Introduction

A Playlist is a collection of content (Images, Videos, Layouts, URLs) that are bundled with display order and duration instructions.

A playlist is how a Media Player knows what to play and when to play it.

This article does review several types of playlists and options, you can skip to a specific section using the On this page section to the right

Playlist Types

In Korbyt, there are three types of Playlists available, the type is decided when the playlist is created

• Clever Playlist

  • Clever Playlists are the newest type of playlist and can be configured with both statically chosen items and clever rules

  • Clever Rules, or Triggers, are built using a menu of dropdowns to program dynamic content based on Tag, Folder Structure, or File Name

    • and potentially set restrictions for where and when that particular rule’s content will play

  • Because of their power, Clever Playlist requires that the Media Player running them is on Korbyt Agent Software 2.0 or newer

  • With their Options for both Simplicity and Complexity in one Playlist, it is suggested to start with Clever Playlists whenever possible

• Standard Static Playlist

  • A playlist that can only have manually selected content

  • With its simpler instructions, they are a good fit for low bandwidth or low power Media Player deployments

• Standard Dynamic Playlists

  • A playlist that only has dynamically updated content based on programmable Tag rules, no other factors

  • A way to have automated content that uses less processing than Clever Playlists

The Playlist Screen

The Playlist screen can be accessed by clicking on the Mega Menu, then in the Schedule column, click on Playlist

• In the upper right of the Playlist screen you select your view (List or Card), as well as filter by tag or show the folder view.

• In list view, you can sort any of the informational columns

• If you search for a name or partial name, you will only see matching playlists

• Working with the Playlists that exist is done with the Actions icons to the right

Creating and Editing a Clever Playlist

A Clever Playlist can contain multiple rules and triggers, giving you one playlist to manage what will be seen and only where it is relevant across multiple displays.

Clever Playlists allow you to automate your signage playlists by adding both statically chosen items and items that are added based on Clever dynamic rules. The rules that select the clever content can be based on more options, and can also control when/where content is seen when compared to options in a standard playlist.

• Click Add Playlist > Add Clever Playlist.
  

  

• You can now Name the playlist in the upper left

  

• Playlist Settings (next to Exit and Save Playlist buttons) lets you set optional information

  • Playlist Name: Name of the playlist.

  • Description: Details about the playlist that will appear within the CMS.

  • Tags: Metadata used to identify your playlist.

  • Override to play full video: Ensures that any video within your playlist will play for the entire duration instead of playing for the default duration.

  • Enable Playlist Feedback: Allows for automatic playlist recommendations.

  • Audio Only Playlist: Indicates that the playlist only contains audio content.

  • Playlist Conditions: Click the Lightning Bolt to set Clever Rules that will affect the whole playlist – we talk more about rules in the next sections
    

Controlling Static Content in a Clever Playlist

Clever Playlist can have both Static and Clever Content
Content can be selected manually, and then affected by the optional rules that control when it is displayed

• Click the blue Add Content + Button

  

• From the Manage Content section, select from the Images, Videos, Layouts, Messages, and URLs tabs or drag and drop local files from your computer.

  

• Select the checkbox for the corresponding file.
  The number of files selected will display next to the Add button.

• Click Add button.

• The selected files will now display at the top of the Playlist Edit screen.

  

• Optional Click the Lightning Bolt icon to add trigger rules to control When and Where an item is seen

• Optional Click the arrow to select a transition type

• Optional Click the time in the center to adjust the display time for the item

• Optional Click the Pie Chart to add/adjust Playlist Weighting

Controlling Clever Content in a Clever Playlist

Content that is brought into the playlist based on a rule created to trigger its inclusion

• Click the Rocket Ship icon on the bottom right of the content box to add your Clever content. If the Clever item already exists, clicking its Blue Lightning Bolt opens the rule

  

• This will open the screen to Edit Content Trigger

  

• Add a Trigger Name

• Add Content trigger rules to select what items are shown

• Use the Drop Down to select the basis of the rule

  • Tags Based Rules= Includes content with the tags that you can add to any content in Korbyt, for more information, read Tagging In Korbyt

  • Folder Based Rules = Includes the contents of a specific folder within the Media Manager

  • Content Metadata = Includes files with a specific file name, or part of a specific file name

  • Static = Manually select items that should be part of the rule

• Optional – Add more Content selection rules by clicking the small blue plus to the right

  

  • These additional connections use AND or OR logic conditions to join them

    • In this example, the Trigger will show content that is Tagged “Open Enrollment” or the file name contains “Open Enrollment

• Optional – Set display Options for the time for each item, the number of items, select logging, and the Default Transition

  

  • More About these Options Sections below

• Click the +Add button to save. and a new item will appear in the content list

  

  • There will be previews of the items included from the rule

    • The thumbnails only ever go up to 9 due to space

    • If no items display it means there are no items that match the selected criteria at this time

  • If you need to edit the rule after saving, click on the blue Lighting Bolt icon on the item

  • The time shows “All” when the display options were set to show all

    • If you set a specific time and number of items, the time shown will represent that number of items times the time per item (45 if the rule options select 3 images for 15 seconds each)

Editing the Display Options for Clever Rules

By default, the display Options will show all items that are included based on the rule with a default transition of Crossfade. You can change these options

• Show or Hide – The standard version is to use the rules to select what to show, but can be used to hide items

• Display Time per Item – The default is 15 seconds

• Number of Items – The default is All, but can be set to a specific number of items to show each time this rule comes up on the playlist. this can be useful if you have a large number of items that are part of the rule

• Enable logging – Logs information about the items shown

• Mute Audio – Will mute any audio element pulled in

• Default Transition – How the new items will transition in
  Optional Content Type, Order, and Age

• If you click the first blue + button, you will expose additional controls to select

  • Content Type = Image, Video, Layout, Message, or URL. This can be helpful if you are using tags, but want to only have the rule affect specific item types with that tag

  • Content Order = Random, Recent to Oldest, Oldest to Recent, A-Z (file name), Z-A (file name)

  • Age = the Specific age of the item

Adding Rules that control When and/or Where an Item is Shown

In this section, we will review optional rules that can control when and where content is shown by adding more rules

The condition for WHERE content plays is controlled by the Player’s Metadata.
For more information on setting a Player’s Metadata see Player Settings - Controlling and Configuring Media Players in the CMS

• To add rules to a Trigger for when content shows, click on the blue Content button, which will show the When section

  

• To add When conditions to a single static item, click its blue Lightning Bolt

  

• With this section now exposed, use the first drop-down to select what the rule will examine

  

  • Data Subscription = Examines a Data Subscription within Korbyt for a value that controls when the item is shown

  • Metadata = Examines the Player’s information such as location, or other assigned value to only show specific content in specific locations

  • Webservice = Examines information from a web-based API

  • Date = Select a Date Range or Days of the Week

  • Time = Sets to only show during a specific time of day

• Optional – Use the small plus button to the right to add additional rules or use the And and Or button to add additional rules

  

  • This example would limit the items to only play on Weekends OR Evenings

• Click the +Add button to save.

Player and Schedule Settings

The sections for setting a Schedule and selecting Players are the same for all Playlist Types

Adding a Schedule to a Playlist

The default schedule for a Playlist is Daily, Everyday.

Clicking the pencil will allow you to edit the schedule to be more limited.

• Date Range = Allows the playlist to only be shown during a specific range of dates

• Advanced = Allows the playlist to be shown during a specific range of dates, days of week, and time of day

  

The schedule set here will control when the playlist as a whole will be seen as valid by the player.

Adding Players to a Playlist

If this playlist is meant to be seen directly on a screen, you will now add Players and/or Player Groups that will receive the playlist.

In the Lower Left

• Drag and drop the appropriate players into the Assign to Players /Groups field.

• Or, click to the left of the player thumbnail to select it

  

• Once your player is added, clicking the Save Playlist button, will tell the selected players to perform a Check-In to download the playlist or any changes

You might also be using this Playlist to control content that shows within a section of a larger Layout. If that is the case, you will save the playlist with no players. For more information on nesting a Playlist see How To Use a Playlist Element

Controlling Item Playback Order

Options for setting Playback Order for items in a playlist will depend on the type of playlist and the way you have selected your items.

For setting the order for items inside a clever rule, see the Editing the Display Options for Clever Rules above

Manually Managing Order of Items

Available in Clever and Static Playlists
The playlist will show its items working from left to right in the order it appears at the top of the playlist. You can drag items to reorder them.

You can also create duplicate copies of items if you want them to show more than once in each rotation.

If a Clever rule limits where or when content should be shown, it will be skipped by players when it is not valid.

Content Weighting

Available on Clever Playlists, BUT can not include Clever Triggers/Rules
Content weighting is an option that weights how often a media items should play.

With a weightage set, your media will play in a randomized order where media with a higher weighting percentage will appear more often than media with a lower weighting percentage.

Click on the chart icon in your media to change its weighting.

To configure the weighting of your media, grab a slider and drag it to a desired percentage.

Content Shuffling

Available on Standard Playlists
Content Shuffling is a Playlist-wide setting available on Standard Static and Dynamic Playlists.

It is set when the playlist is first created OR edited in the Playlist Settings opened in the upper right

Creating and Editing Standard Playlists

Standard Playlist can be either Static or Dynamic, which is chosen when Content is selected
The first steps are the same for both

• Click Add Playlist > Add Playlist.

  

• Provide the following information on the Add Playlist Options pop-up.

  

  • Playlist Name Required: Name of the playlist.

  • All other settings are optional, all can be edited later in the Playlist Settings

  • Description: Details about the playlist that will appear within the CMS.

  • Tags: Metadata used to identify your playlist.

  • Default Animation: Set of animations that will play for all media that has been assigned to your playlist. After setting up your playlist, your media can be modified to have individual animations if you don’t want to have a default one set up.

  • Override to play full video: Ensures that any video within your playlist will play for the entire duration instead of playing for the default duration.

  • Interrupt Play: Guarantees that your playlist will play at the time it’s scheduled even if another playlist is playing at that time in the assigned player.

  • Audio Only Playlist: Indicates that the playlist only contains audio content.

  • Default Duration: Default time that all media in your playlist will appear before switching to the next set of media. You can set the duration individually after the playlist is set up.

  • Number of Items per Loop: Specifies the number of media items that will be shown for each loop.

  • Content Shuffling: Shuffles the order of the content.

Setting a Playlist as Static

After saving your playlist options, you’ll be taken to the Playlists Edit screen. This is where you can manually select and add static content to your playlist.

To add static content:

• Click Add Content

  • Static Content is the default choice for how to Manage Content

    

• From the Manage Content section, select from the existing content across the Images, Videos, Layouts, and Messages tabs or drag and drop local files from your computer.

  

• Select the checkbox for the corresponding file.
  The number of files selected will display next to the Add button.

• Click Add button.
  The selected files will display at the top of the Playlist Edit screen.

  

Adding a Schedule and Adding Players is the same as the steps above

Setting a Playlist as Dynamic

Dynamic content can be added to your playlist based on tag rules. For these tag rules to take effect, your content must have tag metadata.

To add dynamic content:

• From the Manage Content section, click the Dynamic Content button.

  

• Provide the necessary conditions within the Add Rule subsection.

• Click Add Another to add multiple tag rules if needed.

  

• Click Save Rules

• Dynamic Playlists can only ever have 1 dynamic item controlled by Tag information

  

Adding Playlist Triggers to Standard Playlists

A trigger is a rule that controls whether the playlist should play or not.
Unlike individual Clever Rules, these will apply to the entire playlsit

To add trigger rules:

• Click Manage Triggers.

  

• The Playlist Triggers pop-up appears where you can define your trigger rules. These rules apply to the overall playlist, and not individual items within the playlist.

• Click the Lightning Bolt icon.

  • From the Add Trigger pop-up, provide the following information:

  • select a trigger action, select a column, select a condition, and enter a value in the designated fields.