Advanced Scheduling

omarabas

New member
Hi,

First, thanks for an awesome bit of software.

We are evaluating RadioBOSS and are seriously considering purchasing it. I have two questions/feature requests regarding scheduling.

We have some rather unique scheduling requirements for a non-profit community radio station.

At certain times during the day, we have to take a break and sound a Prayer Alert, this has to happen in conjunction with either a live presenter OR during an unmanned play list.

I like how the scheduled entry flashes RED for 10secs prior to a scheduled item is played (by the way my schedule contains 2500 events via csv import.. well into 2011 and it is very stable). Can we make the flashing more prominent ON the main screen? Say for example flash the whole toolbar.

At the moment the entry flashes ONLY if you are on the schedule "tab" so it could easily be missed by a live presenter if they are choosing some more songs etc.

The second question re scheduling is, at the moment, if we have selected the "Run scheduled launch without waiting for current track to finish" option, the schedule automatically interrupts the playing song by cutting it off (no cross fades). Once the scheduled item is completed, it just plays the next song in the list. Is it possible for the scheduled item to simply PAUSE the currently playing track (preferably with a fade in) and then once completed, PLAY the paused track from where it left off (again preferably with a fade in)?

Currently, this cant happen for any unmanned shows (the manned shows can be controlled manually).

The reason for this is because we generally play a lot of lecture type material. Say we got 20 minutes into a 40 minute lecture and a scheduled item starts it not only loses the place the lecture was at but also skips the remaining part of the lecture.

Thanks in advance and apologies for the long post.



 
omarabas said:
I like how the scheduled entry flashes RED for 10secs prior to a scheduled item is played (by the way my schedule contains 2500 events via csv import.. well into 2011 and it is very stable). Can we make the flashing more prominent ON the main screen? Say for example flash the whole toolbar.

At the moment the entry flashes ONLY if you are on the schedule "tab" so it could easily be missed by a live presenter if they are choosing some more songs etc.
This will be improved in the next updates, and upcoming events will be shown on the top of window (near the current/next song display).

omarabas said:
The reason for this is because we generally play a lot of lecture type material. Say we got 20 minutes into a 40 minute lecture and a scheduled item starts it not only loses the place the lecture was at but also skips the remaining part of the lecture.
Thanks in advance and apologies for the long post.
Interesting feature, it'll be also implemented in the later versions.
 
Thanks for the speedy reply.

I really look forward to both updates as after weeks of trialling these are two show stoppers.

Do you have any rough ETA when these features would be available?

I am more than happy to pay a small fee for this to happen (in addition to the licensing fee) as well as be your guinea pig.

Thanks again.
 
ETA for a first feature is about a week (next release), but I'm not sure that the second one will be included. So, it could take another week - the next release.
We can release a beta version earlier, so if you want you can test or use it (I'll post a link here).

Additional payment won't speed up the development process as it already goes at a very good speed :)

Thank you!
 
There were some problems with higher priority, so features developing process has been delayed. Sorry for this. I'm sure, those features will be in the next update (March, 15).
 
A new version (RadioBOSS 4.0.8) was just released! It contains the upcoming scheduler events display in the main window feature (it'll show the events which are about to start in the "Next track" section).
 
That's excellent, thank you!!

With the "Coming up next" flashing, can you also please include the "time left". Currently, it flashes for 10 secs, but there is no way to know if there is 8 secs or 2 secs left without pressing on the schedule tab (our live presenters will need to now exactly). Perhaps even a third widget for the scheduled item (if scheduling is enabled).

Also, I'm not sure if this problem was introduced with the latest build but I can't seem to pause and then resume the main track. If I pause the playing track (main output), then play, it starts the track at the beginning again.

Also I know I'm probably pushing my luck here but I will ask anyways, while the coming up next is flashing can you include an option to play another sound to another output (similar to prelisten). This way, the presenter has visual and aural cues.

Thanks for the awesome work and apologies for nitpicking.

Looking forward to the pause current track on schedule play option. Thanks again.

 
OK, the "time left" label will be included in the next release.

About pause problem, I just tried with the latest release (4.0.8) and it works fine. To unpause the track, you should press the "Pause" button again. If you press "Play" it will start track from the beginning. This is by design.

Playing a sound before scheduled event is an unusual feature. Probably, we'll add this sometime, but, I can't promise anything.

The pause current track on schedule play option may be included in the next release this week.
 
The update is available. It also includes the "time left" feature for scheduled events.
 
Thanks, I'll have a look at that now.

Again, apologies for being a pain. One of the presenters mentioned that 10secs is not enough notice. He mentioned that sometimes during an interview he rarely looks at the screen.

Would it be possible to add a third widget (only if scheduling is enabled) that ALWAYS is counting down (Like the pic attached) and then flashes for a "user configured" time? If the 3rd widget is not possible can you please at least set the flashing time to be configurable?

4.0.9.475 Update: the coundown is good, however this  might be a bug, after the countdown has finished 00:00:01 stays there (doesnt disappear)

 

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We'll make the 10 seconds period configurable in the next update.
About this bug... I did a quick test and it disappears as it should. Maybe, it sometimes disappears and sometimes not. Will be fixed.
 
RadioBOSS is updated - v4.0.9.477. The bug with label is fixed. Also, the option to configure flashing time is now available ("General" section in the Settings window).
 
The RadioBOSS 4.1 was released recently, changes: http://www.djsoft.net/enu/news/36.htm
 
Hi djsoft,

any update on the pause current track during scheduled item feature?

This is the only feature stopping us from going live.

thanks in advance
 
Hello!

Yes, it's planned already for the next version, but I don't know yet when it'll be released. Anyway, the next release will be in April.
Thank you!
 
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