The holidays are right around the corner and don’t be that programmer that realizes the night before they forgot to prepare holiday content. Instead, utilize Zetta and GSelector’s modern features to work ahead on your holiday programming so that you can properly enjoy the holidays. Curate your playlist ahead of time with Zetta’s Shows and Mini-Logs and then schedule them with GSelector. Although we use the word “holiday programming,” know that these practices can apply to everyday workflows like reoccurring shows.
What do we mean by working ahead? Let’s say that we have a talent that hosts a weekly jazz show every Saturday morning from 8am – 10am. They could and should be working directly within Zetta’s Log module to record all voice tracks and/or curate their playlist, but what if the log isn’t ready yet? Or what about a backup show in case the talent is sick and hasn’t had the opportunity to finalize their next show? In those cases, a user could create a Show or Mini-Log ahead of time, so that another user, like a Program Director, could simply drag the entire Show or Mini-Log, including all voice tracks, directly into the Log module. If you’re debating between Shows or Mini-Logs, Mini-Logs include time stamped materials.
With Zetta’s “No Limits” design, there’s no restrictions on how far into the future users can schedule. So why not prep your holiday programming now? We have a bunch of GSelector holiday scheduling videos on our archive, including: Prepping for a Holiday Weekend. or More Efficient Holiday Scheduling with GSelector . In regards to today’s video, we focused mostly on the Zetta side. From the Library module, create a new Show or Mini-Log and simply drag and drop in new elements. Don’t forget Windows shortcuts, like Control + Click or Shift + Click. While we’re here, why not create an updated “Emergency Playlist” on the fly? Choose your desired hour(s) and Shift + Click to highlight all the assets and drag them into your Emergency Playlist Mini-Log.
If you’re looking to schedule your Show or Mini-Log, from the GSelector side, just make sure to reference the Clock’s Info field or the Editor’s User Data field. Yes, you can still manually insert Shows or Mini-Logs into the Editor log through Insert Other | Zetta Control | Shows. From Zetta, simply drag the Show or Mini-Log from the Library into the Log module. Note the Skip behavior. In Zetta, we prefer to think of positions as “Skipped,” instead of “Delete.” This way, there’s a visual aid for multiple users interacting within the same log. If you must pivot the log, simply skip the Show or Mini-Log and make sure the remaining original hour of content is ready to play.
You can even work remotely on your Shows or Mini-Logs through Zetta2GO. Remember, Zetta2GO is made to enhance, not replace the Zetta experience, so you’ll be able to manipulate the Show or Mini-Log, but you won’t be able to record voice tracks directly into them, like the Zetta Client. Users can still record isolated voice tracks via another local record, add that “voice track” into Zetta2GO and then into the Show or Mini-Log.
As you can see, with Zetta and GSelector’s flexibility, there’s nothing stopping you from working ahead. So, treat this as a friendly reminder: Christmas and New Year’s arrive the same time each year. Why wait till the week before to hammer out those last-minute holiday programs. Instead, start to curate and voice track elements now in Zetta’s Shows or Mini-Logs, schedule them ahead of time in GSelector or notify your Program Director when they’re done so they can drag them into the Log module in one single click. Of course, we say holidays, but we have many everyday users who are working ahead with their specialty shows: building shows weeks in advanced and identifying emergency backup shows in case of emergency.
We mentioned earlier that you can always visit previous RCS Live videos from our archive. Don’t forget that we’re also hiring some unique positions. Check out a full list of opportunities here. And a reminder about becoming a Beta user as Zetta 5.22.1 and GSelector 5.1 are days away from their official release. Email marketing@rcsworks.com to become part of our #StudioSpotlight and finally, we’ll catch you on the road for the next radio conference.