How to setup downloads and dayparting for prerecorded daily programs in RDCatch

The Situation

You have a prerecorded program that airs Monday through Friday on your station that you download from somewhere. It maybe from a website, ftp site or the satellite file transfer protocol (SFTP) box(AMBOS and PRSS ContentDepot are two examples) sitting next to you. It does not really matter. Using RDCatch we can schedule the download of our program into 1 cart. Using dayparting we can then say which program will play on what day.

Assumptions for this Tutorial

For this tutorial I will use a real world example of a program being downloaded from a AMBOS satellite file transfer protocol(sftp) box.

The file naming convention for AMBOS follows:

AMBOS File Names

'''MMMM_PPPP_MM-DD-YY_PN-TP.MP2'''
'''MMMM''' = Ministry Name
'''PPP#''' = Program Name
'''MM-DD-YY''' = Program air date
'''PN-TP''' = part number ('''PN''') of total parts ('''TP''')
All the program names ('''PPP#''') end with a number. That number indicates the number of times the program
airs in a week.
5 = 5 times a week – typically M-F. The date matches a weekday of the month.
1 = 1 time a week – typically a weekend. The date matches either Saturday or Sunday. That depends on
the individual ministry.
The parts are described by the part number ('''PN''') of the program and the total number of parts ('''TP'''). Thus 01-
01 means this is the only part of a one part program. 02-03 means the file is the second part of a three part
program.

Example of file names:
FOTF_FOF5_04-09-08_01-01.MP2
FOTF = Focus on the Family
FOF5 = Focus on the Family daily program
04-09-09 = Program’s air date is April 9, 2009
01-01 = 1 part program, this is part 1 of 1 part.

For our tutorial we will use the 5 day a week Focus on the Family program.

We will assume that you have the AMBOS linux program up and working and mirroring the files on the AMBOS Satellite Receiver in /var/amb-ux

We will also assume that you want to download the program one day ahead just after midnight. This way you will have the freshest programs in case there is a preemption, but your staff will have one working day to check if the programs are in place. Monday's program will be download on Friday so it can be checked then.

Setting up the cart

Setting up the Monday Cut in RDLibrary

File:RDLibrary-Cart-FOTF 5-cuts.png

Final cart with 5 cuts named after the days of the week

Open RDLibrary and create a new cart with the program name "Focus on the Family" as the Title. Then, assuming your program airs Monday-Friday, create 5 cuts in the cart by clicking the Add button 5 times. Double click the first cut and put Monday as the Description. Then under the section Day of the Week uncheck all but the Monday check box. This means this cut will only air on Monday's.

Tip: The easiest way to do this is to click the Clear All button then tick the box next to the day of the week you want it to air on.

Do the same for the other four cuts except for the remain four days of the week Tuesday - Friday. In the end you should end up with a cart with five cuts called, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,Thursday, and Friday.

Setting up the RDCatch

First we will setup the Monday event as it is different then I will do the Tuesday event. The Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday events will be similar to the Tuesday event.

Monday Download Event

File:RDCatch-Edit Download-FOTF Monday.png

The final Monday download event in RDCatch in the Edit Download dialog

Selecting the Monday Cut in RDCatch in the Select Cut dialog

RDCatch>Add>Download> Set the Start Time: to 00:01:00. This is so if the log is rolling over at midnight we do not have Rivendell trying to do to much all at once.

Tip: Leave the Description: field blank, as Rivendell will fill it in with the naming convention cart->cut.

In the Url: field

/var/amb-ux/FOTF_FOF5%D_01-01.MP2

The wildcard %D means the Numerical Date, in format mm-dd-yy

Tip: For more on available wildcards see this section of the Rivendell Operations Guide.

Click the Select button next to the Destination: field. Find the Focus on the Family cart and select the Monday cut>OK> then tick the Friday box and set the Event Offset to 3 days>OK to save the download event.

Tip: If you have problems with a download event try unchecking the Autotrim and Normalize tickboxes and try without these options.

Tuesday Download Event

Double click the Monday Download event you previously made.

Click the Select button next to the Destination: field. Find the Focus on the Family cart and select the Tuesday cut>OK> then tick the Monday box and untick the Friday box. Then set the Event Offset to 1 days> Click the Save As New to save the download event as a new event.

File:RDCatch-Edit Download-FOTF Tuesday.png

The final Tuesday download event in RDCatch in the Edit Download dialog

Hint: Notice the Url: is the same for all the events. Care must be taken to use the correct number of days in advance in the Event Offset: field to place the correct file in the correct cut.

Continue on to create the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday cuts using the Tuesday Download Event instructions, making sure to increment the Active Days and the cut you select to the next day. The Event Offset will be 1 for all off these days.

Scheduling your Program/Cart

So how do you now schedule the Focus on the Family program? Just insert the Focus on the Family cart into your log or if you are using RDLogManger to generate logs, create an event for it add it to a clock and use the clock on your service's grid. For more information on using RDLogManager see this excellent blog post. Even though it is more slanted towards music selection the concepts of event, clock, and grid that are explain are applicable.