Help please

Hi,

I wonder if anyone of you can help with a problem that’s developed with our implimentation running on v 2.1.44 Build 490?

The problem is in Auto mode when dragging items from the browser into the playlist. If an item has previously been played, then the new item dragged into the playlist immediately plays. This can be prevented by pressing the stop button after the previous item has played, but in the heat of a show presenters will not remember to do that.

I can’t understand why it has started doing this suddenly. I’ve only made cosmetic changes such as font sizes - I don’t recall changing anything which could do something like this.

Can anyone help? The layout files etc (99.9% same as what I have now) are posted here http://forum.mairlist.com/index.php/topic,2853.0.html

Thanks, Glyn

Sorry, Glyn, I can’t think of any reason why that should ‘suddenly’ start happening.

I assume you already know that WHERE you drop an item in the Playlist is important (a dropped item will ‘land’ one slot above the item you drop it on); but I don’t think that’s the problem you’re seeing. Normally, an item will only play immediately in AUTO mode if a) the Playlist is empty and b) AUTO is in PLAY mode. If that’s what is happening, this is normal behaviour!

Do your presenters normally run their shows in AUTO mode? ASSIST is really the better way for, uh, live assist! In ASSIST, you can automate playout of two or more items by ‘chaining’ them together using the LINK column in the Playlist. A very useful feature, which would also be a good workaround for your current problem. If you click LINK beside an item, it is ‘linked’ to the following item and those items are played out—using a single Player—as if AUTO mode were in effect: hence they will segue at the first item’s FadeOut (or StartNext) cue point. You can link as many consecutive Playlist items as you like, to create an ‘automated section’ of the Playlist.

2.2.2 Build 490 … you should really upgrade that to 2.2.3 Build 552, which is the build in the Snapshot directory of the V2.2 downloads.

I hope that was some help?

BFN
CAD

Thanks for the thoughts. I’m reluctant to change the way presenters use the software - we are a community station and all presenters are volunteers - so it needs to be incredibly simple and intuitive to use for anyone who cannot/will not read any instructions. Many are uncomfortable even with the concept of touching a computer!

When I’m doing this the playlist is certainly empty, so agreed, I think the problem is that it is still in play mode - because if I press stop, then the items stack in the playlist as I want. Is there a way to make the player return to stop mode after a playlist empties? (essentially we use this for advert breaks - they stack say three adverts and a jingle in the playlist, and then hit “play” at the end of the CDtrack/interview/whatever).

We are only about a week away from broadcasts starting, so I’m a bit nervous about upgrading software at this time, but I will do so after this broadcast finishes. Previously I had a “if it aint broke, dont fix it mentality”…but now it’s broke!

Grateful for any advice.

Glyn, I too support a community station (http://www.leithfm.co.uk), so I know what you mean.

OK: the problem is indeed that you are using AUTO mode when you should be using ASSIST mode. AUTO mode is intended for unattended playout, hence it will always try to play everything in the Playlist without any human intervention. Therefore, if the Playlist is empty and you put another item in it, that item will always play immediately. This is what it is supposed to do!

As you say, you do want to ‘automate’ things like ad. breaks even though you are in ASSIST mode, and that is precisely what the Link feature was designed to do. Please try it: it does do what you want!

Try this:

  1. Put mAirList into ASSIST mode.
  2. Put a music track or short interview into the Playlist.
  3. Add your ads. and a jingle to the END of the Playlist.
  4. Add a music track to the end of the Playlist.
  5. Click the Link column in the Playlist on EACH of the ads.

You will see an icon in the Link column beside those items, AND some of them will ‘disappear’ from the Players, to be replaced by the final music track in your Playlist. They have NOT actually disappeared, they are now all ‘stacked’ in a single Player with the first ad.

Now play your first item and let it complete. Nothing else will play.

Now start your ad. and watch the Player it is in. When the first ad. finishes, the second will appear and play in the same Player; ditto for the third ad. and the jingle. And then: everything will be STOPPED again, just as you wanted.

Incidentally, it’s better practice :wink: to go straight to music from an ad. break (or its closing jingle). To do that, you need to click Link on the final jingle, so that the following music track will also be ‘automated.’

Genuinely, Link is what you should use for the situation you describe. If the presenters find this baffling, you can always prepare an ‘ads. Playlist’ in advance with all the Links set (inclduing on the final jingle, as mentioned above). Your presenters can then Append that Playlist and not need to worry about remembering to add the Links themselves.

Good luck with your RSL!

BFN
CAD

Thanks CAD - I’ll take a look at “Link”…with some trepidation!

One other thing, I notice that when the last item in the playlist ends, the “Play” button is still coloured blue. I guess this explains why the next thing dragged into the playlist starts playing immediately - ie it is working as it should. Previously though we had this working OK - it would play the three or four items back to back, and then return to a “Stop” state ready for some more items to be dragged into the playlist.

I don’t know what could have changed to make this happen. Thinking back about 7 months ago we did have to replace the motherboard and re-image the HDD - is it possible that one of you clever guys had told me about a script that could do this Stop function, and that I need to re-enable it or something…? But that would still make it strange no-one had complained about the issue in the meantime…

No need to worry, Glyn: it does work as I described it above.

Hmm … most stations (and presenters) have at least their next few items sitting ‘ready to go’ in the Playlist, rather than having to drag things into the Playlist while delivering a link as well; so what you’re describing is a somewhat unusual way of working, to put it mildly!

Certainly it’s possible to do what you wanted (STOP Automation when Playlist becomes empty) by using a Notification Script, but since you would need to install that manually, I think you would be likely to remember having done it in the past? Look in the scripts/notification folder under your mAirList Program Files folder and check the Date Modified. If any of those dates differ from the others, look at those MLS files in Notepad and see if they ring any bells.

But I repeat, though it’s possible to use such a notification script and work in AUTO mode wih a live presenter, that’s really not the best way to do it (ASSIST mode with Linked files is), nor is it the way mAirList was designed, nr is it the way most stations with live presenters work, unless they are ‘pre-programmed’ commercial radio stations where the presenter’s Playlist is fixed and loaded in advance, and they press a GO button to run each track.

All that said, if you think the Notification script approach was in place before, but you can’t find the script (or it’s there but not operating), let me know and I’ll write you a script which will do that.

BFN
CAD

This message has overlapped with your latest CAD! In actual fact we don’t add items whilst delivering a link - we stack them up before hand (ie during an interview, CD, or append them to current music playlist)

Well I feel a bit of an idiot for admitting it, but I’ve had exactly the same problem before and there is a solution here: http://forum.mairlist.com/index.php/topic,2879.0.html. This is probably exactly what you are thinking of.

Thinking about scripts jogged something in my memory, so I did a search and came up with the answer! Heaven knows how/why these lines got deleted from my “automation on startup” script!

Just tested it and it works - so no worries about “links” for me (I couldn’t see an links column in my playlist anyway!). I’m sure we are using mAirlist in a VERY different manner to many people on this forum - and probably stretching it to the limit of what it is not meant to do and breaking all sorts of rules in the process…but it works for us.

So simplicity reigns supreme once again at Thornbury FM!

Thanks for taking the trouble to advise CAD.

Oh well, glad you got it sorted. :smiley:

But looking at your layout in the other topic, there IS a Link column in your Playlist: it’s the rightmost column! Unless of course you’ve changed your layout since that screen shot was taken?

All the best to Thornbury FM, anyway!

BFN
CAD

Most probably! …version control, what’s that! Cheers.

‘That’ is what you use if you’re submitting a ‘language’ for mAirList. :wink: Or at least, the set of 1200-odd text strings which ‘translate’ it.

I’m currently working on a UK English version (I really loathe seeing Favorites in a program, for example) for mAirList v3.1. So if you ever do upgrade, expect that ‘language’ to appear ‘automagically’ on your PC. There will still be the existing US English version, which you can of course choose if you prefer it (“this is mAirList: everything is configurable!” ;)).

Do give that Link column a try in your no doubt ever-increasing spare time, though. It really is the dog’s doodlies if you want mAirList to keep all the plates spinning by segueing two or three tracks in a row (interspersed with jingles if you like) should you suddenly need a loo break, food or drink break, or (dare I say this nowadays?) a ciggie break :o during your live show! :smiley:

And when it’s finished, DO let us all know how your RSL went. All the best!

BFN
CAD

This is our 9th RSL - the most exciting thing this time is we’ve moved our transmitter to a remote site using a 5.8GHz high power WiFi link from the studio. This should make our coverage much bigger. I’ve written a small paper on the kit we’ve used for this Studio-TX link if anyone is interested (very cost-effective and pretty good quality) - It’s posted on a couple of radio forums or I can send it to you.

…but I’m getting a bit off topic now!

Thanks again, Glyn

Dear Glyn,

Yes please: I’d appreciate a PM either sending me the paper or a link to it.

As you say, off-topic: but also tell me in the PM (not in this thread!) the sort of distance you’re covering, pretty please!

BFN
CAD

Hi Glyn and Cad, just noticed this one (I still drop in from time time). Cad has described the simplest way to link items in a playlist and reading that some PC users are loathe to be just that I’ll only hint but not describe the other way of linking items in a playlist using mAirList. Containers.

Kind Regards Tony

True.

I hardly ever use Containers myself (just to test how they work, really), however it’s true to say that would be another way to do it.

My main ‘problem’ with Containers is that I’ve never been sure whether or not they can be prepared in advance and saved on disk? I also don’t know whether they can be created ‘outside’ of mAirList or not (but I suspect not).

BFN
CAD