I have mAirList setup so that pressing PFL on any of the players goes through a specific PFL channel on my mixer. I then also use your lovely features enabling me to PFL a track whilst its on air (through this channel) and default to playing the start of the track if its not on air, and the end of the track if it is. For me this seems like a great setup.
However, sometimes its nice to be able to PFL a track through the main player channel - to accurately test the level and to practice complicated segues. To do this I would normally just press the play button on mAirlist player and select PFL on my mixer on the playout channel. Unfortunately, mAirlist then thinks I’ve played the track and cues the next item. Is there a way of getting mairlist to realise that Ive only played a few secs of the track and to therefore assume I was pre-fading. A lot of the pro playout systems I have used (e.g. RCS Master Control) do this by having a rule which says if less than 20% of the track was played, then recue it, otherwise move on to the next item. If you could make this an optional/configurable rule then that would be great!
I’m not aware of any way you could do that in mAirList as it stands, short of manually changing the Player’s PFL audio device, using the Control Panel under the mAirList button on the main toolbar, then ‘pressing’ PFL (NOT Play!).
There are various Player Options settings in config which allow you to set up Players so they don’t ‘auto eject,’ but they are ‘either/or’ settings.
You should always use the PFL playback mode when pre-listening to items. This is how you tell mAirList that the song is not being played on air.
I don’t think the 20% rule you mentioned is a good solution - for example, what happens to logging (online playlist on your website etc.) then? How can mAirList tell that the song is playing on air without waiting for the 20% being played? That means that a 5 minute song would be displayed on the website only one minute after it is being started.
Have a look at the player option “Only use PFL audio device while player is playing”. If it is enabled, the PFL output will still go to the special PFL sound card, but only when the song is already on air. If you start PFL playback while the player is idle, the playback soundcard (routed to your mixer channel) will be used. I believe this is exactly what you need in your setup.
In every studio I’ve ever worked in, PFL is done ‘on channel’ on the desk: by which I mean that each channel’s PFL button puts the channel into PFL mode (usually solo-ing that channel to the headphone buss) and, in the case of equipment which supports it, such as mAirList, it also starts the player connected to that channel.
It’s only usually a good idea to use a separate desk channel for all PFL if and ONLY if the individual desk channels do NOT each have a PFL button; even if that button does not connect to external connectors. In that latter case, you would put the channel into PFL first, then click PFL in mAirList (instead of having the connection—and a mAirList Remote Control setup—‘toggle’ the Player into and out of PFL automatically when you press the desk channel PFL button; which is the ideal setup).
I think its a good idea personally…!