Format Planner

The Format Planner determines how playlists are generated. It uses two layers:

• Day Format: the structure of a full broadcast day.
• Clock Format: the structure of one hour.

A Day Format assigns a Clock Format to each hour. A Clock Format contains the rules that select tracks, jingles, macros, static items and live sources.

Start with simple rules and expand only when the generated playlists prove that the basics are working. A clear format is easier to review, explain and maintain than a complicated format that only one person understands.

Day Formats

A Day Format defines which Clock Format runs at each hour of the day. One Clock Format can be reused many times. For example, a station can use one morning format, one daytime format, one evening format and one overnight format.

The Day Format editor contains a list of playlist start times and Clock Formats. Each line generates one playlist from the selected Clock Format. An hourly setup therefore normally has one line at the top of every hour, and the same Clock Format can be reused on consecutive lines. Longer or special programs can use a different start-time pattern when their Clock Format duration has been configured accordingly.

Each Day Format line can use Floating.

When Floating is enabled, Power Studio plays tracks in full and starts the next playlist as close as possible to the planned time. This sounds natural because music is not cut off.

When Floating is disabled, the next playlist starts exactly at the scheduled time. Power Studio may fade out music earlier to make fixed items, commercials or news hit the intended time.

Clock Formats

A Clock Format is the blueprint for one hour. Each line tells Power Studio what kind of item to place in the playlist.

Common lines include:

• Music tracks selected by category, mood, tempo, rating or other criteria.
• Jingles or promos.
• Static items, such as a top-of-hour jingle.
• Macro items, such as downloaded news or commercial breaks.
• Live sources, such as a stream or remote broadcast.

To create a Clock Format, open the format editor, create a new Clock Format, give it a clear name and add rules line by line. Use names that match the daypart or purpose, such as Morning Drive, Daytime, Evening or Sunday Overnight.

Each line should normally define one type of item. When a line uses a Static Item, Macro Item or Live Source, the normal selection criteria for music are ignored for that line.

Power Studio warns when an administrator tries to delete a Clock Format that is still in use. Treat that warning as a dependency check. First find the Day Format, schedule or workflow that still references the Clock Format, then decide whether to replace it or keep it.

Clock Format properties include Duration and Extra time. Duration describes the intended clock length. Extra time gives the scheduler some room when searching for items. Keep these values consistent across normal hourly formats unless the station has a documented reason to do otherwise.

Important line options include:

• Link to previous item when the line should stay attached to the preceding item.
• Rotate tracks when the line should rotate through a smaller pool instead of only using normal planning priority.
• Live source item when the line represents a live input or web stream.
• Fill out when the line should still be included before a fixed transition.
• Macro item for dynamic content such as traffic, news or downloads.
• Static item for a fixed, named item.
• Min/max filters for rating, BPM, year, tempo and mood.
• Required Criteria, Special, Rotation, Audience, Decade and Language values.

Available Tracks

Each Clock Format line has a Tracks column. This column shows an estimated number of tracks available for each Clock Format item. The count applies the item's scheduling criteria, planner availability, daypart, repeat, and artist-separation rules using the planning date and time that would be used if the next playlist would be scheduled now.

This number is intended as a guideline. It may differ from the number shown in the Track Browser or from the tracks available during actual scheduling because:

• The Track Browser and scheduler use different availability settings.
• Actual scheduling considers the selected date, time, and previously scheduled items.
• The scheduler may apply or relax additional separation and rating rules.
• Changes to the track library may not be reflected immediately.

A value of zero does not necessarily mean that the scheduler cannot find a suitable track. It can, however, be an indication that for that combination of criteria, a low number of tracks is available in the database.

First check whether any track matches the complete combination of selection criteria. An estimated count does not make an incompatible combination valid. See Selection Criteria for examples and a troubleshooting checklist.

Selection Criteria

Each Clock Format line selects one item. That same item must satisfy all the selection conditions on the line. The conditions do not describe separate alternatives for different kinds of tracks.

The category lists form separate criteria groups: Criteria, Special, Rotation, Audience, Decade and Language. Think of each group as a question about the track:

• Within one group, several selected values mean OR: at least one of those values must match.
• Between groups, the conditions mean AND: the same track must also match each other group used on the line.
• Extra filters, such as tempo, mood, rating, year and BPM, also apply to that same track.

Read A Rule As One Sentence

For example, select Current and Recurrent in Criteria, Local and Acoustic in Special, and English in Language:

(Criteria is Current OR Recurrent)
AND (Special is Local OR Acoustic)
AND (Language is English)

Read this as: "Choose a current or recurrent track that is also local or acoustic, and is in English."

The following illustrative tracks show how the complete rule is evaluated. Other scheduling restrictions are left out of this example.

Adding another allowed value within an already filtered group broadens the choices, but the number of matching tracks may stay the same if other conditions exclude those tracks. Adding a filter in another group narrows the choices, but may also leave the count unchanged. More checkmarks therefore do not automatically mean more available tracks.

Why A Combination Can Match No Tracks

Suppose a test library contains current and recurrent music, but all tracks tagged Local are in Dutch. A line asking for Current OR Recurrent, AND Local, AND English has no matching track in that library. There may be many local tracks and many English tracks, but no track belongs to both sets.

Selecting another Criteria value will not solve the conflict between Local and English. Review the intended programming requirement and the actual track metadata. Keep both conditions only if the library contains enough tracks that satisfy them together.

Allowing A Mix Or Setting Separate Positions

To let one position choose from several categories, select those categories together in Criteria. Add conditions in other groups only when they should apply to every allowed category. This creates a shared candidate pool; it does not set a percentage, guarantee alternation, or make one category a fallback for another.

When categories need different conditions, use separate Clock Format lines. For example, one position can request Current with Language English, while another requests Recurrent with Language Dutch. Selecting both categories and both languages on one line would also allow Dutch currents and English recurrents: the values are not paired across groups.

Use explicit positions when the hour needs a planned category balance. Use a shared pool when either category is acceptable at that position, then review the resulting distribution with separation and maximum-per-playlist settings. See Build A Clock And Day Format Step By Step for examples of both kinds of positions.

Give Each Property Its Own Field

Keep independent properties in their intended fields so that each condition can be understood and adjusted separately:

Avoid combining tempo and era into a Special label. Power Studio matches the assigned label; it does not interpret its name as a Tempo or Decade setting. Such labels duplicate information, require extra maintenance, and can conflict with the dedicated filters. Use Special for a genuine additional distinction. See Track Categories for guidance on designing and maintaining the lists.

Checking An Unexpectedly Small Or Empty Pool

1. Read the complete line as one sentence, joining the groups with AND.
2. Pick a track you expect to qualify. Check that its metadata matches at least one selected value in every group used on the line, as well as the other filters.
3. Check whether an additional condition unintentionally excludes one of the allowed categories. Remove it only if it is not part of the intended requirement; correct metadata only when it is inaccurate.
4. Once the combination matches tracks in the library, check planner availability, dayparts, track and artist repeat, and separation rules.
5. Generate a test playlist and use Playlist Insight or planning analysis to investigate the actual result. The Tracks count remains an estimate.

Start with the minimum conditions needed for the programming decision. Add filters only when the library has enough matching tracks to support them.

Rotation And Separation

Use category separation, artist separation and track separation to prevent repetitive playlists.

Useful settings include:

• Maximum consecutive tracks from the same category.
• Minimum separation between tracks from the same category.
• Track and artist repeat protection.
• Rating ranges to favor stronger songs.
• Maximum-per-playlist limits for specific criteria, such as limiting one language or category to one item per hour.

For small categories, use rotation carefully. Very strict separation rules can make playlist generation difficult when too few tracks qualify.

Use Rotate Tracks for smaller pools where crate-style rotation is preferred. This can be useful for tightly managed hit, tip or recurrent categories.

Use separation pages to define maximum consecutive plays and minimum items between repeated criteria values. Use maximum-per-playlist pages to limit how often a value may appear in one generated playlist.

Fill Out

Use Fill Out for items that must still play before the next fixed moment, such as a commercial block before the hour.

When the hour is too long, Power Studio can shorten preceding music so the fill-out item still plays and the next hour starts correctly.

Scheduler Page

The Scheduler page assigns Day Formats to dates and starts playlist generation. The Options and Settings scheduler page also contains defaults such as:

• Which Day Format is used for each weekday.
• How many days in advance playlists are generated.
• The time at which automatic scheduling starts.
• Whether this computer performs automatic playlist generation.
• Static items available to formats.
• The default number of lines in a new Day Format.
• Whether new Day Format lines are floating by default.
• Macro pre-request timing during playout.
• Whether macros are executed only on selected machines.

Run scheduled generation from one clearly assigned machine. In multi-computer installations, avoid having several machines generate the same future playlists at the same time.

Playlist Insight And Analysis

Use Playlist Insight and planning analysis when a generated playlist looks wrong. These views can show the planned line, selected item, number of tries, available record count and the Clock Format that produced the item.

When a line has too few candidates, review the track metadata and criteria first. Adding more rules to the format usually makes the problem harder unless the library has enough usable audio.

Best Practice

Build formats in layers:

1. Define content types and categories.
2. Create simple Clock Formats first.
3. Generate test playlists.
4. Review why items were selected.
5. Add separation and advanced criteria gradually.
6. Use static items and macros for fixed or dynamic content.

Keep a small number of well-named Clock Formats for normal operation. Add special formats for holidays, events and temporary schedules, but remove or archive them when they are no longer used.