Using Myriad Playout v4 I found myself wanting to pre-fade the next song without it affecting the backtiming or dashboard for what was playing on air at the time. I wanted to use the fader I was going to be eventually playing the item on air from. In order to achieve this I have used the Myriad Command language to force players into and out of Preview Mode.
Below is a pdf of how I did this. Enjoy
Below is a little document I made up after upgrading the Myriad Playout system at Hospital Radio Chelmsford (www.hrc.org.uk). It uses SQL Authentication as the method of linking to the database rather than windows authentication but this should not be a problem for station running less that 10 playout instances.
Hope you find it useful for your install.
Software Needed:-
SQL Server software (SQL 2008R2 Standard or Express recommended)
SQL Native Client software (needed for each workstation – 32bit version) sqlncli_x86.msi
Latest P Squared Full Release software i.e. Myriad Playout / Myriad Autotrack (along with relevant licensing details)
Optional:-
P Squared Bootstuff software to auto launch software on completion of set tasks i.e. server share available.
Firewall Exceptions batch file from P Squared Forum – http://forum.psquared.net/6688/SQL-Firewall-Exceptions
Prep:-
1 – Backup all of your ‘Myriad’ folder contents.
Installation:-
Server
1 – Run Windows Update to ensure server is up to date.
2 – Install SQL Server software
2.1 – Recommended practise is software installed on system (c:) drive and data directories location is set to D: drive i.e. d:\psquared\myriad.
2.2 – Create user in Management Studio with sysadmin and public rights
2.3 Run Windows update again to ensure SQL server software is up to date.
Autotrack Workstation (recommended to install Autotrack before Playout)
1 – Run Windows update to ensure machine is up to date.
2 – Install Native SQL Client software on machine
3 – Install Myriad Autotrack
4 – Connect to SQL server using SQL Authenication with user details you created on server (this allows anyone to log onto windows on the machine and it not affect the access to the Database).
5 – Once Autotrack is installed and licensed go to File – Import/Upgrade Database and choose your Autotrack Database found in the ‘Autotrck’ folder on your server. This upgrade can take some time and your system will look like it is not responding but just leave it alone!
6 – Run the user importer tool to import your current v3 users.
7 – Run the application and ensure it loads correctly and click on ‘allow’ to any firewall requests. 8 – Run the firewall exceptions batch file on workstation.
Playout Workstation
1 – Run Windows update to ensure machine is up to date.
2 – Install Native SQL Client software on machine
3 – Install Myriad Playout 4 – Connect to SQL server using SQL Authenication with user details you created on server (this allows anyone to log onto windows on the machine and it not affect the access to the Database).
4 – Run the application and ensure it loads correctly and click on ‘allow’ to any firewall requests. 5 – Run the firewall exceptions batch file on workstation.
Gotchas
1 – When entering the server details do not leave anything of the pre-existing text before /SQLExpress. If your server is on a domain you may need to enter the whole domain string rather than just server\SQLEXPRESS.
2 – Don’t forget to install the Native Client software else things just won’t work.
** This is only of interest if you are a user of Psquared’s Myriad System **
As part of my work for Radio Scilly I was asked to investigate who to be able to email files in and them be sucked into Psquared’s Myriad system. We also wanted the ability to upload something to dropbox also.
We have already setup some automatic downloads of syndicated programmes so had already been using the Psquared Audio Wall Auto Importer which seems to be a pretty stable piece of software now.
Here is the process I set-up
1 – set up new email address ‘sendaudiotomystation@gmail.com’ for example
2 – download GearMage’s software Email Attachment Downloader
3 – configure it to access your new gmail/email server (would suggest you get it to move the file to another folder once it has downloaded the attachment). This then downloads the attachment to a folder location you set (for our use this was a dropbox folder)
4 – configure the Audiowall Auto Importer to look at this dropbox folder for new files which begin with the cart number you want to use on the Audio Wall. Make sure you get it to delete the file after import else it will get in a loop.
That’s it. There are dangers involved if you do not restrict the cart numbers and you may also want to configure the email attachment downloader to only download messages which perhaps have a secret code in the subject line of the email as a way of safeguarding your system as once the email is sent it is purely an automated system from then on. I have the Auto Importer email on success so I know if it has worked or not.
If you didn’t want to bother with the email then you can upload it directly to the dropbox folder itself but the email way could be useful if you were at an internet cafe and didn’t have dropbox installed.
*** UPDATE ***
I have found that the Email Attachment Downloader sometimes stops working so I have found http://sendtodropbox.com/ which creates you a special email address and will send any email with attachments to a specific folder on your dropbox account. So if you attach a .mp3 file it will put that into the folder.
The project I have been working on over the last few months with my friends at Psquared is now online.
These are tutorial ‘how-to’ videos on their application. You can find them here and they will also be uploaded in time to my webpage here.
From the start of 2010 I hope to begin tutorials on Autotrack, their music scheduling system.
Hope you find them useful for your station.