And, when it was set up, configured, and tested by iMedia Touch onsite, it did or it did not exhibit this problem?
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iMediaTouch technical help - pregnant pauses
- Thread starter bossbill
- Start date
I just checked this - MediaTouch 3 does obey EOM tags when going from local audio to an external feed.
We are on 2.6.x and have used EOM's to ovelap network by setting the EOM to 1 second into the cut.
On my satellite station, I do not mute the mainlog or showlog outputs, ever. The installer had it set up so that when an audio cut finished the output was shut off. This led to some cut-off and overlap issues. So now we just control network audio with the feeds.
Be warned that OMT farms out the pre-config and install to a contractor, and there is no strict adherence to a standard. Each contractor tends to put their own bend into the configuration.
iMediaTouch is a good bang for the buck system, but I sometimes get the feeling that they have limited concept of on-the-ground operations in a typical station.
On my satellite station, I do not mute the mainlog or showlog outputs, ever. The installer had it set up so that when an audio cut finished the output was shut off. This led to some cut-off and overlap issues. So now we just control network audio with the feeds.
Be warned that OMT farms out the pre-config and install to a contractor, and there is no strict adherence to a standard. Each contractor tends to put their own bend into the configuration.
iMediaTouch is a good bang for the buck system, but I sometimes get the feeling that they have limited concept of on-the-ground operations in a typical station.
A
aberdeenman
Guest
On the network card question, this is an onboard NIC, which would probably spark a whole new topic on the dowfalls of on-board anything.
I see what you mean about the on-the-ground comment, some tech's I've talked with seem far more familar with the software - or even networks.... than others.
It feels like we're getting closer to a resolution with the software by adding the EOM's, I still don't like the way it logs now since the audio ALL says it ran 1:01 instead of logging the EOM at 1:00, but overall the stopsets are tighter. I'm digging in to the Natural Log software a bit and learning how to make it control the stopsets a little better to avoid a traffic'd collision (over-timed).
And yes it was displaying the issue when we started with OMT - they said to just pad our sweepers, which didn't address the issue of stopset-to-network-to-sweeper - and overall made the sweepers sound looser.
In the end I suppose the bang-for-buck comment is a good summary, they seem to have tried to make the software "easier" by dumbing down some of the control over it - but I come from a background of AV100 cards, *.ini files, and configuration playlists to control every event to the tenth.
My final summary would be if you plan to demo this software for purchase, demo it in every situation you plan to use it - there may be a catch.
If it was a local-inventory-only station, I think this system would have zero problems like this, and would outperform even the Vault systems. (I still love the UI over most I've seen)
I see what you mean about the on-the-ground comment, some tech's I've talked with seem far more familar with the software - or even networks.... than others.
It feels like we're getting closer to a resolution with the software by adding the EOM's, I still don't like the way it logs now since the audio ALL says it ran 1:01 instead of logging the EOM at 1:00, but overall the stopsets are tighter. I'm digging in to the Natural Log software a bit and learning how to make it control the stopsets a little better to avoid a traffic'd collision (over-timed).
And yes it was displaying the issue when we started with OMT - they said to just pad our sweepers, which didn't address the issue of stopset-to-network-to-sweeper - and overall made the sweepers sound looser.
In the end I suppose the bang-for-buck comment is a good summary, they seem to have tried to make the software "easier" by dumbing down some of the control over it - but I come from a background of AV100 cards, *.ini files, and configuration playlists to control every event to the tenth.
My final summary would be if you plan to demo this software for purchase, demo it in every situation you plan to use it - there may be a catch.
If it was a local-inventory-only station, I think this system would have zero problems like this, and would outperform even the Vault systems. (I still love the UI over most I've seen)
A
aberdeenman
Guest
I agree with the NIC idea, often when a manufacturer includes the onbaord NIC they offload some of the processing on either the operating system, or the motherboard itself, both can add to overall performance.
In a system where overall performance seems to be vital (in my opinion a well-written program should account for the OS) anything you can add to make the OS load 'lighter' is all the better.
I'm thinking about trying some 'standard' OS tweaks like disabling the "last accessed" file issue with XP
example; http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...disabling-last-access-updating-in-windows-xp/
Also I'm going to add static host file entries to all machines on the network, since it is a closed system and has no DHCP server.
In a system where overall performance seems to be vital (in my opinion a well-written program should account for the OS) anything you can add to make the OS load 'lighter' is all the better.
I'm thinking about trying some 'standard' OS tweaks like disabling the "last accessed" file issue with XP
example; http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...disabling-last-access-updating-in-windows-xp/
Also I'm going to add static host file entries to all machines on the network, since it is a closed system and has no DHCP server.
A
aberdeenman
Guest
well if you're on 2.6 I don't imagine you're big on updates in a production environment, but I'm curious; are you looking at the newest update they're showing off on the webpage?
....also great to hear they rely on MORE microsoft software - what version of WMP do you have on the machines by chance?
(not sure if 3.0 also relies on the WMP engine as well, but I'm curious if anyone else knows)
DudeFan said:
....also great to hear they rely on MORE microsoft software - what version of WMP do you have on the machines by chance?
(not sure if 3.0 also relies on the WMP engine as well, but I'm curious if anyone else knows)
"IIRC, PTA utilizes the WMP engine. If one of the WMP files gets corrupted, then weird issues crop up."
When we first got the system, PTA directly used the Windows multimedia API (no WMP or DirectX), and it was pretty snappy and worked well. Then they rewrote PTA to use DirectX (DirectShow I am assuming). I heard that the owner made that decision because DirectX "is the future". Then they worked through issues with latency, playback speed, etc. About the same time they made WMP the player for LogTools.
While the DirectX kinks have been worked out, it's never felt quite as robust as the old WinMM PTA engine. Playback almost seems a bit fragile. I've written some basic stuff using DirectX, and you have to build in some special timing to counter the start / stop latencies.
Oh, and BTW - I think one reason they (and many other automation companies) have no solutions for Vista (and now Win7) is that DirectShow is being phased out in favor of the entirely new (yet incomplete) multimedia subsystem in Vista/7.
"We are running On Air 2.6.5. It's a stable release and I couldn't justify the expense of upgrading to 3.0 vis a vis the features added with 3.0 and the potential for new version bugs."
Yeah - holy sticker shock Batman! The 2.6.x to 3.x upgrade pricing was too much for us to swallow too. I guess some amount is reasonable to help defray any development costs, but the cost outweighed the benefits. Broadcasters no longer have deep pockets, and broadcast software is typically very expensive. I'm not sure what that'll mean to these companies who serve a tiny market with very specialized software.
When we first got the system, PTA directly used the Windows multimedia API (no WMP or DirectX), and it was pretty snappy and worked well. Then they rewrote PTA to use DirectX (DirectShow I am assuming). I heard that the owner made that decision because DirectX "is the future". Then they worked through issues with latency, playback speed, etc. About the same time they made WMP the player for LogTools.
While the DirectX kinks have been worked out, it's never felt quite as robust as the old WinMM PTA engine. Playback almost seems a bit fragile. I've written some basic stuff using DirectX, and you have to build in some special timing to counter the start / stop latencies.
Oh, and BTW - I think one reason they (and many other automation companies) have no solutions for Vista (and now Win7) is that DirectShow is being phased out in favor of the entirely new (yet incomplete) multimedia subsystem in Vista/7.
"We are running On Air 2.6.5. It's a stable release and I couldn't justify the expense of upgrading to 3.0 vis a vis the features added with 3.0 and the potential for new version bugs."
Yeah - holy sticker shock Batman! The 2.6.x to 3.x upgrade pricing was too much for us to swallow too. I guess some amount is reasonable to help defray any development costs, but the cost outweighed the benefits. Broadcasters no longer have deep pockets, and broadcast software is typically very expensive. I'm not sure what that'll mean to these companies who serve a tiny market with very specialized software.
A
aberdeenman
Guest
Update on our system:
Seeing the same issues with a little less lag since the EOM adjustments; I looked at the OS itself. Some network tweaks seem to have sped up the file access time through loopback, as well as the overall network performance.
Disabling Network Task Scheduler and "My Network Places" shares, as well as some packet tweaks.
http://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=1607
also disabling "last access" regestry entry on the filesystem seems to have sped up the file access time since it's one less thing it logs before opening a file. I cannot verify if the software uses this entry for anything, song-rotation comes to mind if you use the system that way.
I've also started using a batch script I made a long time ago that "refreshes" those pesky Mapped Network Drives
Sometimes when rebooting a computer it will show a "Disconnected Network Drive" in My Computer - this is because the user hasn't opened that drive since the reboot and most software will not send authentication to access the drive (assuming it's already auth).
My script just opens each mapped drive and request a directory listing, then closes.
remap.bat
----------------------------
echo off
L:\
dir
O:\
dir
[any other mapped drive letter]
dir
exit
----------------------------
save this in a folder on each computer (local drive) and setup a scheduled task to run it every n minutes. Also put it in the startup folder for reboots.
If you set the Scheduled Task to run as a different user you will never see the DOS window either.
This little script will get your machines reconnected if, for any reason, your network drops.
Seeing the same issues with a little less lag since the EOM adjustments; I looked at the OS itself. Some network tweaks seem to have sped up the file access time through loopback, as well as the overall network performance.
Disabling Network Task Scheduler and "My Network Places" shares, as well as some packet tweaks.
http://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=1607
also disabling "last access" regestry entry on the filesystem seems to have sped up the file access time since it's one less thing it logs before opening a file. I cannot verify if the software uses this entry for anything, song-rotation comes to mind if you use the system that way.
I've also started using a batch script I made a long time ago that "refreshes" those pesky Mapped Network Drives
Sometimes when rebooting a computer it will show a "Disconnected Network Drive" in My Computer - this is because the user hasn't opened that drive since the reboot and most software will not send authentication to access the drive (assuming it's already auth).
My script just opens each mapped drive and request a directory listing, then closes.
remap.bat
----------------------------
echo off
L:\
dir
O:\
dir
[any other mapped drive letter]
dir
exit
----------------------------
save this in a folder on each computer (local drive) and setup a scheduled task to run it every n minutes. Also put it in the startup folder for reboots.
If you set the Scheduled Task to run as a different user you will never see the DOS window either.
This little script will get your machines reconnected if, for any reason, your network drops.
You might want to look into Window's "net use" command. You can use it to remap drives automatically in a batch file. Windows Logon scripts are also a very useful tool. See your local Windows networking professional (or Google) for more information.
A
aberdeenman
Guest
but the net use command would drop and then reconect the drive, which would fail if a file was open on the drive, for example if the drive was mapped ok. By using a simple dir command it creates a benign way to 'remap' the drive regardless of existing state.
If the drive is mapped ok, it does nothing, if the network dropped or for some other reason the connection dropped, and it's 'disconnected', it just reconnects.
Also, I am my local windows networking professional, I've worked with a 500 plus client windows AD controller, many iterations of windows and linux servers, and came back to radio from a 2 year stint as a dba for an online tech-support company.
If the drive is mapped ok, it does nothing, if the network dropped or for some other reason the connection dropped, and it's 'disconnected', it just reconnects.
Also, I am my local windows networking professional, I've worked with a 500 plus client windows AD controller, many iterations of windows and linux servers, and came back to radio from a 2 year stint as a dba for an online tech-support company.
A
aberdeenman
Guest
Update on this issue:
The tweaks to the OS seem to have given the system enough breathing room to cut down on file access times, we have not heard the clipped sweepers in a while, and I've even heard the stopset end a little early a time or two.
I think one of the bigger 'fixes' for this setup was to add host file entries for every machine on the network, there is no DHCP server in the network so non-IP-based communications would delay a little trying to resolve via DNS, then WINS.
The tweaks to the OS seem to have given the system enough breathing room to cut down on file access times, we have not heard the clipped sweepers in a while, and I've even heard the stopset end a little early a time or two.
I think one of the bigger 'fixes' for this setup was to add host file entries for every machine on the network, there is no DHCP server in the network so non-IP-based communications would delay a little trying to resolve via DNS, then WINS.
aberdeenman said:
That makes a lot of sense. Wouldn't adding a router to the network to handle DNS/DHCP, or enabling "Internet Connection Sharing" on ONE machine to provide DNS/DHCP be a reasonable option? Personally, I'd assign static IPs to servers and critical machines that were outside the DHCP pool.
A
aberdeenman
Guest
That does make sense, however in this network the IPs are static, the network is isolated with a single dual-lan machine bridging the automation and 'regular' networks for prod and traffic importing. I use a program called Second Copy to xfer the needed files to/from the isolated network, and I button down the gateway machine pretty tight to avoid anything getting into my automation machines.
We don't ever add new machines to this network, It's simply the on-air, and prod machines for each studio, plus a fileserver. The on-air machines duplicate the audio on the fileserver so in case of a network drop the systems stay on the air.
production is done in the 'surfing' computers and saved to an auto-import folder on my gateway machine - or recorded into the prod machines through the board (second-generation, I know).
I personally don't like my automation machines being able to 'surf' or even see the WAN.
The 'surfable' LAN in our building is setup that way though, there is a DHCP server with a static assignment range, and room for about 10 'extra' machines to appear on the network.
We don't ever add new machines to this network, It's simply the on-air, and prod machines for each studio, plus a fileserver. The on-air machines duplicate the audio on the fileserver so in case of a network drop the systems stay on the air.
production is done in the 'surfing' computers and saved to an auto-import folder on my gateway machine - or recorded into the prod machines through the board (second-generation, I know).
I personally don't like my automation machines being able to 'surf' or even see the WAN.
The 'surfable' LAN in our building is setup that way though, there is a DHCP server with a static assignment range, and room for about 10 'extra' machines to appear on the network.
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