Hello,

This might be a silly question but is there anyway you can clock start a cart when in "Live Assist" mode. I know it can be done in "AutoFade" by putting an absolute time marker in the log but what if you were doing a live show and you wanted a cart to start while log was paused so you could hit the top of the hour. Can it be done?

Gavin

 
Gavin Davis
HotHitsUK.com

I think if the log is "Paused" nothing will start it again apart from the GO key..

you could try putting and absolute time marker in before the last song so that it fires exactly at the right time,
but autofade is probably your best idea. OR back time your last 15 minutes and create a silence cart fro the duration of your "pause"

Regards,
Paul Moore

HitMix Radio
0792 858 1075

Thanks Paul,

I had thought about creating a silence cart as you suggested but it's a bit of a lash up. I was hoping there was a special absolute time marker or a command that would fire off a cart even if the log was paused. Perhaps this is a suggestion for a future release.

They obviously have something on their playout system at BBC Radio 2 because it always appears to catch Chris Evan's out just before the top of each hour.

Gavin

 
Gavin Davis
HotHitsUK.com

Or Chris Evans may not be pressing the button for the news jingle ?

Regards,
Paul Moore

HitMix Radio
0792 858 1075

Hello,

it can already be done, specifically designed for News in carts, back from the days of Myriad v2 when most stations didn't use Q-NXT (the Log in todays terminology).

So all you need to do, is drag your news jingle into the clock at the top right of the screen, that changes it to "Autoplay" and will countdown to when it's due to fire.

If you right click over the clock you can remove it.

This will be played completely independently of anything you have in the log (i.e it will NOT stop the log, so you still have to keep an eye on it!).

I would suggest that you still use the timers on the dashboard (v4 - bottom of the log screen in v2 & v3) to help you get to the top of the hour. If the news in jingle is the last item in your hour, the timers on the dashboard help you see if you are overrunning or underrunning the hour! 

Regards

David Boulton
Brand Manager
Broadcast Radio Ltd

Thanks David,

I'll have a play with that.

Gavin

 
Gavin Davis
HotHitsUK.com

If the item before the absolute time marker has a 'green' ending then even in Live mode the system will wait till the time marker and start the next item once the time has been reached.

If the item before has a red 'stop' then only a 'go' command will move forward.

I use just such a set-up at one station for specialist music shows (when the music mainly comes from CD). The 'News Out' sequence has a red stop on the end of the last cart, then a time marker for the first advert break - at the end of the news out sequence Myriad waits for the time marker to cue the advert break - prompting the presenter to play it. They have to press 'go' to actually play it.

Red stop on the last item in the advert break, before time marker again to 'cue' next advert break sequence at the right time, but again they need to manually 'fire it off'.

The last item in second advert break has a green marker on the end, before a time marker for the news intro. This sees Myriad playing the news in jingle at the right time without any user intervention. (Other than hopefully being on the ball sufficently to fade out their CD or stop talking!)

--
Myriad user since 1998, now custodian of dozens of Myriad,Autotrack, Powerlog and Scoop boxes of many different flavours.
http://www.philedmonds.com

Excellent explanation from Phil there - an ideal way to solve it.

One common misconception is thinking that Absolute Times are only valid in Auto or AutoFade hours - they are valid in all 3 hour modes, it's just that they have additional power in AutoFade hours

The primary role of Ab.Times (in ALL hour Modes) is to make the system wait for a certain time: so if the Log is playing out and gets to an Ab.Time early, it will then sit and wait at that ab time marker until the time, then automatically play the next item - as long as the AbTime itself has a green dot of course! Otherwise, it will just sit and wait all day! If the Log gets there late then it will just happily move straight over the time and onto the next item.

The additional role that Ab.Times play in AutoFade hours (only!) is that they give the AutoFade and AutoFill systems a time marker to work against - so if there is too much content meaning that the Log would get to the Ab.Time too late, then it will automatically drop and fade items to get there ontime, and if there is not enough content, so there would then be dead air, it will AutoFill in the gap with filler songs from your selected categories.

Hopefully that all makes sense

------------
Peter Jarrett, Technical Director
Broadcast Radio Ltd.

Bill Bailey: No win, no fee, no basis in reality. Just a room above a minicab office in Acton and a steady stream of greedy simpletons whose delusion is only matched by their clumsiness

I may have misunderstood the explanations but it would appear that if I wanted to automatically fire off a cart so that it finished exactly at the top of the hour, even if I was in live assist mode, then I would need to back time the cart and set an Absolute Time Marker to the top of the hour minus the duration of the cart. I suppose it almost does what I wanted but I was trying to avoid have to do a manual calculation of the back time.

The suggestion that David came up with appears to be closer to what I'm trying to do but you don't appear to set it while the log is playing. I think it needs to be paused before you drop the cart on the clock which means you would have to do it while talking.

 
Gavin Davis
HotHitsUK.com

Hi Gavin,

In Autotrack you can set the AbTime marker - so every time the clock is scheduled then the calculation is done (you only have to do It once when you are building the clock in Autotrack).

Autoplay (in the clock) will start -NO MATTER what ever else is playing. So you can do it while using the log - but it's best NOT too.

If you are using the log, as discussed there are plenty of timers and aid to help a human being back time perfectly. If you use Autoplay it will queue and play, regardless of what else is going on (subject to having the free fader up) - so it could sound really messy. 

Regards

David Boulton
Brand Manager
Broadcast Radio Ltd