TUNETRACKER SYSTEM IN ACTION - TuneTracker

# Route-For (Command Center Only)

Route-For is a switcher control command for owners of our ChannelCaster switcher packages, such as the ChannelCaster 4™, the ChannelCaster 8™, and the ChannelCaster 16™. It is used to switch among different inputs and outputs on the Broadcast Tools line of switcher boxes to put channels on the air. Regardless of which of the switcher boxes came in your ChannelCaster package, the syntax you use is the same.

In Example 1, some network headlines will be broadcast for exactly 30 seconds. In Example 2, a commentary will run for ten minutes. In the third example, a syndicated talk show segment will run for seven minutes. And in the last example, a church service will be relayed "infinitely," until interrupted by an # Interrupt command.

As with most other programming elements, Route-For events are subject to the same universal overlap settings as the rest of your Command Center programming. That means it's wise to add one second to the length of your Route-For event. In addition, we consider it prudent to join the network one second early and exit it one second late. When you add all that up, you wind up with an event that's actually two seconds longer than the actual newscast. So a five-minute newscast at the top of the hour, joined one second early, would look like this. Notice below that the interrupt leading into the newscast, and the start of the newscast itself, are actually positioned at the end of the previous hour, because they happen at :59:59.
Once you have set up a Route-For event like the one above, you can always tweak the timing of it to suit the timings of your network, but the example above is a good starting-off-place.

This next example demonstrates a scenario where you join a feed in progress, stay with it until a specific time, and then cut away. Notice here that the length shown is 99:00:00, which tells Command Center to just keep running the switcher event until an Interrupt cuts it off. It's useful for lots of situations! Below is an example covering a full hour, in-context, so you can really get a good feel for it, and then we'll explain it afterwards.
As you can see, after the station ID, there is a provision in the log for a file containing closures and cancellations. This is a good practice if you live in an area where snowstorms, etc. can necessitate such announcements. If the file is present, because cancellation announcements are necessary, it will be played. If not, it will be skipped.

Well let's assume that on this particular Sunday, snow has resulted in a bunch of cancellations, but the church service is still being held. Cancellation announcements are notoriously unpredictable as to length, so the exact time when the church service is joined is impossible to know in advance. The solution is to join the church service in-progress, stay with it all the way 'till :59:20, and then use an # Interrupt to break away, play a :30 program close, a :10 station ID, and viola, you're into the next hour, right on time.

What are all those songs for? Well, what if the feed from the church fails, because an ice storm takes down the phone lines? If the feed goes dead, Command Center's silence sensor will kick in and kill the switcher event, playing music until the :59:20 interrupt.


THINGS TO KNOW

An automated switcher event can be manually "killed," just the same as a live event, a commercial, or a song. Just click on its blue button to take it off the air. Bear in mind that if your log includes an Interrupt later in the hour, as described in the scenario above, and Command Center is in auto mode at Interrupt time, you will still experience that Interrupt when the time comes, so hang loose! Whatever is on the air will be taken off, and whatever follows the Interrupt will be played, once the Interrupt time is reached.

Currently, there are no provisions for fade-ins or fade-outs in Route-For events, so even if an Interrupt specifies a fade time, it will not be observed.



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