■ An electronic copy production request is forwarded over the Network to Production by Traffic each time an order is booked: it is held on a Production order database.

■ The script may be appended by the Copy Writer and/or the Sales Department independently from their desktops or directly input by the Production team themselves.

■ The worklist is prioritised by campaign start date, automatically warning when missing copy is becoming critical.

■ When an individual voice is available, all outstanding jobs for that voice are presented to minimize talent time charges: no scripts out of place, no forgotten work.

■ When the copy has been recorded, the audio is transferred to the On Air computers. To eliminate errors, the Production computer references the Traffic system to ensure that the spot is correctly transferred to the correct On-Air computer by the correct name.

■ The Traffic system is automatically notified when spots become available to its Scheduling system, and the customer's order status is flagged accordingly.

■ Copyright information on music used is stored for later reporting to music rights administration bodies such as PRS, MCPS, ASCAP etc.

■ The Music Rights Database can also help to locate the 'same music as last time', and also help identify which cuts in the production music library have not yet been used.

■ The Production system also includes the file maintenance features for the digital audio system. By accessing two other computers - Traffic and On Air - a list of 'carts' for completed campaigns is presented to the operator along with the relevant booking details. The finished spots may then be removed or retained for possible future use at the touch of a button. In this way, the system handles quite involved file maintenance procedures without the need for detailed computer know-how on the part of the production engineer.

■ Partial access is given in the Production system to the details contained in Traffic's bookings database. Considerable time is saved in this way for both production and Traffic staff by not having to wait until one or other is free to answer queries on contacts, start dates, etc.

Back