Small station automation

[XRQKFM]

Win-Amp with the SQRSoft crossfader plugin is still the one I trust the most, when I don't feel like driving back to the station at night. KFXM-LP relied on it for a year on an old E-Machine, without a single glitch; you know on an E-Machine that is a miracle in its self. It will run on just about anything including: a 350mhz, running Win98 & only 64mb in memory; so even the P.C. could be had for next to nothing.
Building up an overnight program is to easy with drag and drop, we manage to get the ID's to land very close to the top of hour.

We also run Sam3, if you get it in the mood, it will run for hours without a glitch but needs much more horsepower. Ours runs on an old Pasario 6000, with XP Pro and has been known to act up from time to time for no apparent reason. (Like it did as I was typing this!) Never turn your back on Sam!

If you have a few greenbacks for a turnkey system, then the TuneTracker is in a class by itself. The TuneTracker runs on the ultra stable bulletproof BE operating system (that both Mac & Windows tried to kill off years ago) it is also the fasted to reboot from a power outage. TuneTracker software has been known to run on an old 180mhz processor, while ripping a CD and surfing the net without a glitch.

A turnkey system with a touchscreen will set you back about $2100, and well worth it for hassle free operation. www.tunetrackersystems.com/commandcenter_packages.html



Steve
www.radiobrandy.com

 

[Groove1670]

Once again, all of the low budget systems named are decent. But, If you want to voicetrack and sound live you are out of luck unless you use Nextgen or Stationplaylist. Also if you do any future commercial logs, the mentioned will import the data, most of the ones mentioned won't. If you don't plan to do the following functions, then you might as well use something that is free (winamp), and save your budget.

 

[RadeoEngineer]

In the case I'm dealing with, voice tracking is going to be a necessary requirement. There will be times when the station is running walk away automation such as certain holidays and overnights and some minimal voice tracking will be required. The system will never be used as a live assist vehicle, but will seque hours of specific shows throughout the day when live programmers are unavailable. It looks like we're committing to Station Playlist.

 

[xmusicmatt]

I've ran my internet station on RCS (Prophet's) Player 101... very rock solid.. I highly recomend it. Prophet's tech support is wonderful too. My player101 machine ran over 100 days without a reboot.

 

[easyfm]

It looks like we're committing to Station Playlist.

For the operation you describe, you won't regret that choice. Easy FM is very similar. We've had StationPlaylist on-air for over two years and are very pleased with it.

 

[gtomas]

How does Station Playlist handle automatic segues? Do you have to specify in and out points for each song or there is some kind of intelligence so it can cross fade a song without any preparation?

How does it handle WAV files - can it extract the name of the artist and song from a file name? Or WAV (RIFF) header?

Can it play FLAC?

Does it have the ability to put macros in the playlist to do certain functions such as switch playing modes, fade in/out, load or insert other playlists, bring in the input signal from the soundcard (ie satellite feed)?

Does it have a built-in music scheduler?


Regards,
Goran Tomas

 

[BuzzRadio]

Goran,
The website http://www.stationplaylist.com will answer your questions... Yes, it handles auto-segues (you define the dB threshold), it handles WAVs but I can't say for sure about RIFF data. It's companion scheduler "Creator" can read ID3 tags or base Artist+Titles on a delimiter (usually a hyphen) in the filename, ie: Artist - Title.ext

Macros (or break-note commands) are supported: toggle Line-Input, jump to time-marker and other such commands. There is a neat monitor app that can run on your home PC to remotely view the status of the playout machine (Current track, timings etc) and issue limited commands such as a reboot. Timed playlists and the like are all supported.

 

[rlevis]

How does Station Playlist handle automatic segues? Do you have to specify in and out points for each song or there is some kind of intelligence so it can cross fade a song without any preparation?

It does do automatic intelligent segues. Generally 99% of all tracks segue perfectly. But you can set cue & segue settings on individual tracks if one doesn't segue in your preferred position.

How does it handle WAV files - can it extract the name of the artist and song from a file name? Or WAV (RIFF) header?

Yes & yes. It will use the filename to obtain the artist & title if a file doesn't have a RIFF/LIST or Cart chunk.

Can it play FLAC?

Yes it does, plus ape, mp3, ogg, aac, and other formats.

Does it have the ability to put macros in the playlist to do certain functions such as switch playing modes, fade in/out, load or insert other playlists, bring in the input signal from the soundcard (ie satellite feed)?

Yes it does. These are called break note codes which send commands to the player.

Taking input from the soundcard is very well supported. It can overlap jingles at the start and end of the live feed. It has silence detection in case the feed is not there for some reason. It can also be controlled by satellite receivers via the LPT or serial ports.

Does it have a built-in music scheduler?

Yes (sort of). StationPlaylist have split their software into 2 separate applications for the scheduler and player. This means you can have the scheduler installed on a separate PC to the player if you want to. They integrate with each other and can run 100% automated indefinately if required. But both together in a bundle are only $400.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

How does Station Playlist handle automatic segues? Do you have to specify in and out points for each song or there is some kind of intelligence so it can cross fade a song without any preparation?

It does do automatic intelligent segues. Generally 99% of all tracks segue perfectly. But you can set cue & segue settings on individual tracks if one doesn't segue in your preferred position.

How does it handle WAV files - can it extract the name of the artist and song from a file name? Or WAV (RIFF) header?

Yes & yes. It will use the filename to obtain the artist & title if a file doesn't have a RIFF/LIST or Cart chunk.

Can it play FLAC?

Yes it does, plus ape, mp3, ogg, aac, and other formats.

Does it have the ability to put macros in the playlist to do certain functions such as switch playing modes, fade in/out, load or insert other playlists, bring in the input signal from the soundcard (ie satellite feed)?

Yes it does. These are called break note codes which send commands to the player.

Taking input from the soundcard is very well supported. It can overlap jingles at the start and end of the live feed. It has silence detection in case the feed is not there for some reason. It can also be controlled by satellite receivers via the LPT or serial ports.

Does it have a built-in music scheduler?

Yes (sort of). StationPlaylist have split their software into 2 separate applications for the scheduler and player. This means you can have the scheduler installed on a separate PC to the player if you want to. They integrate with each other and can run 100% automated indefinately if required. But both together in a bundle are only $400.

I feel compelled to point out the fact that the author of the above post is the owner of Station Playlist. The answers posted above are typical of the response you'll get from their support department : prompt & thorough. Their yahoo group is http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/StationPlaylist/ . There are several years of SPL threads there if anyone really wants to see what they're getting into with SPL. You get a year of free support with your SPL purchase and, unlike the "big boy's" who charge thousands of dollars a year, renewing your support for another year seems like it's about $40. I've used SPL for years & there's no more trouble-free, regret-free automation software out there. It doesn't require those $600 sound cards either.

 

[gtomas]

Thanks for all the responses! I admit I was a bit lazy to look it up on the webiste as it seemed there were quite a lot of people using it who could give me straight answers. It seems to tick all the qualifying boxes for me, I'm going to have to try it out now


Regards,
Goran Tomas

 

[streamer]

I feel compelled to point out the fact that the author of the above post is the owner of Station Playlist. The answers posted above are typical of the response you'll get from their support department : prompt & thorough. Their yahoo group is http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/StationPlaylist/ . There are several years of SPL threads there if anyone really wants to see what they're getting into with SPL. You get a year of free support with your SPL purchase and, unlike the "big boy's" who charge thousands of dollars a year, renewing your support for another year seems like it's about $40. I've used SPL for years & there's no more trouble-free, regret-free automation software out there. It doesn't require those $600 sound cards either.

I'm going to second that. Whenever I've had the need to get support direct or to report a bug, they have responded quickly, either confirming and asking me to check other things. All issues have been resolved, either bug fixes in the next release or guiding me to update drivers etc.

I only wish our six-figure sum TV automation had that level of support ;D

 

[V.Riley]

I've been using StationPlaylist Pro Suite since 2005, and I love it. As others have said, they are quick and responsive if someone has a question. Two thumbs up for this program.

 

[RadioMan203]

I must echo positively for the performance of StationPlaylist.

After I discovered the system I would have used was nothing but a nightmare I needed to find a solution and was fortunate enough to discover StationPlaylist. I test drove the demo until I was ready to migrate from the antiquated DOS-based junkbox software I was using and I couldn't have been more pleased. StationPlaylist even worked in spite of errors I introduced into the schedule by trying to "out think" it. It was a Godsend to my webstream, making the presentation so much more polished and professional sounding.

I was so pleased with the software I wrote the Radio World Review of StationPlaylist while I was operating my webstream. I now use it for myself with my Part 15 systems and have installed it for one school's on-campus station and highly recommend it to others. For the price and the performance it's really hard to beat.

 

[radioiscrack]

I have worked with them all, and for my money (less than $500 for the whole shooting match for two computers) Station Playlist is the most solid, dependable and cost effective solution on the planet.

I used it for automating music, automating my daily talk show, you name it....and the best part? You can be as dumb as I am and still understand it!

 

[mp3RadioGuy]

I’ve used Station Playlist Creator and Studio since 2004, and it is truly a great radio software package. Solid performance, easy to learn, extremely reliable and reasonably priced. As everyone has mentioned Email support is quick and responsive. If you haven’t tried it, give the demo a spin.