Programming the time announcement on mairlist 6.3

[Edgar_LeSon]

Hi there. I would like to know how to program an announcement (give the time) on my radio, which would make it possible to broadcast this announcement of the time (different every hour, smiles) at the exact time and by interrupting the program in progress. Thank you in advance for your answer. Best regards.

Edgar.

[Stefan_Hillen]

This has been asked and answered ten days ago:

@UliNobbe

I remember such a question in the german section of the forum. @radiorom started this in October 2010 (!) with 1’440 tracks (24-hour-format).

Ten years later he explained it here: Zeitansage bei mairlist 6.2 - #6 by radiorom

The important paragraph translated:

We have a directory where 1440 mp3 files are stored, so one for every minute of the day. We add a special element to the playlist that accesses the corresponding file using the current time %h%m.

@JunkerThomsen

Let’s say we would like a time announcement in the playlist for every third song…
The songs have - of course - different lengths.
Could mAirlist manage that?

As a part of the hour template in the database: Yes, this should be possible.

[Edgar_LeSon]

Thank you for your answer, dear Stefan. Since I have asked this question, I have funded the answer in mAirlist 6.3. This is the “events” key, located at the top of the screen, slightly to the left.
In “auto” mode, it’s perfect, but in “assist” mode, the track come in the list, without take the antenna.
I understand why, it’s normally…
Thank you so much.
Take care of you.
Edgar.

[Tondose]

Why would you,

@Edgar_LeSon

in “assist” mode,

make a robot give the announcements?

[JunkerThomsen]

@UliNobbe

ars late

Hi Stefan,
Thanks for your answer
However the link doesn’t give the answer, how I setup time time announcement at my mAirlist.I have read the thread intensively, but I am confuses. I cant see how to setup that in the hour. template. Sorry!
/Junker

[Stefan_Hillen]

Hi, this is the important part.

@UliNobbe

We have a directory where 1440 mp3 files are stored, so one for every minute of the day. We add a special element to the playlist that accesses the corresponding file using the current time %h%m.

Put one of the time announcements in the hour template. Set and change the filename there to Variables %h%m for the filename .

mAirlist will then search for a file that has the name corresponding to the set variable (in this case: hour and minute) when mAirlist loads the player, so if this element is played 11:13 it will look for (i.e.) announcement_1113.mp3

!! It’s important to activate the variable-replacement in the settings of the element !!

You can read more about it in this (german) Thread:

Version 6.1: MiniScheduler, externe Elemente

Moin Moin, ich möchte über den MiniScheduler, zu bestimmten Zeiten Dateien einbinden, die nicht in der Datenbank erfasst sind. Das soll ja nun seit Version 6.1.x funktionieren. In den Stundenvorlagen, kann ich aber keine Schablone für einen Dateinamen setzen, die versteht irgendwie nur Playlisten Formate. Ich hätte angenommen, dass ich jetzt aus den Logging Variablen eine Verzeichnisstruktur zusammen bauen kann, die werden zum Zeitpunkt des Ladens der Playliste aufgelöst. Also sowas wie m:\W…

[Edgar_LeSon]

Hello dear Tondose, you have reason, it’s an error to have a programming announcement in “assist” mode.

[JunkerThomsen]

Hi Stefan

First of all: Thank you for helping.
Secondly I need to know:
Which type of item do I have to insert in the hour template

I did try "specific item. However, I cant insert variables here?

[JunkerThomsen]

[JunkerThomsen]

[Stefan_Hillen]

It’s all explained by Torben in the Thread I linked to:

@Torben

Zieh per Drag&Drop eine Datei aus dem Explorer rein und editiere dann den Dateinamen von Hand (Variablen einbauen).

But here’s my english Step-by-Step tutorial for you (and all in need):

1. Open your hour template and choose “External Items”

2. Drag & Drop one example item from your windows explorer (!) into the Listing window:

3. Double-click the item to open the preferences, go to the tab “Audio File”

4. Change parts of the filename to the variables you’ll use to name your different announcements. You can find a list of variables here .

5. This step is crucial (!): In the “Playback” tab check the mark for “Expand variables in URL/filenames”. Otherwise mAirlist will ignore the variables and instead look for the exact filename found in the Filename/URL-settings.

6. Check the other settings in this tab to your liking (i.e. “Automatically redo normalization every time the file is opened”)

7. Save your settings and save the Dialog for the external Item

Note: This function has big potential and doesn’t end with time announcements. You could do an hour template for a specific pre-produced show, that your contributors load into an ftp directory, and let mAirlist look for the date of the show in the filename (i.e. ThatCoolShow_221008_1800).

This hour template could be saved for specific days of the week so the external shows would be planned and played automatically by mAirlist that day and hour.

Of course, that requires exact filenames and therefore a lot of discipline by the contributors / external DJs.

Hope that helped

[Philippe]

Salut à tous j’ai peut être une astuce plus simple.
au lieux de faire avec un spécifique item tu peux le faire avec un Ramdom item from folder, et sur chaque fichier tu vas dans programmer et tu lui spécifie son heure et son jour de passage.
Ce system te permettra d’utilise le Template à des heures différente.

[Edgar_LeSon]

Merci Philippe, je vais essayer cela, également.
Salut à tous.

[Stefan_Hillen]

…so with one element per hour you would be in need to edit 24 elements, with announcements every half hour it increases to 48 elements…

Don’t you think using variables with just one editing in the database would be more handy?

But maybe I understood @Edgar_LeSon wrong and he just want to play a (any) random file at the top of the hour?

(btw. this is the english part of the Forum, it’s very difficult to follow threads if you mix up languages)

[Junker]

Hi Stefan,
Thank you very much. A brilliant explanation. It works now (almost)
Thanks

/Junker

[Stefan_Hillen]

@Junker

It works now (almost)

Glad to help, you’re welcome!

What’s (almost) not working?

[Junker]

Hey Stefan, I’m very happy that you helped me with a brilliant guide.

Well, yesterday, I noticed, that my watch and the clock on computer was 21:13, however mAirlist played the file “Time_21:11.wav” Two minutes too late. Today I tested it again, Sometimes the “time announcement” is behind the computers clock. Not always. Sometimes its correct.

Could it be, if I in the playlist jump with the “forward button” or the playlist cant find a file or something like that…

Best regards
Junker

[Stefan_Hillen]

@Junker

however mAirlist played the file “Time_21:11.wav” Two minutes too late.

AFAIK the variable is processed when the player is loading the file and not when you jump to next elements in the playlist and change the planned time.

So it may help to set your players to load on demand and not automatically after the last song was played and the player is empty…?

[Junker]

Hej Stefan,
I do have checked “Auto load on demand now”
It does the same.

It loads 3 tracks/items

Lets say the music item is 5 minutes. It starts 21:15
The time anouncement comes after the music 21:20
The time-wav-file is loaded (with green check mark) while the music runs
After ending the musi-track mAirlist then will play “Its a quarter past ten” becuase the variable is processed when the file is loaded in cache?
It didnt help setting the players to load on demand… Hm…

[Stefan_Hillen]

Maybe @UliNobbe has an idea.

I don’t know if it would help to check to „not buffer“ the element before loading in the element’s properties?

Of course this would prevent mAirlist from loading it in the cache too early. It sounds logical to me that mAirlist can’t pre-buffer a file and then loading another file when processing the variables on player load

I need to test it for myself, sorry. Maybe tomorrow…