This document reflects changes made on 23rd December 2021


Technical overview

The TOTH sequence is currently made up of six parts, three of which result in audio going out:

  1. Schedule IRN Patch
    This is a Rivendell macro (0000053) and runs at xx:58:00 and sets up the streamer to route IRN audio to air at xx:58:50 (asynchronous)
  2. Woodfines advert
    This runs at xx:58:28 (+2s IP delay to the studio). This is Rivendell cart 200041, which contains three different cuts that rotate each hour. The cuts must be 50s long with a segue start marker set before the end.  
  3. 'The middle bit'
    This segues after Woodfines. The cuts used here must be 30s long with a segue start marker set before the end. For more info, see below.
  4. News intro jingle
    This segues after the 'middle bit'. This is Rivendell cart 200571, which contains the same News Intro jingle as the one run by the macro on presenter cartwalls
  5. 120 sec silence
    This segues after the news intro jingle. This is Rivendell cart 010006, which acts as a buffer to ensure IRN is unpatched at the correct time.
  6. IRN unpatch
    This is a Rivendell macro (0000054). It runs after the 120s silence and immediately disconnects the IRN route from the streamer (synchronous)

 This is all created as a log by a clock wheel running on the TOTHSvc service in Rivendell. There are actually two clocks, one (code 0) creates the sequence as defined above, and the other (code 1) creates the same but without Schedule IRN patch or IRN unpatch, thereby allowing the TOTH  sequence to run without IRN audio (This is currently used for Breakfast mixed bulletins). 


The middle bit

The clock wheels always create the middle bit using cart 200043. This contains default rotating cuts (previously the 'Timecheck' files). However, the day before the log is needed, a python script called 'find_progs.py' runs in its own Docker container.

find_progs.py downloads the schedule from an API endpoint on the upload server, then compares the PIDs in the schedule to the cart titles in the TOTHPROMO group in Rivendell. Let's say the schedule has:

16:00 steffi-callister

18:00 gadget-guide

19:00 tony-dellar-northern-soul

21:00 neil-jones

23:00 club-beats


  • If there is a cart called [Next]tony-dellar-northern-soul|neil-jones|club-beats, that will be used for the middle bit just before 19:00 but only if the middle bit is still on the default cart (200043) 
  • If there is a cart called tony-dellar-northern-soul|neil-jones|club-beats, that will be used for the middle bit at 19:00 and also the three hours preceding that (16:00, 17:00, 18:00), again only where the default cart (200043) is set. In this example, that means 16:00 and 18:00, since there is no 17:00 and 19:00 will already have been replaced by the rule involving the [Next] file.

Queen's speech at Christmas and other one-offs where we take IRN for >2 minutes

Edit the TOTH log for the date to change the time of Unpatch IRN. You'll also need to replace the 120s silence cart with a generated silence of the right length. (Cart 010007 contains 360s silence for the Christmas speech).

Non-technical guide to TOTH schedule reads and promos

This is the case for schedule reads that will be used on a regular (weekly, fortnightly) basis

  1. Ensure the file is exactly 30s long
  2. The file name must be exactly one of the two formats below:
    either: [Next]pid-1|pid-2|pid-3
    or: pid-1|pid-2|pid-3
    The version with [Next] will be used immediately before a programme with pid-1 in the schedule, provided pid-2 and pid-3 follow it.
    The version without [Next] will be used during the previous three hours before the programme, again provided pid-2 and pid-3 follow it
    The file extension can be either .mp3 or .wav
    The PIDs in the file name must be consecutive in the schedule. If there is another programme between pid-1 and pid-2, for example, it will not get played. 
  3. Import the file into the TOTH promos Dropbox (to be created) at least 2 days before it will be needed

Examples of when to use the filename types:

  • 'Coming up at 9pm, it's Neil Jones with the Rock Show, then at 11, it's Club Beats. Next is Tony Dellar with Northern Soul'
    [Next]tony-dellar-northern-soul|rock-show|club-beats
    Will be used at 18:58:30 only
  • 'This evening at 7, Tony Dellar is here with Northern Soul. At 9pm Neil Jones at the Rock Show, followed by Club Beats'
    tony-dellar-northern-soul|rock-show|club-beats
    Will be used at 15:58:30, 16:58:30, and 17:58:30. Also at 18:58:30 if the [Next] version doesn't exist already

Non-technical guide to one-off schedule reads and promos 

This is the case for schedule reads like 'On this week's Bookmark', which will only be used during a few days.

  1. Ensure the file is exactly 30s long
  2. Upload the file to the temp dropbox
  3. The day before the file will be needed, connect to the VPN and then use VNC to connect to the server called c105r-playouttoth (username and password from engineering)
  4. Open rdlogedit and edit the log for tomorrow's date to switch 'TOTH sequence 2' to the temporary cart you imported. Do not touch anything else.