AdMaster: the traffic software compatible with mAirList - version 4 released

Hi everyone,

We’re pleased to announce the recent major update of AdMaster traffic scheduling software that offers the preset output compatible with mAirList.

These are the new features introduced in version 4.0:

  • The Workstation version, free for everyone: from now on, everyone at your station can have their own installations of AdMaster, and the campaigns can be scheduled from the AdMaster Workstations installed anywhere in the world. Please note that the Workstation is not a remote panel for the main installation of AdMaster: it is a stand-alone version of AdMaster with all the scheduling capabilities but stripped down so it cannot combine the campaigns into the main traffic log. Instead, it allows you to set up, edit, and quickly export a campaign to the main installation of AdMaster, using a built-in file-sync platform. You will be able to invite your clients and the advertising agencies to use the Workstation version of AdMaster to create their campaigns’ schedules on their own, exporting each campaign to your main installation of AdMaster. If mAirList is set to automatically insert the updated traffic playlists, your clients will be able to send their campaigns straight to the air. You keep all the control on the main schedule using your installation of AdMaster (you can set AdMaster to automatically accept all the incoming campaigns or to wait for your approval).

The free Workstation version provides everything you need to set up your own programmatic advertising platform. An agency wants to execute the campaign at 3 AM in the morning? No problem. Invite them to install the AdMaster Workstation, and configure your installation of AdMaster to automatically import the campaigns created by the Workstation. Your job is only to send them an invoice. Try it out. You’ll like it. We think it’s a shortcut to the radio programmatic future.

The campaign auto-import feature: In addition to the campaign import available in previous versions, the new version of AdMaster will be monitoring a selected folder, and will execute the automated import of any campaign files that appear in this folder. The campaign files, exported from another AdMaster installation or the AdMaster Workstation, can be copied manually via the local (or remote) network, semi-automatically via the file sync platform such as Dropbox or Google Drive, or automatically using AdMaster’s own file-sync platform. The advanced settings are available, allowing you to restrict the auto-import to selected installations of AdMaster (including the Workstations).

In addition to the new Workstation version, here are the other major updates and new features:

  • The new scheduling algorithm: it’s been completely rewritten, it is significantly faster and smarter than before.
  • The Traffic Log real-time preview: The faster scheduling algorithm allowed us to include the Traffic log preview to the campaign set up window. This means that you can preview the exact positions of a campaign while the changes have not been written to the playlist yet. To work faster, you will be able to narrow the preview to display only the hours with the campaign that you’re working on. You can also do the manual drag/drops, and add or delete the spots.
  • The Spot groups (also known as the linked spots, the reminder spots or the piggybacking): In the campaigns with two or more spots, you can create the custom spot groups, and schedule them using the same procedure as with any other single spot. All the spots from a spot group will always be scheduled inside one commercial break, the second and all the other spots from a group acting as the reminders behind the leading one. The first spot in a group will be automatically positioned towards the top of the break, while all the other (reminder) spots in a group will be automatically scheduled towards the bottom of the break.
  • The playlist date range selection: from now on, you will be able to select the playlist to be created for any time range between 1 and 60 days, or you can let AdMaster create the playlist automatically in 6 days cycles. If it is set to refresh the playlist automatically, AdMaster resides in the System Tray.
  • More control over the spot positioning: setting the spot position inside the break has been moved from the spot properties to the schedule settings. This allows the same spot to be positioned differently in each campaign segment (e.g. the same spot can be scheduled the first in its break in the morning hours and the last in its break in the evening hours). In addition to the first/last in its break status, you’ll have the additional level of control. The intuitive slider will determine if the spot is scheduled towards the top, around the middle or towards the bottom of the break.
  • The new Traffic Log Editor: it’s been rewritten together with the scheduling algorithm. It provides the new look with the better overview, and it displays all the conflicts that couldn’t be avoided when the schedule had been created. As in previous versions, you can rearrange the traffic log manually.
  • The advanced commercial breaks configuration: in previous versions, you could only select how many commercial breaks you need per hour, and the selection had been used for the entire weekly schedule. From now on, every hour in a week can be set in a different way, so you’ll be able to set every possible scenario for the satellite feeds, commercial-free hours, the local inserts to the syndicated contents, etc.
  • The separate break settings: Each commercial break can now be configured in detail, which includes setting the priority levels (e.g. the priority 2 breaks will be created only when the priority 1 breaks reach the desired maximum duration), and topping up the breaks in several ways.
  • The active spots as the top up files: Any active spot from any active campaign can now be set to be used to top up the shorter breaks. This will provide some bonus repeatings for the paying customer, increasing the variety of the top-ups. The advanced settings are available so that you can select the weekdays and the hours when a spot will be used to top up the shorter breaks.
  • The Create/Update playlists button is now available, replacing the old “Send to broadcast” command.

If you need the detailed control on your commercial breaks, AdMaster will be your life-saver.

Coming soon: the online billing-invoicing module, free for everyone (will work even without AdMaster). To keep AdMaster simple and easy to use, we decided to split the paperwork and the scheduling, but the integration will be fast and easy.

For more information and a free trial, please contact us or visit www.admaster.info

Regards,
Igor Kacmarcik
AdMaster Team
www.admaster.info

In addition to previous post, here’s the video that illustrates the basic principles of work with the AdMaster Workstation:

https://youtu.be/ZQfOsgnlh30

Your sales agents, clients, and ad agencies can create the campaign schedules on their own, and the Workstation will be sending the updates straight to the main AdMaster installation at your station. The main version of AdMaster will automatically import the received campaigns, use them to update the traffic schedule, and write the updated traffic playlist files. I am not sure if the externally created traffic playlists need to be re-imported in mAirList… if not, you’ll enjoy the fully automated traffic import.