All Rivendell log events have an associated time type, which controls what effect (if any) the passage of time will have on the event. There are two basic time types: relative and hard. Additionally, the hard time type has several additional options that further modify its behavior.
The default time type for log events, the relative time type simply
means that the event is assumed to have a start time of whenever
the previous event ends (if it has a
PLAY or
SEGUE transition)
or whenever it is started (if it has a
STOP transition).
A hard or soft time type causes the event to be executed or otherwise
acted
upon when the wall clock equals the time associated with the event.
Hard/soft times are powerful features that can be used to synchronize
the log to various external events. An event can be assigned a
hard/soft time by clicking the Start at
check box in the Edit Log Entry
and filling in the desired time, and will show up with the letter
H or
S appearing at the beginning of
its listed time in the
Time column of the Edit Log dialog.
The specific action that is performed when the time matches is determined by the option parameters supplied as part of the event.
As implied by the name, if the event is set to start immediately, it will be started as soon as the hard time is reached. Any currently playing events in the log will be simultaneously stopped down.
If set to 'Make Next', the event will be cued up to become the next event to be executed in the log, bypassing any intervening events in the log between the currently playing event and the hard timed one. Any currently playing events are unaffected.
Very similar to "start immediately", with the difference that, if one or more events are currently playing, the log will wait up to the specified amount of time before stopping them and starting the new event. If the currently playing event(s) finish before the specified time period has elapsed, then the event is started immediately.
When viewing log events in
rdlogedit(1), the displayed
start time style for each event can be either
Estimated or
Scheduled, as selected in the
Show Start Times As dropdown box.
Estimated will give start time values
based on any hard start times in the log, taking the known
lengths of the relevant carts into account, while
Scheduled will display the start times as
provided by an external music and/or traffic scheduling system.
The optimum style to use is largely dependent on how a particular
log was assembled. If the log was generated using
rdlogmanager(1) and largely
populated with events from external music and traffic systems, the
Scheduled style will usually be preferred
as this permits the start times provided by those external schedulers
to be visible. On the other hand, if the log was mostly assembled
"on the fly" in
rdlogedit(1), the
Estimated style will usually provide more
insight into how a log will actually time out when played.