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Advanced Ad-Hoc

Advanced Ad-Hoc features are similar to standard Ad-Hoc but allows for increased customisation of the content, that is especially useful in a Channel.

  A separate licence may be required to activate the advanced Ad-Hoc features and is available from your dealer. One licence is required per NTB.

With an advanced Ad-Hoc licence, an NTB that is subscribed to a Channel can be showing quite different content to any other subscriber. This allows an organisation to push their look-and-feel down to a number of sites but allow local users to upload their own content and significantly alter those layouts and or playlists that they have been given access to.

Advanced Ad-Hoc Content types that can be made Ad-Hoc include:

• Folder Play
• Newsfeeds
• Layout
• Schedule
• Schedule Override
• Advance-To

Ad-Hoc Layouts allow the Ad-Hoc user to select the Layout that they want to see during a particular time slot in the Schedule. An Organisation could, for example, publish a Channel that has one Layout per Department and an Ad-Hoc user in each Department can set the NTB to show only the Layout meant for their Department.

An Ad-Hoc Schedule allows the Ad-Hoc User to set the time when a Layout should appear on the Display. If, for example, a lunch hour Layout has been scheduled but lunch hour occurs at different times at different locations then Ad-Hoc users at each location can set their time accordingly.

An Ad-Hoc Schedule Override allows the Ad-Hoc User to force one of a selection of pre-defined Layouts to appear on the Display Device and not be interrupted by other Layout changes in the Schedule. This can be used to show a special TV event or an emergency message and not have it interrupted by more mundane information.

Ad-Hoc Advance-To is an advanced playlist feature that can give the Ad-Hoc User the ability to perform actions like showing content on demand. For more information see the "Advanced" section.

Ad-Hoc Folder Play

A Folder can be added to a playlist and Ad-Hoc users can be given permission to upload their own content into that folder.

An education authority, for example, can publish a layout that contains a zone for showing student artwork. Each school that has an NTB subscribed to that channel, however, can upload their own images into the Ad-Hoc folder so that zone will be unique at each school.

The folder must contain at least one default item that will play until an Ad-Hoc user uploads content into the folder. If the channel is re-published then any content that has been uploaded will remain in place unless the Ad-Hoc folder has been removed from the playlist.

To add an Ad-Hoc Folder to a playlist:

1. Add a Folder to a playlist and click its 'Edit' button.
2. For 'Management' tick 'Ad-Hoc' and click 'Apply'
3. Notice that a folder named 'default_files' has been created in the folder that was added to the playlist.

• Any content that is put into the playlisted folder will show on the display.
• If the folder is empty then content in the 'default_files' folder will show.
• Subscribing NTBs in the Channel will ONLY download the default files and these will show until an Ad-Hoc User uploads content into the parent folder.

Ad-Hoc Newsfeeds

Ad-Hoc Newsfeeds allow an Ad-Hoc user to select, from an approved list, the newsfeed that they wish to read. This feature is particularly useful in a Channel when the subscribers are in other regions and wish to see local news on their displays.

To playlist an Ad-Hoc Newsfeed:

1. Add every newsfeed to the NTB that the Ad-Hoc users may wish to read.
2. Go to the Ad-Hoc items page and add an item of type 'Newsfeed'.
3. Tick the appropriate newsfeeds and select one of them as default.
4. Go to the playlist and under the 'Special items' tab, add the new Ad-Hoc Newsfeed to the playlist.

Ad-Hoc Advance-To

Ad-Hoc Advance-To allows an Ad-Hoc user to make certain things happen on demand.

This is useful in a foyer, for example, where an NTB might be showing a corporate video repeatedly but can be made to show live TV instead by the receptionist.

To set up a Ad-Hoc Advance-To:

1. Browse to 'Options' and set the user account to 'Detailed'.
2. Open a layout, add a new zone and edit its playlist.
3. Under the 'Specials' tab, name and add a rendezvous point to the playlist.
4. Add one or more default media items to the playlst.
5. Under the 'Specials' tab, select the 'Advance-To' that has the same name as the rendezvous point above and add it to the playlist. This forces the playlist to loop back to the start again, regardless of what may follow.
6. Add another rendezvous point to the playlist.
7. Add the on-demand media item(s) to the playlst.
8. Add the 'Advance-To' that has the same name as the second rendezvous point to the playlist. This forces the second sub-playlist to loop continuously. Leave this step out to revert back to the default.
9. On the 'Ad-Hoc Items' page, create and Ad-Hoc Advance-To Item and tick the names of the two rendezvous points above.
10. Add the above item to an Ad-Hoc Page.
11. Log in as an Ad-Hoc User, browse to the page, select the advance-to that you wish to fire and click 'Save'. If the playlist is playing at the time then play will jump to the start of the playlist under the selected rendezvous point.

How to Make Ad-Hoc Changes

1. Log into the NTB as either an Administrator or Ad-Hoc User.
2. Browse to 'Pages' under 'Ad-Hoc Customisation'.
3. Click the page describing the action that you wish to perform. (This is where you will see how important page name choice is)
4. Make the necessary changes to the Item(s) shown on the Page.
5. Click the 'Save' button.
6. If the Ad-Hoc Item is currently showing on the screen then the change will be noticed immediately. If not then it will be noticed when the item does appear.