Regionalization

Regionalization allows a single mAirList playout to broadcast several regional variants of the program at the same time. Most of the program is common to all regions, but at certain times, e.g. during advertising breaks, regional news, or traffic reports, each region plays its own content.

A typical example is a station with several transmitters, each covering a different area: the music and moderation are the same for everyone, but each area gets its own local advertising.

How It Works

With regionalization enabled, mAirList handles one common signal, plus one separate signal for each region:

  • Regular playlist items are played on the common signal.
  • At the points where the program splits into regions, a Region Container item is placed in the playlist. It contains a separate list of items for each region. When the container is played, the content of each region is played at the same time, each on the signal of its region.
  • When all regions have finished, playback continues with the next item of the playlist, again on the common signal.

The complete program for a particular region is therefore the common signal plus the signal of that region. These two signals are mixed by the encoder (for streaming) or by an external mixer (e.g. for each transmitter feed).

Configuration

Regionalization is set up on the Regionalization page of the configuration.

  • Number of regions to be used in playout: The number of regions you want to use. The maximum is the number of regions included in your license, which is displayed above. Set to 0 to disable regionalization.
  • Region Names: Click Edit… to enter a code and a name for each region, e.g. code N and name North. The names are displayed throughout the user interface, e.g. in the audio routing and in the Region Container properties. The codes and names can also be used in logging variables (%N{CODE}, %N{NAME}), e.g. for log file names or playlist import filenames.
  • Custom mapping (Advanced): Changes which region content is played on which signal. This is only required in special setups; leave empty for the normal 1:1 mapping. Two forms are supported:
    • A single region number, e.g. 2: Only the content of region 2 is played, and it is played on the common signal instead of a separate region signal. This is useful for an additional playout PC that only feeds one particular region, and has no regional outputs at all.
    • A comma-separated list, e.g. 1,1,2: For each region, the number of the region whose content should be played on it. In this example, regions 1 and 2 both play the content of region 1, and region 3 plays the content of region 2.

Audio Routing

When regionalization is enabled, each playback function in the Audio Routing configuration has a sub-node for each region. Assign the output device for the common signal to the main node, and the output devices for the region signals to the region sub-nodes. If no device is assigned to a region sub-node, the region content is played on the device of the main node.

When the players play into the encoder, the encoder takes care of the regions automatically, and each encoder connection can include the common signal and the signal of a particular region.

Region Containers

A Region Container is a playlist item that holds separate content for each region.

Creating Region Containers

Region Containers can be created in the following ways:

  • In the playout, use the Insert menu in the main toolbar, and select Region Container.
  • In the database, region containers can be stored in the library, or generated automatically by the scheduler (e.g. with the Region Container template item), and by the advertising module for blocks with regional content.

Editing Region Containers

Open the properties of the Region Container (double-click it in the playlist). The Region Content page contains one tab for each region. Add the items for each region to its tab, e.g. by drag & drop from the browser.

In the Options section, you configure what happens when the content of the regions has different durations. The container always plays until the longest region has finished; the Auto fill setting determines what is played in the other regions in the meantime:

  • None: Nothing; the shorter regions simply end early.
  • Silence: The remaining time is distributed evenly as short pauses between the items of the shorter regions, so that all regions end at the same time (default). This requires at least two items in the region.
  • Use filler (fade out at end): The Filler item (e.g. an instrumental bed or a short jingle) is added after the regional content as often as it fits completely. The remaining time is filled with one more copy of the filler, which is faded out when the longest region ends.
  • Use filler (fade in and play until end): Same as above, but the last copy of the filler is faded in (starting somewhere in the middle of the filler), so that it ends exactly when the longest region ends.

Use Edit… to select the filler item, and Clear to remove it.

Where Else Regionalization Is Used

Besides Region Containers and the audio routing, regions are supported in the following places:

  • Encoder: Separate streams for each region, see Encoder Regionalization.
  • Logging: Each played item is logged together with the region it was played in. In the configuration of each logging interface, you can select on the Regions tab which regions should be logged, e.g. to create a separate as-run log per region. The region is also available in logging variables (%N).
  • Advertising: Campaigns can be limited to particular regions, and advertising blocks with regional content are created as Region Containers, see Advertising.
  • Scheduling: Scheduler templates can create Region Containers, and map sub-playlists to regions, see Scheduling.
  • Playlist import: Import filenames can contain the region number or code, so that separate files per region can be imported, see Logging Variables.
  • MusicMaster: Region suffixes for content imported from MusicMaster, see the database configuration.
  • Scripting: The OnItemStart and OnItemStop event handlers receive the region of the item, see Scripting.