a column header to organize the column A-Z or simply drag songs to a specific desired order.
Once we have our long weekend programming done, we can assign the attributes to a clock in order to override a clock grid schedule. Moving to Clocks | Definition, we choose our Theme Song or Browse List, saving it in the desired position. Remember to work smarter, not harder, so copy and paste elements and duplicate clocks with Save As. If you’re looking to reference a Zetta Show, then use the Type: Control, Description should be Zetta Show and use the Info field to reference the External ID of the show.
Now that GSelector is equipped with granular clocks, meaning you can schedule down to the minute or up to 24 hours a day, users can define individual clocks in GSelector that call for Zetta Shows, which can be prepopulated in GSelector for a future date. Even if it’s two months out, you know you have the clock outline done, so preschedule the override grid by going to Clocks | Assignment | Grids | Schedule | Dates. Click on the +, select the override grid and save. GSelector will automatically schedule from the new grid when that day is scheduled.
Transitioning to Zetta, don’t forget that programmers are not restricted by dates or chronological schedules. If you know that in two weeks you’re going to have a unique A-Z Weekend and you want your talent to get ahead and voice track their work, since it is essentially primary content, why not schedule the A-Z Weekend two weeks ahead of time, have your talent voice track, and then continue to work, filling in the scheduling blanks. “But what about a log change? We’ve already voice tracked?!” Don’t forget that each voice track is saved within Zetta’s Library, so if you do have to scrap programming for whatever reason, those voice tracks are still saved to be dragged and dropped back into the future log.
Let’s say you’re a University and you have multiple students who are curating shows. Have them work ahead by dragging and dropping songs into their specific Zetta Show, tag that Show with an External ID, reference it in GSelector and you can essentially schedule a show placeholder as far into the future as you want! This will allow your students to work freely on their Zetta Show, without affecting your schedule. Again, saving you time and stress from scrambling days before the long weekend.
As part of each RCS Live, we’re also available to answer any user driven questions. This week, we had a great question from Tomasz in Poland who asked about Christmas Holiday music and how early could they work ahead on Christmas logs? We offered the example of having a secondary station, not a database, just a station that resides inside the GSelector environment but is not integrated with Zetta. Since GSelector is an enterprise solution, freely work on the Christmas station, building your library and curating schedules, and when you’re ready for launch, simply use the Scheduler | Copy Schedule and forward the Christmas schedule over to the main integrated Zetta system. This way, you’re not affecting the integration of the main station and with a simple copy schedule, you can do all of your Christmas logs months in advance.
If you think learning about RCS products is fun, how about working for us? We’re currently looking for an RCS Field Service Technician to help install our products onsite. To find out more info and apply, visit our Careers page on our website: https://www.rcsworks.com/company/careers-at-rcs/ . As always, become a Beta user and test the latest and greatest RCS products, double check those backups and follow us on our Facebook page for any RCS Live updates. We’re live every Thursday at 11am ET, broadcasting on Facebook, Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and more! We’ll see you soon!