Basic Theory of DJ Players

[smashing]

I'm interested to understand better the theory of the DJ Players, and options for controlling (scripting) them individually, if any.

My application uses the feature which allows each of the 4 DJ Players to output to a different mixer channel / soundcard output, so that I can play 4 music tracks simultaneously (going to different rooms in my case).

This is working well and I am currently manually dragging (very long) MP3 tracks into each of the four DJ players and starting them manually. I can loop each DJ Player as expected, so that there is different music playing in different rooms, at all times.

I appreciate this is not a 'normal' application of ProppFrexx and that the DJ Players are typically used in a radio station type setting, to cue up tracks to play after the current track.

What options, if any, do I have regarding playlists and scheduling in my application? I do not see any notes in the manual about loading tracks to a specific DJ Player for example, or scripting the operation of a specific DJ Player.

Ideally I would like ProppFrexx to start up, load a separate playlist into each of the 4 DJ Players, and start playing all 4 DJ players automatically, but I would settle for ProppFrexx starting up and loading a separate MP3 into each of the 4 DJ Players, and start playing them all automatically.

Thanks in advance.

[radio42]

The DJ Players are there to play the tracks of its underlying playlist. Ie. one after the other one. For scripting you control the next tracks to be scheduled to the playlist, but not to an individual DJ Player.
If you want to load individual tracks to a player you can use the control-commands (see the user manual appendix).
But ProppFrexx’s DJ Players are designed to control individual rooms or home zones.

See the tutorial videos for a detailed overview and explanation.

[smashing]

Thanks for the help. To possibly assist others in future, I was able to get my application working as described in the OP, using a combination of the Auto Start Scheduler option, and using 'PLS_CURRENT_PLAYPAUSE_B (C/D)' as 'On Program Started' control commands (not as script items). The players by default auto-load (cue) the 4 tracks in the playlist upon starting (or 4 embedded Playlists), and the control commands start the other 3 DJ Players playing, simultaneously with the first. In my application this means I am able to use ProppFrexx as a business music server, providing 4 genres of switchable music to different rooms. The rooms have a simple (dimmer) volume control, and a press on the dimmer changes genre. The routing and mixer outputs are complex for this setup, each room requires its own pair of audio outputs, and it requires the momentary switch inputs fed back to ProppFrexx via Velleman I/O boards, with scripting to handle those. This works well, and is robust and stable. Kudos to Bernd for creating a true swiss army knife for audio playout. This fits my application perfectly.