TIP : Commands/Scripts via the Cartwall

English General
1

Here’s a neat trick for sending Commands/Scripts via a Cartwall button - this is intended for those with a touch screen. First, create a 0.5s blank audio file in your favourite audio editor and save it as COMMAND - Resume Automation on Server.mp3 (or whatever the command will be. 128k/bit MP3 is fine. I find a single file for each Command rather than 1 file that can be edited via the Cartwall’s MLC file (without saving to MMD etc) as you won’t run the risk of overwriting an existing Command config.

Set Item Properties…

Select the Command to run when this file is played…

Simply press the button to run the script!

Handy if you use a touch-screen or don’t want another Browser pane showing an M3U list of Commands (that’s another way of pulling Commands into the Playlist) - but this example is really for the Cartwall and touchscreens.

2

Nice.

Instead of an empty audio file, you can also use a “Silence” item.

3

Indeed. Although it’s a long way around if you then want to populate a fresh Cartwall from scratch because you haven’t got physical files to drag ‘n’ drop - You’d have to line-up all your “Silence” Commands in a Playlist, save them as an M3U and then load that into a Browser as a PlaylistView.

Although, I have found an M3U of popular actions/commands/scripts very useful - an extract from mine:

#mAirList DUMMY 0 AD BREAK
#mAirList DUMMY 15 PRESENTER LINK
#mAirList BREAK PRESENTER LINK (wait)
#mAirList BREAK WAIT HERE
#mAirList COMMAND [OnAir - Charlie] RUNSCRIPT S:\mAirList Files\OnAir - Charlie.mls

These can simply be dropped into a Playlist on the fly (or scheduled as Notes in Natural Music/SPLCreator, for example)

4

Charlie, I second Torben’s comments.

However, I don’t fully understand the format of your M3U entries, which are presumably either created by (or are for use with) some kind of scheduling software? Admittedly I have never used any scheduling software, nor do I use M3U files very often either: so please pardon my ignorance!

I’d appreciate a general description, plus answers to a few specific questions:

Why is the #mAirList prefix needed on each line?
What do the DUMMY entries do, and why do they contain numbers?
What is the purpose of the [] section of the COMMAND entry?

Thanks in advance.

BFN
CAD

5

Hi Cad,
The M3U entries above are simply lines from my mAirList Commands.m3u file. I originally created it via Playlist in mAirList - ie: Add a DUMMY item, set the Title and save etc. Now I know all the parameters, I simply make new ones via NotePad.

#mAirList is used in M3U playlists to precede any mAirList action (Break, Command, Dummy, Stream etc). The 2 schedulers that I am familiar with (Natural Music and StationPlaylist Creator) allow you to specify what I’d call “Break Notes” to the actual Playlist. It’s up to the playout software how it treats each playlist line (some just need a filepath, others may want a CutID or trigger like M, J for music/jingles etc). StationPlaylist Creator is quite a popular scheduling program which can schedule music based upon set rotations (ie: don’t play ABBA songs more often than every 4hrs) and Ads/Jingles on a sequence or random basis. Non-Audio “break notes” can also be inserted to tell the DJ to do a link, read the weather or plug a gig etc. You can also insert Automation Breaks, Commands etc.

mAirList simply requires that #mAirList appear on a non-audio line. For example, the first few lines of my 4pm hour in M3U:

#mAirList DUMMY 0 16:00 : WEEKEND ALTERNATIVE
#mAirList COMMAND [OnAir - Weekend Alternative] RUNSCRIPT S:\mAirList Files\OnAir - Weekend Alternative.mls
S:\IMAGING\TOP OF HOUR\Top Of Hour - Hot Rock.mp3
Z:\MUSIC\Feeling - I Thought It Was Over.mp3
S:\IMAGING\GENERIC IDENTS\ID - Generic Ident 7.mp3

The Dummy and Command entries are inserted into a “Rotation” in Creator. A Rotation is a single hour template (you’d have one for a rock show, one for a jazz show etc). You then tell the Scheduler which Rotations to use in each “hour” ie: 24 rotations in a day.

Here’s an example of how I would use a Dummy:
The %2h is the current hour in 2 digits, ie: 16 for 4pm.

In the Global Config on Creator, there is a textbox called “Break Note Format” (a screen shot is in the Scheduling Wiki). In that box is #mAirList %t - The %t token is whatever text appears in the Rotation, so all Break Notes have the #mAirList trigger. The entire contents of an M3U playlist can be displayed as a Browser pane. In my standard.mlt - the entry looks like this:

[] in a Command is a DJ-friendly description. You could always have the actual command line in there, but RESUME AUTOMATION tells a DJ in simple terms what RPC http://192.168.0.1:9300/BIN AUTOMATION 1 NEXT wouldn’t 8)

Long-winded, but I think that just about covers it!

6

So, to sum up: :wink:

#mAirList is a prefix mAirList requires in order to recognise what follows as a ‘meta-item’ like a command, break, etc.

DUMMY is only relevant or useful if you use some kind of Scheduler (actually I’m a wee bit familiar with SPC), and the numbers are there because that’s how mAirList writes/reads DUMMY lines in an M3U.

Text between [ ] in a COMMAND is a user-friendly name which is displayed somewhere within mAirList.

I suppose I’ll have to stop being lazy, copy your M3U entries to a diskette, and try them out on my dev. mAirList PC next door (which deliberately isn’t connected to t’Internet nor anything else!). :smiley:

BFN
CAD

7

If you insert a Break, Command, Dummy, Stream etc into a Playlist - title them up etc and save as an M3U, then open that M3U in Notepad - You’ll see how they are saved by mAirList :slight_smile: