Improve visibility of offset in backstage screens

[Idanabr]

Hello,
thanks for this amazing app!!!

I'm reviewing v3, and I'm going to use the app mostly by a duration, and not a specific time.

There are some features I'm expecting to see in the app so it will be perfect:

• Automatic negative or positive delay if I'm clicking "Play" on other event
• Automatic time update by clicking Play.

I assume that not all the users will agree with me, so it can be behind a feature flag.

Thanks again!

[cpvalente]

Hi @Idanabr , thank you for reaching out.

I am happy to consider new features for v3, especially when it comes to delay and time management.
However, I am not really sure I understand the feature request, could you please expand?

Automatic negative or positive delay if I'm clicking "Play" on other event

Could this be related to the offset data point? https://docs.getontime.no/quick-tips/managing-delays/#offset

Automatic time update by clicking Play.

Which time is this?

[Idanabr]

Hey!

Let's say that the show should start at 20:00 and I have an event that starts at 20:00 with a 2-minute duration.
So I'm clicking on the event that should start at 20:00 at 20:21, so I'm expecting that this event automatically be adjusted to 20:21 - 20:23, and the following events accordingly... which is the same as putting a DELAY block before this event.

My suggestion is to automatically insert an AUTO DELAY block that adjusts the rundown automatically. So the time will be updated on other screens automatically without any manual operation of the operator.

--

Another example:

E1 20:00 (2min)
E2 3min
E3 5min

Let's say that E2 started 30 seconds before the schedule, So I'm clicking on E3 start button. Now I'm expecting to see the AUTO DELAY with the value of [-20 seconds].

--

Is it offset? how do I use it?

[Idanabr]

@cpvalente I forgot to tag you

[cpvalente]

Hi @Idanabr

We try to offer a few tools for delay management.
Namely, in this case, offsets and delays.

An offset is calculated automatically as you describe: how far ahead / behind are you from schedule.

So in your example

Let's say that the show should start at 20:00 and I have an event that starts at 20:00 with a 2-minute duration.
So I'm clicking on the event that should start at 20:00 at 20:21,

This would generate an offset of 1minute.
However no times are shifted forwards and the information is kept in the editor.
There is an argument to improve the visibility of offsets in other views.

However this next point complicates things

E1 20:00 (2min)
E2 3min
E3 5min

Let's say that E2 started 30 seconds before the schedule, So I'm clicking on E3 start button. Now I'm expecting to see the AUTO DELAY with the value of [-20 seconds].

Your use case (as I understand it) is tricky since you are not interested in schedules, just on the accumulated durations.
To allow working outside a schedule. Ontime would have to know how long have you been in session vs how long should we have taken to be at that point in time

The two cases seem different to me.

The first one being already accounted in the app, just needs to improve its communication

The second being something that the app doesnt currently support at all.

What do you think?
Have I maybe misunderstood your examples?

[juzz197]

Ran my first show on v3 last night - made life so much easier as I had fewer disruptions from the acts on timings and durations!

Better visibility of offset on events and/or an 'auto-offset' would be a big help though.

Most of our shows are 'cabaret' style - lots of individual acts (singers, comedy, drag) linked by a host. The act events are typically known times (except comedy) and I allocate 90s to the hosting events but each will vary in real life.

It is important to our acts that they can see their current expected stage time. It's also important we keep track of end-time due to potential venue curfews (this is catered for with the 'Expected End Time').

How I addressed this last night...

At the start of each act(event), I created a new delay equal to the offset and deleted the old delay. This meant that the Cue Sheet and Backstage views reflected the current forward run times but it was a manual process. So if this could be automated that would give exactly what I need.

So functionally:

1. An option to enable "Auto Offset Delay"
2. At start of each event: a) delete/cancel any previous auto offset delay (should be no more than one) & b) create a new delay equal to the current offset.

[cpvalente]

Hi @juzz197 , we are planning some work in the views and this came to my attention.
As I understand, what you are after is that the backstage and cuesheet views show times including offset
Is that correct?

I agree that this is beneficial and I dont see that we need any special processes for it. The offset is kept in the server side and could just be shown in the view.

[juzz197]

Hi @cpvalente that would definitely work for me. Happy to test and feedback on this too.