Overlay Player Countdown improvement and Overlay Player Autostart

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Havenstad FM
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Overlay Player Countdown improvement and Overlay Player Autostart

Post by Havenstad FM »

Hi Bernd,

As You might remember from previous messages we use the overlay player to play out a commercial block + news block + commercial block at every hour where the news block is setup for a fixed starttime at every HH:00.

Also i did setup the Overlay Player to show 9 minutes in advance so the DJ can check the countdown timer to see how long it takes for the overlay to start playing.

Two things that our users keep asking for are:

1. Show the correct countdown time
2. Let the Overlay player start automatically

A bit more info on 1:
As you can see in the Overlay_Countdown screenshot (attachment) the overlay is set to start manually at 15:00:00 and the countdown timer is counting down to 15:00:00. But there is a commercial block in front of the news consisting of 3 items for a total of 27 seconds. Therefore the countdown should really be counting down to 14:59:33. I think the value of the countdown timer should consider all the 'EndsAt' items that are to be played before the fixed items.

Wish 2: It would be nice to have a setting in the general settings where i can set the Overlay Player to start automatically even if the system is in 'Manual Live-Assist' mode. But for this option to be practical first the value of the Countdown Timer should be showing the correct value. In that case the DJ only has to observe the countdown timer and as it approaches the 0 he should close his faders to let the Overlay Player do its work.

I hope it is clear what i mean, if not please let me know.

Kind regards,

Jack Reitsema
ITC Havenstad.FM
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Overlay_Countdown_2.PNG
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radio42
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Re: Overlay Player Countdown improvement and Overlay Player Autostart

Post by radio42 »

I’ll take a look to the countdown for the next version

The Overlay however should start automatically except you have specified the ‚Manual‘ playlist option with the overlay entry.
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Havenstad FM
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Re: Overlay Player Countdown improvement and Overlay Player Autostart

Post by Havenstad FM »

Good morning Bernd,

Then there must be something wrong, because the Overlay player does not start automatically. In the accompanying screenshots for the overlay entries we have at 15:00 on sunday you can see that the 'Manual Playout' option is NOT used.

If i push the PLAY button of the overlay player it counts down again (A Fade Out time perhaps?) and then i have to push the PLAY button again to actually start the first overlay item.

Regards,
Jack Reitsema
ITC Havenstad.FM
Attachments
Overlay_Entry_3.PNG
Overlay_Entry_2.PNG
Overlay_Entry_1.PNG
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Havenstad FM
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Re: Overlay Player Countdown improvement and Overlay Player Autostart

Post by Havenstad FM »

Hi Bernd,

Your description of the new option 'AutoPlay at Live-Assist' sounds exactly like what we are looking for.

The operator is running the system in Manual Live-Assist mode and is alerted by the Overlay Countdown timer that an overlay is about to start playing. If the timer reaches 0:00 the overlay player starts playing. If a DJ-player is playing at that time it may fade out automatically depending on the Fading setting. Otherwise the operator will fade out the playing track manually. And when the overlay player has finished the operator will have to start a new track manually.

Just one remark:
If the operator switches the system from Manual Live-Assist back to full Automatic DURING the playing of the overlay, i would expect that the system would autostart the next track when the overlay player is finished.

In our case, when the operator's shift ends at the end of the hour, he will then turn Manual Live-Assist off during the time the news/commercial overlay is playing. For the next hour a generated playlist will be ready to play. So, when the news/commercial overlay is finished playing that playlist should autostart.

Regards,
Jack Reitsema
ITC Havenstad.FM
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radio42
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Re: Overlay Player Countdown improvement and Overlay Player Autostart

Post by radio42 »

Yes exactly, this is what it should do!
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Re: Overlay Player Countdown improvement and Overlay Player Autostart

Post by radio42 »

Now I see what you mean.
Yes, currently, when the manual 'Live-Assist' mode is explicitly selected, any Overlay is converted to the 'Manual' start-type, thus the waiting time/countdown is also not displayed as you wanted it - this is currently by design.
I.e. when NOT in Live-Assist mode, the countdown would also show up as desired.

I might add a new Overlay option 'AutoPlay at Live-Assist', which will start the overlay automatically even when in manual Live-Assist mode.
However, this option will NOT automatically resume the playlist once the overlay has finished! I.e. once the overlay way played, you still would need to manually start the next playlist track; as this is the nature of manual Live-Assist!
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Havenstad FM
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Re: Overlay Player Countdown improvement and Overlay Player Autostart

Post by Havenstad FM »

Perfect! :D

Looking forward to the update.

Thanks and regards,

Jack Reitsema
ITC Havenstad.FM
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radio42
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Re: Overlay Player Countdown improvement and Overlay Player Autostart

Post by radio42 »

I have provided a new v4.0.4.19-beta (so "Check for Beta-Versions..." to update).

This includes a new Overlay option "AutoPlay at Live-Assist" (see general settings, section Scripts/Scheduler - Overlay Options), as described above. This should also fix your countdown issues as described.
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Havenstad FM
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Re: Overlay Player Countdown improvement and Overlay Player Autostart

Post by Havenstad FM »

Hi Bernd,

Last weekend i installed the new beta v4.0.4.19 on our backup system for testing and it seems to be doing what we were looking for.
One thing we noticed is that the 'No Autostart Next Program' button is not showing anymore as soon as we use the new option 'Autoplay at Live-Assist'.

In our setup i have scripted playlists generated at every hour of every day in a weekly rotation. The next playlist is showing 900 minutes early (so every HH:45). At the live hours this gives our dj's 15 minutes during which they can arrive at the studio and push the 'No Autostart Next Program' button. If they do not (perhaps when someone stays at home because of illness) then the generated playlist will play. Therefore we do need that button.

It looks like the new option 'Autoplay at Live-Assist' for the overlay player somehow prevents the button 'No Autostart Next Program' from becoming active. Please look into it.

This seems to be the only problem we encountered so far. However more extensive testing will be done in the coming weekend.

Greetings,
Jack Reitsema
ITC Havenstad.FM
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radio42
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Re: Overlay Player Countdown improvement and Overlay Player Autostart

Post by radio42 »

When you are in "Manual Live-Assist" mode any upcoming new program will NOT be started automatically - and as such the 'No Autostart Next Program' button is NOT shown!
This behavior has not changed (I just double checked it)!

If you want a subsequent/next program to start automatically, you need to switch back to "Automation" mode, ie. you need to turn OFF the "Manual Live-Assist" mode.

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