A playlist, or playlist segment, is a list of items and/or directives ordered in a specific sequence. Items may be either Ots Album items, Wave files, MP3 files, or CD audio tracks. When started, each item in a playlist is loaded into a deck and played in sequence. Directives which are encountered within a playlist control or influence the flow of the playlist or provide access to additional functionality.
A playlist can contain any number of items and may have a duration (total time taken to play all items) of any amount. A playlist segment is generally a short playlist that goes for a specific amount of time, often one hour, which is used as a basic building block for constructing longer playlists.
Playlist segments are mainly of use for radio stations, and other users who have advanced scheduling requirements. As such, they will not be discussed in this section any further. Please see the Scheduling & Logging section for further information.
Generated automatically at program startup.
Generated while OtsAV is operational.
Created ahead of schedule for a predefined purpose.
Added to and manipulated during run-time.
Altered at any stage, even when the next song in the playlist is seconds away from being played.
Playlists may be generated manually (by hand), or automatically by the Playlist Generator based upon a playlist template.
A Playlist Template is a scripting "language" which instructs the Playlist Generator in how it should go about generating the playlist. You can use the Template Builder to build Playlist Templates, click here for details, or you can hand-code advanced Playlist Templates. For a step-by-step tutorial on building an advanced Playlist Template click here.
If you would like to unleash the full power of the Playlist Generator, you will want to read the Playlist Template Reference.
How to manually build a playlist
How to build a Playlist Template using the Template Builder
How to build a Playlist Template containing Station IDs
How to build an advanced Playlist Template
Playlist Configuration options
How to randomize a current playlist
How to remove an Item from a playlist