One of the frequently recurring questions customers ask the Helpdesk is related to Playblocks and in particular, why the Playblock is not doing what is expected.

To help customers better understand Playblocks, we have added Playblock Validation to SAM Broadcaster Cloud, which is designed to validate the Playblock before it is put into production.  This feature validates each entry or detail within the Playblock and confirms whether the conditions set are suitable for up to 10-days playout.

When selecting the Schedule tab, we now find a Validate button is available on the Playblock window.  We can validate a Playblock before it is saved or after and there are graphical notifications to indicate the status of each detail within a Playblock.

To validate a Playblock simply add details to a Playblock and click Validate.  There are three possible outcomes for each detail, Success, Caution and Error:

	Success
	Caution
	Error

 Success

If the validation shows Success then there are sufficient tracks in the selected category to satisfy the selected Separation Rule for 10 days.

Caution

There may not be an immediate problem with the number of tracks or the Separation Rule however, there could be a problem and you should reconsider the number of tracks and/or the Separation Rules

Error

This indicates there are either insufficient tracks or the Separation Rules are too restrictive.

Points to Note

The Request category will always show Caution as when tracks are requested, these are added to the Request Playlist and removed after they have played.  By default the Request playlist is empty.  If the Separation Rule for a request category is set to No Rules then this will always display the Error message as there is nothing to prevent the same track or artist being selected by different people, playing consecutively.