only add sweepers when necessary

[derek]

Most of my playlists are generated such tat the last song in an hour ends with in a minute of the top of the hour. If I have sweepers enabled for those times where this is not the case, the substitutions are welcome, after all, that is the point of the feature. However, in cases where things are timed perfectly, a sweeper is still inserted. In some cases the substitution is just as good, but in other cases, a last minute song substitution has caused problems.
For example, it is impossible to confidently announce a set of artists up to the bottom of the hour, and segments like double plays, or cover comparisons are interupted. So before radioboss adds a sweeper, could it check to see if its even necessary?
Thanks for your consideration.

 

[djsoft]

So before radioboss adds a sweeper, could it check to see if its even necessary?

It considers a sweeper is "necessary" if it's able to find a sweeper that suits the "Maximum time to sweep" option (in the event) and it's able to find a suitable sweeper.

a last minute song substitution has caused problems.

Looks like the sweeper was inserted to avoid that song being cut in the middle? Or it was about the right duration?

 

[derek]

Looks like the sweeper was inserted to avoid that song being cut in the middle? Or it was about the right duration?

Yes, the sweeper that is added does provide a last minute substitution, the problem is that when I have a playlist with specific tracks I want played, and that list ends with in seconds after the top of the hour, the sweeper is unnecessary under that condition.
So what I propose is for radioboss to look at the current items on the active playlist, determine if the results would be as good as if a sweeper was already added, and then change nothing if this is the case.

Lets say, for example, an event is to trigger at the top of the next hour, the playlist, as created, has a song that ends 20 seconds after the top of that hour. Radioboss could check to see if that 20 second difference was good enough.

 

[Chris Deacon]

the sweeper is unnecessary under that condition.

OR if the active playlist ends, say, 5 seconds before TOTH, rather than try and insert a 5 second sweeper, could we just have an option in the sweeper setup to just leave 5 sec blank in that circumstance?

E.g. If time to fill < x seconds, ignore sweeper selection, (or insert blank sweeper).

 

[djsoft]

Lets say, for example, an event is to trigger at the top of the next hour, the playlist, as created, has a song that ends 20 seconds after the top of that hour. Radioboss could check to see if that 20 second difference was good enough.

Yes, this sounds interesting. The sweepers are supposed to prevent track ending in the middle/right after the beginning. I think we'll add an option to control this e.g. if there's less than N seconds of a track will be cut, no sweeper will be inserted. I added it to the future improvements list.

 

[djsoft]

OR if the active playlist ends, say, 5 seconds before TOTH, rather than try and insert a 5 second sweeper, could we just have an option in the sweeper setup to just leave 5 sec blank in that circumstance?

Dead air doesn't sound like a good approach. It can also trigger silence detector if it's configured. We can add "minimum time to sweep" option, not a problem but I'm not sure if it's be of much use. Can you please provide a use case for such a feature?

 

[derek]

Dead air doesn't sound like a good approach. It can also trigger silence detector if it's configured.

There was another thread where we had discussed the ability to have events trigger early if a song ended within a specified time period. If that feature were implemented, the combination of those 2 options would eliminate the need for dead air.

 

[djsoft]

There was another thread where we had discussed the ability to have events trigger early if a song ended within a specified time period. If that feature were implemented, the combination of those 2 options would eliminate the need for dead air.

That feature will also be added in one of the upcoming updates.

 

[Chris Deacon]

That feature will also be added in one of the upcoming updates.

Yes Derek is quite correct if he is referring to the “start early” capability used so as to fade in a sweeper timed out to the hour so that it ends precisely at track end. That would provide a very smooth transition.

 

[djsoft]

Yes Derek is quite correct if he is referring to the “start early” capability used so as to fade in a sweeper timed out to the hour so that it ends precisely at track end. That would provide a very smooth transition.

It was discussed here: https://www.djsoft.net/community/threads/running-events-early.11928/post-50340