Requirements before you begin
At least one Playlist created with content added — see Creating and Managing Playlists
In this article, we will outline several advanced scheduling scenarios, from simple continuous loops through to full weekly programs, everlasting time slots, and day-parted content.
Accessing the Time Slot window
Every scenario below starts from the same place — the Time Slot window. You can access the Time Slot window from the Scheduling Grid in one of three ways:
Click the three dots located in the top right-hand corner of the day that corresponds with the Time Slot you'd like to see
Right-click anywhere on the scheduling grid and click Edit
Or simply drag and drop a playlist onto the scheduling grid, this will open up the Time Slot window for whichever date it landed on
Getting to know the Time Slot window
With the Time Slot window open, let's walk through what we're seeing:
Playlists: choose from any Playlist residing within the group you're publishing from. Clicking this drop-down lets you change your Playlist at any time
The Start and End time: click either field to change your time slot's start and end time. These were initially set when you dragged and dropped your Playlist onto the Scheduling grid
Duration: determined by the sum of assets within your selected Playlist — for example, 40 seconds if that's the total length of everything inside it
Merge Option: controls how your Playlist behaves when scheduled alongside another Playlist during the same window of time
With Sequentially selected, each Playlist plays through in full before moving on to the next
Switching this to Re-order lets you define how many assets to display from this Playlist each time it loops, using the next field
Nb. media: only relevant if Merge Option is set to Re-order — this determines how many pieces of content play from this Playlist at a time before handing off. For example, setting this to 2 with another Playlist sharing the same slot would cycle: Daily Playlist Assets 1 and 2 > [Other Playlist] > Daily Playlist Assets 3 and 4 > [Other Playlist] — and so on, repeating indefinitely
Everlasting: toggling this on repeats your time slot indefinitely, with no expiry date — we'll cover this in more detail shortly
With the Time Slot window's fields covered, let's look at a few common scheduling scenarios.
Continuous (24 hour) programming
Some content loops simply need to play over and over, 24/7, with no interruption.
With the Time Slot window open, you'll notice that by default a schedule will show a 24 hour window (unless you have no playlist selected)
In either case, select the + Add button to create a new 24 hour timeslot. You can then choose the playlist along with the merge option and whether it is everlasting or not.
This creates a single time slot for that one day. To repeat it across multiple days, weeks, or months, you'll need to either duplicate it forward or set it up as an Everlasting time slot — both covered in the following sections.
Once finished, press Save Settings.
Upon completion of the steps above, you'll see timeslots that consume the entirety of the day displayed upon the scheduling grid on the day that you have configured.
Programming across multiple days, weeks, or months
To extend a time slot into the future, duplicate it forward from the day it's already programmed on.
Right-click the day containing your time slot and select Duplicate > Current Day
Please Note
Ensure that you right-click on the day/background of the scheduling grid itself as opposed to the actual coloured schedule/playlist on the scheduling grid.
Enter a start date (the day after the one you're duplicating from) and an end date, either by typing directly into the field or using the calendar icon
Please Note
With the Overwrite option selected, your duplicate schedules will replace any existing schedules or playlists that fall within your chosen window of time. De-select this to add alongside existing schedules instead of replacing.
Your Playlist's time slot will now be replicated through to your chosen end date — navigate forward in the Scheduling grid to confirm it's been applied correctly.
Duplicating a full week at once
If you've built out a full week of scheduling and need to push the whole thing forward, you don't need to duplicate each day individually — you can duplicate the entire week in one action instead.
Right-click an open space on the Scheduling grid and select Duplicate > Current Week
Enter your desired start/end dates, or the number of weeks to duplicate forward
Please Note
As with duplicating a single day, this will replace any existing programming already in place for that future period if you have Overwrite selected.
Top Tip
By default, every day of the week is selected for duplication. If there's a day you don't want copied forward, simply deselect it before confirming.
Everlasting (permanent) time slots
Rather than duplicating a time slot forward every time it needs extending, you can mark it as Everlasting instead — a time slot that repeats indefinitely, with no expiry date, so you only need to set it up once.
With your time slot open in the Time Slot window, select the Everlasting checkbox
Once applied, Everlasting time slots appear shaded in the Scheduling grid, making them easy to tell apart from regular, time-limited ones. You're also free to mix regular and Everlasting time slots together within the same schedule, depending on what each day needs.
Sequential time slot programming (day-parting)
Day-parting is when several Playlists are scheduled in sequence so your content changes throughout the day — a common example being a restaurant switching between breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus, though the technique works for any content that needs to shift over time.
Create a separate Playlist for each period (for example, morning, afternoon, and evening), adding the relevant content to each
Schedule the first Playlist with a start and end time matching its period (for example, 6:00 AM to 11:00 AM for breakfast), ensuring each subsequent Playlist's start time picks up exactly where the previous one ends (11:00:01 AM, and so on) so there's no overlap
To repeat this same daily pattern across multiple days, weeks, or months, right-click the empty space beneath your time slots and select Duplicate > Current day, exactly as covered earlier in this article.
Managing overlapping time slots
When multiple time slots overlap, each Playlist's Merge Option determines how their content is combined. Take this example: a network runs a Corporate Playlist across the entire day, alongside separate Morning, Midday, Afternoon, and Evening Playlists that each cover their own window between 6 AM and 11 PM.
Corporate, set to Sequentially, plays through in full each time it comes up in the rotation
Morning, Midday, Afternoon, and Evening are each set to Re-order with their own Nb. media value — for example, Morning might show 3 items per pass, while Evening shows 4
Top Tip
Time slots can reference Playlists from your current level, or from a higher level in your group hierarchy.
Swapping and deleting time slots
To swap the Playlist assigned to an existing time slot, click the Playlists field and select a different one from the list — it will inherit the start time, end time, and Merge Option already set for that slot
To delete a time slot, click the X beside its Nb. media field
With these scenarios covered, you're equipped to handle everything from a simple always-on loop through to a fully day-parted weekly program that runs indefinitely — building once, and letting Everlasting time slots and weekly duplication do the rest of the work for you.