Calling all AV users. Our engineer is seriously suggesting AudioVault as the automation of choice for our stations. No on has used AV before. We repeatedly hear things such as "it's clunky" and "it's not talent friendly." True? Not true? Knowing that NO system is completely bullet-proof, how is AV to work with in what would be a live assist (with limited walkaway automation) operation in a station with a staff that's not too computer friendly. Thanks.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
AudioVault
- Thread starter shure
- Start date
WHY would he suggest this? Think you'd be most happy with the Prophet Nexgen with awesome support.2nd choice googles's old scott ss32.AV can be very quirky and you better know how to do windows INI files. IMHO
We're been running Audio Vault on beethoven.com since 2001 and we are are very happy with it. We're live-assist about ten hours a day and automated the rest of the time. In 2006 we installed Audio Vault II in our FM station for music and spot playback with a live jock 24/7. Both systems have been reliable and flexible. Both sets of jocks seem very happy with it. Service, when required, has been very good.
If you want to pay all of that money for a 10 year old automation system, go with AV. IMHO Prophet runs CIRCLES around AV without even trying. AV is NOT user / talent friendly. AV is a program designed for Windows 3.11. If you need to make ANY config changes, you MUST know how to edit the audiovau.ini file. Have fun with that one.
On the plus side: AudioVault is pretty reliable. But, If your stations aren't computer friendly, don't even think about it.
Once AudioVault is configured, great, but don't ever change ANYthing!!! I don't know about YOUR station, but....
Look seriously at NexGen from Prophet and SS32 from dMarc. Trust me, I swear.
Once AudioVault is configured, great, but don't ever change ANYthing!!! I don't know about YOUR station, but....
Look seriously at NexGen from Prophet and SS32 from dMarc. Trust me, I swear.
If you're music intensive live assist most definately go with Prophet. AV works fine for automated stations but it's not as jock friendly. Stay the hell away from Meistro from Computer Concepts. Scott Studios isn't much better IMHO. The biggest problem with Meistro and Scott Studios is the support you WON'T get and the bugs that come with the programming, especially Computer Concepts. It's high-priced junk and junk service.
AV is VERY well supported and VERY stable. The reason that you have to modify stuff in the .ini to make it where a jock can't screw stuff up catastrophically. Meistro for example makes making the wrong change a snap rendering it nearly useless thanks to some weekend idiot jock punching the wrong button, etc. I can't tell you how many phone calls I got with that POS system and a lot of it was just nucience calls because "they couldn't get to something" or it was "all messed up". AV prevents the problem before it IS a problem. I've have VERY good results in getting the guys at BE to modify an .ini file for me if I needed it. The only thing negitive I can say about AV is it's probably not as good of fit for music jocks doing live radio as something like Prophet. Prophet's tech support is second to none, so see if you can educate your engineer that you'd be best off going with their system.
;D
AV is VERY well supported and VERY stable. The reason that you have to modify stuff in the .ini to make it where a jock can't screw stuff up catastrophically. Meistro for example makes making the wrong change a snap rendering it nearly useless thanks to some weekend idiot jock punching the wrong button, etc. I can't tell you how many phone calls I got with that POS system and a lot of it was just nucience calls because "they couldn't get to something" or it was "all messed up". AV prevents the problem before it IS a problem. I've have VERY good results in getting the guys at BE to modify an .ini file for me if I needed it. The only thing negitive I can say about AV is it's probably not as good of fit for music jocks doing live radio as something like Prophet. Prophet's tech support is second to none, so see if you can educate your engineer that you'd be best off going with their system.
;D
Totally agree with gettinbyagain, Last year replaced AV-1 with Prophet, Prophet
ran rings around the even the latest version of AV....Prophet was a no brainer. Both old and new versions of AV are very hardware heavy.
Upgrading AV-1 to AV-2 required all new hardware and software for basically the
same system we were replacing.
The BE demo of AV-2 was ho hum.
The Prophet demo left the staff's heads spinning, when the Prophet engineers
left the room no one had to say a word, everyone already knew it was going to be Prophet.
ran rings around the even the latest version of AV....Prophet was a no brainer. Both old and new versions of AV are very hardware heavy.
Upgrading AV-1 to AV-2 required all new hardware and software for basically the
same system we were replacing.
The BE demo of AV-2 was ho hum.
The Prophet demo left the staff's heads spinning, when the Prophet engineers
left the room no one had to say a word, everyone already knew it was going to be Prophet.
C
CW
Guest
Have had hands on with:
CFS Wizard (Prophet original)
NexGen
AV
Maestro
Scott
McCart
and one or two others..
AV is stable and USED to have good tech support...(I have heard some complaints that is not the case today)...but it was NT based when Prophet was still running Win3.1 (NexGen was NT4 based but well after AV did it).
Scott is now Linux based if you like...or Windows 2000/XP......it was ok IF you set it up right but the sat interface and commands are a little less friendly than NexGen (Setting up EAS RWTs is a snap on NexGen and CFS.......interfacing to a SAGE EAS box was done in less than 3 mins and a "cart" # with Charlie Van Dyke saying "The following is a test of the Emergency Alert System" was all that was needed)
Maestro showed promise originally....and had some features I liked...but I didnt have as much exposure with it as the others; Of course Scott bought Maestro and I guess DMarc/Google has it now???....but I still like NexGen for its ease of operation and 24hr support (remember though who owns them
Stay away from Enco! Has anyone had any experience with Dave Scott's latest, Doctor Digital iirc?? I havent seen anything after its initial announcement....
I would go with NexGen 101 myself.......it aint cheap but it works....and works........
CFS Wizard (Prophet original)
NexGen
AV
Maestro
Scott
McCart
and one or two others..
AV is stable and USED to have good tech support...(I have heard some complaints that is not the case today)...but it was NT based when Prophet was still running Win3.1 (NexGen was NT4 based but well after AV did it).
Scott is now Linux based if you like...or Windows 2000/XP......it was ok IF you set it up right but the sat interface and commands are a little less friendly than NexGen (Setting up EAS RWTs is a snap on NexGen and CFS.......interfacing to a SAGE EAS box was done in less than 3 mins and a "cart" # with Charlie Van Dyke saying "The following is a test of the Emergency Alert System" was all that was needed)
Maestro showed promise originally....and had some features I liked...but I didnt have as much exposure with it as the others; Of course Scott bought Maestro and I guess DMarc/Google has it now???....but I still like NexGen for its ease of operation and 24hr support (remember though who owns them
Stay away from Enco! Has anyone had any experience with Dave Scott's latest, Doctor Digital iirc?? I havent seen anything after its initial announcement....
I would go with NexGen 101 myself.......it aint cheap but it works....and works........
Our ancient AV system is being replaced the first week in December and the PD is counting down the days.
AV is fine for automated, but it really doesn't do live assist, at least not our system. It's either completely automated or you are manually running eight "cart machines."
We've had endless problems with files not updating... it automatically records from ABC, plays yesterday's Paul Harvey, etc. Spots that were put into the system just disappear. Spots that were deleted six months ago suddenly reappear.
Engineers seem to like AV for some reason, maybe because BE makes really good transmitters, but I've never run into anyone who uses it on the air who likes it.
AV is fine for automated, but it really doesn't do live assist, at least not our system. It's either completely automated or you are manually running eight "cart machines."
We've had endless problems with files not updating... it automatically records from ABC, plays yesterday's Paul Harvey, etc. Spots that were put into the system just disappear. Spots that were deleted six months ago suddenly reappear.
Engineers seem to like AV for some reason, maybe because BE makes really good transmitters, but I've never run into anyone who uses it on the air who likes it.
I'd have to say I like AV but I'm automated....
- Status