Bundles
Bundles are groups of ad copies that you can schedule, as a whole, in Broadsign Control Administrator. As a result, you are able to schedule several different versions of the same ad at once.
Add and edit bundles in a campaign's properties.
Here are a few ways to use bundles in Broadsign Control Administrator:
- Handling multiple ad copies: This is useful when you are planning a campaign across displays that have conflicting media requirements, for example languages, aspect ratios, regionalization, etc. This is done at the Broadsign Control Player level where the software matches criteria assigned to the ad copies in the bundle against criteria assigned to its display unit or the frame in which it is now playing. For more information, see Ad Copy Criteria and Resolution Matching.
- Playback order for multiple bundles: When using multiple bundles in a campaign, you can control the playback of the bundle rotation from the campaign properties.
To add a bundle:
- Select a campaign, and open its properties.
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Go to Media > Bundles.
- Select the ad copies that will make up the bundle.
- The content list displays the mime type.
- The content list can be filtered by the mime type.
- Add the Ad Copies as multiple individual Bundles. This is the default behavior.
- Add all the Ad Copies in a single Bundle. The wizard creates one Bundle named “New Multi Bundle” with every selected Ad Copy included.
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Click OK.
When adding content to a campaign with restrictions (see Content Scheduling Restriction), you are presented with a message stating that some of the selected display units have restrictions on the type of content that can be played. This information is collected from the loop policies from all active and targeted screens. The message also lists the content types that are acceptable to all loop policies and that can be added to a campaign using this wizard.
When multiple Ad Copies are selected, the Include Ad Copies as option offers you the following choices:
The option that you select will be retained and selected the next time you open the wizard.
To open the Bundle Properties dialogue box, select a bundle, and click Edit.
The General Tab
The Duration Tab
No maximum duration
It is possible to specify a maximum run time for a bundle. This is for content such as images and web content, which have no specific end time.
The player can detect when full motion video clips, such as MPEGs have ended and move to the next bundle in the playlist. Specifying a Maximum Bundle Duration for this type of content is, therefore, not necessary.
Override slot duration
If necessary, you can set certain bundles to ignore the duration limit of the slots they occupy. This means if the bundle normally plays for forty seconds, either because it is a forty second video clip or because its maximum bundle duration is set to forty, and is scheduled in a Campaign that is set for thirty seconds, the bundle will play for the full forty seconds and not be cut off at thirty seconds, which would normally be the case.
Allowing bundles to override the slot duration should be used with care. If a bundle is far longer than the intended slot duration, it can cause the total amount of repetitions for the ads in that loop to be less than the expected amount, and thus anger clients expecting more ad exposure. If the content type has no defined ending, such as an image, and the bundle duration is not set, bundle override will cause that particular ad to play endlessly.
The Geometry Tab
Selecting the Fullscreen option allows you to override the other frames in the display unit, and show this bundle's content in full screen mode for the full length of its duration. Once playback is complete, the display unit restores the previous frame layout. Also, contents that were hidden are restarted from the beginning.
The Ad Copies Tab
The Ad Copies tab shows the ad copy resources contained in a bundle. If this list is empty, nothing will be displayed by Broadsign Control Player when the bundle is scheduled. You can also add or remove ad copies.
When adding content to a campaign with restrictions (see Content Scheduling Restriction), you are presented with a message stating that some of the selected display units have restrictions on the type of content that can be played. This information is collected from the loop policies from all active and targeted screens. The message also lists the content types that are acceptable to all loop policies and that can be added to a campaign using this wizard.
- The content list displays the mime type.
- The content list can be filtered by the mime type.
The Separation Tab
If you want to describe the type of product or function that a bundle promotes, you can assign a separation category to it. The player uses this information to perform the Category Separation. For more information, see Loop Policy Transforms.
The Segment Tab
You can use segment categories to distribute weight values in the bundle. For more information, see Loop Policy Transforms.
The Trigger Tab
You can assign a trigger category to Ad Copies. The trigger can come various sources such as the Broadsign Control API, a synchronization set (in that case, the Ad Copies play at the same time), or interactivity. The campaign will play when receiving a trigger, no matter what its source.
The trigger must be of type "All" or "Trigger". For more information on trigger types, see Overview.
This is the default setting that will be applied to all bundles that are added to this campaign, including proposal items from Broadsign Direct that have screen groups.
The Interactivity Tab
You can specify if the bundle is interactive. Interactive bundles will issue a trigger when a use touches the screen.
The Conditions Tab
In the Conditions tab, you can specify which conditions must be active at the player level in order for this bundle to play. Conditions are set by third-party applications via Broadsign Control Player API. They allow for certain types of special dynamic content, such as reacting to audience composition or weather condition. For more information, see the Conditions Action.
"Clone" allows the user to add multiple copies of the same bundle, removing the need to upload the same ad copy multiple times.
To clone a bundle, select one and then click Clone. The Clone Bundle Wizard opens.
You can clone the bundle once, or multiple times. If you choose to create multiple clones, you can specify the number.
"%Share" allows the user to enter in a percentage share for each bundle. The total should equal 100%; however, if the total is above or below 100%, a calculation will be done to find the lowest common denominator. Once specified, the bundles pane populate with the right amount of bundles.
For example, in the case of a 20% / 25% / 40% / 15% share, the number of bundles that will be generated would be 4 / 5 / 8 / 3. These bundles can then be Separated (default option) or Segmented and in both cases it is possible to reorder them if needed.
Note: If any bundle has a share of display greater than 50%, it is not possible to optimally separate and avoid back-to-back.
Note: In the event of a power failure or player restart, the playback order will be recalculated and will begin from the start.
Ordered Rotation
By default, the Rotation Mode is set to Ordered. This mode allows controlling the Bundle rotation by specifying a playback order for the bundles and in addition offers a "Clone" and a "% Share" option.
Random Rotation
If the Rotation Mode is set to Random, the bundles will play back in a completely randomized order while still ensuring an even distribution of plays.
- Each bundle will play once before it gets selected again.
- When all bundles have played once, they get randomly sorted again.
Notes & Limitations
- With this option turned on, the Loop Snapshot Report will no longer reflect the actual playback order.
- Each Player will randomize the bundles in a different way.
- In the Display Unit preview, once past the end of a set of randomized bundles, they get randomized again hence when pressing "back" a bundle different from the one previously seen will be displayed.
- If a Player reboots through a set of random bundles, it is possible that the previously selected ones get played back again.