This article will give you an overview of FaceOff.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• FaceOff Overview
  • FaceOff Clock Setup
    • Elements needed
      • Begin FaceOff
      • Begin Song Replacement
      • End FaceOff Next
      • End Song Replacement
      • Empty Song Slot
    • Clock structure
      • The hour before FaceOff starts
      • The FaceOff hour(s)
• Playlist Exports

FaceOff Overview

FaceOff is a feature of Tether that allows users to vote on two lists of songs at once, and the songs at the top of each list will "face off" against each other in a head-to-head voting session to see which one plays next on air.

This feature is designed to drive Time Spent Listening and time spent on your station's website.

With FaceOff, your station will need to provide two playlists to be used. These playlists will function similarly to Takeover.

FaceOff Clock Setup

This section will walk through how to set up a clock in your music scheduler for FaceOff. A Tether Pro license is required to make FaceOff actually function in your automation system.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Elements needed
• Clock structure

Elements needed

You'll set up the following elements (see the table under each element for details on your automation system):

• Begin FaceOff
• Begin Song Replacement
• End FaceOff Next
• End Song Replacement
• Empty Song Slot

In most cases, you'll want to create these elements before building your clocks. If you're using WideOrbit with MusicMaster, it'll be easier to create the elements directly on the clocks themselves.

If you use GSelector, your commands can be created either as Breaknotes (under Clocks) or as Links (under Linker). If you see fields configured under Interface > Export > Schedule > Breaknote, then you can use Breaknotes for your Tether commands. Otherwise, you must use Linker.

If you don't see your automation system or music scheduler listed, Futuri VIP Support can help you to determine how to add these elements.

Begin FaceOff

The Begin FaceOff command turns on FaceOff, generating a head-to-head voting session and activating the "which songs should face off next" feature.

Begin Song Replacement

The Begin Song Replacement is the command that turns on the native "check-in" functionality for NexGen and Zetta. It is not necessary to play for FaceOff for other automation systems.

End FaceOff Next

The End FaceOff Next command will not fully disable FaceOff, but rather will simply turn off the "which songs will face off next" portion of FaceOff. 

• It will be placed before the second-to-last winning position and will play right before that second-to-last winning position (which will be fine because the second-to-last position will have already been filled by your automation system).

NOTE: This is because there is no payoff for the “which songs should face off next” at this point in the hour (because after the next head-to-head, the feature will be done for the day).

End Song Replacement

The End Song Replacement is the command that fully turns off FaceOff.

Empty Song Slot

Empty Song Slots are placed in the log where you want FaceOff to insert songs.

Clock structure

When building Tether clocks, we recommend making copies of existing clocks first (from the same position in your assignment grid) and then modifying those copies. You'll likely have three different clocks for FaceOff:

• The hour before FaceOff starts
• The FaceOff hour(s)

The hour before FaceOff starts

To build a FaceOff clock, you'll place your Begin FaceOff in the clock wherever you want users to start voting. This must be at least a few minutes before the first song you want to insert, so most stations place this command near the last stopset of the previous hour (and pair it with imaging to promote FaceOff starting at the top of the next hour).

If your station uses NexGen, Zetta, or OpX, you will place your Begin Song Replacement command right next to your Begin FaceOff command. If you don't use NexGen, Zetta, or OpX, you don't need that command for FaceOff.

The FaceOff hour(s)

Everywhere you want FaceOff to insert a song, you'll place your Empty Song Slot (or, for Zetta stations, you'll schedule the empty category you created in the steps above). The rest of the hour is built like a normal clock, with imaging, voicetracks, and stopsets wherever they would normally go.

It's also possible to place scheduled songs in a FaceOff hour. We'd recommend against doing this more than once or twice per hour since it sort of defeats the purpose of FaceOff and can confuse users when the next one to play is not one of the vote options, but here are some good reasons stations sometimes pre-schedule songs during FaceOff:

• To serve as a buffer between turning FaceOff on with the Begin Song Replacement, and attempting to fill the first Empty Song Slot
• To serve as a buffer after a sync, since some automation systems may not be able to react fast enough after syncing to plug in a winning song right away
• To give voicetrackers a pre-scheduled song to talk into or out of

Right before your second-to-last Empty Song Slot, place the End FaceOff Next command. This command will hide the two queues of songs and display ONLY the current head-to-head session. This is done because there is no payoff for the “which songs should face off next” at this point in the hour (because after the next head-to-head, the feature will be done for the day).

When you want to turn FaceOff off, place the End Song Replacement command in your clock. It should be placed BEFORE your last Empty Song Slot, not after it.

If the End Song Replacement is synced out, FaceOff will stay in the "on" position on your website and will be misleading to users, so it's helpful to pad the end of the hour with pre-scheduled songs that can be synced if needed.

Playlist Exports

To create your FaceOff playlists, please check out our article on playlist exports for more information on those setup steps.