Remote Playlist Editor and Voicetracking

[Radio-Albena]

Hi Roland,

Congratulations on the new release! That's quite an impressive list of improvements.

I particularly like the cue point and tag editor working without direct database access, as well as the careful approach to cleaning up orphaned library entries.

I'm currently developing OnAirHost, a hosted radio website platform that integrates with RadioBOSS, including support for older versions.

Since RemotePLE communicates directly with RadioBOSS, I'm curious about your experience with API compatibility.

Have you encountered any significant limitations or changes in the RadioBOSS API between older versions (around 5.9) and the current 7.2.x releases, particularly when retrieving playback information or adding tracks to the playlist?

Any insights would be appreciated.

Keep up the great work!

Best regards,
Raymond
Radio Albena / OnAirHost

 

[Radio-Albena]

Hi Roland,

I've downloaded and started testing the portable version of RemotePLE.

However, there's one thing I noticed immediately: the constant voice announcements are extremely annoying when using the program with a mouse and a normal screen.

Almost every mouse movement or selection triggers another spoken announcement. After just a few minutes, I found this very distracting.

I understand that these announcements are extremely useful for visually impaired users, and I fully appreciate the accessibility aspect.

However, for users who don't need voice assistance, there really should be a simple option to completely disable all voice announcements.

I couldn't find any obvious setting or mute option in the interface.

I think making speech output optional would significantly improve the usability of RemotePLE for a wider audience.

Best regards,
Raymond
Radio Albena

 

[Roland]

Hi Raymond,

thanks for trying it out and for the honest feedback!

The speech output can be switched off easily:

1. Press F10 to open the settings.
2. Go to the tab “Speech Guide”.
3. Uncheck “Activate speech guide on app start” and save.

From then on RemotePLE starts silently. If you only want to mute it temporarily, press Ctrl+M or click the green field in the top right corner of the
window (see screenshot). It turns red while muted, and the same click or Ctrl+M switches it back on.

Another option on the same tab is “Check mouse for movement”. It limits the announcements of what is under the mouse pointer to real mouse movements, which may already help if you only want to tone it down.

I’ll think about making this easier to find, for example by asking on the first start whether the speech guide should be on. Thanks for pointing it out!

Best regards,
Roland

 

[Roland]

Hi Raymond again,

thanks, and good luck with OnAirHost!

To be upfront: I developed and measured RemotePLE only against RadioBOSS 7.2.2 to 7.2.5, so I have no first-hand experience with 5.9. What I can tell you is what changed within the 7.2.x line and what bit me on the current versions. Some of it may help you judge older ones:

Playback information (playbackinfo)

• len, pos and playlistpos are empty attributes as soon as nothing is playing (relay active, end of list). Parsing them as integers throws; I read them with default values and skip a response whose nodes are missing altogether.
• The “next track” is where I saw the most change. NextTrack is cleared when “Stop after this track” is active, and 7.2.5 added a NextTrackPreview node (undocumented in the help file) that tells those cases apart. In idle state (state = end) it is unreliable, as it mirrors the track that just ended. Older versions simply don’t have the node.
• level and other decimals follow the decimal separator of the RadioBOSS machine (“-2,4” vs. “2.3”), so parse tolerantly.

Adding tracks (inserttrack)

• Encode every parameter value separately. A # or & in a file name or title otherwise cuts the request off, and RadioBOSS may then insert at the wrong position without an error.
• Current versions take streamingtitle literally into the stream. We had passed M3U-style text (“#EXTINF:39,Title”) and it showed up in the stream and in the broadcast log; earlier versions apparently ignored it. Send plain text only.
• Since 7.2.4 inserttrack has a type parameter (0 = regular, 1 = scheduled track).
• OK only means “request received”. I always read the list back afterwards instead of trusting the answer.

Other things that changed in 7.2.x

• readtag gained MixStart, Gender, Language and more in 7.2.4. The help file does not show them, so it’s worth measuring against a live instance.
• generalinfo (7.2.4) lists libraries, generator presets, scheduler presets and profiles. Before that there was no way to get these via the API.
• songrequestdelete is documented since 7.2.3.

What I’d recommend for older versions: don’t check the version number; check whether the node or attribute is in the response and behave as before if it is missing. That is how RemotePLE copes with a station on an older RadioBOSS and a studio on a newer one with the same build.

Best regards,
Roland

 

[Roland]

Hi Raymond,

thanks for trying it out and for the honest feedback!

The speech output can be switched off easily:

1. Press F10 to open the settings.
2. Go to the tab “Speech Guide”.
3. Uncheck “Activate speech guide on app start” and save.

From then on RemotePLE starts silently. If you only want to mute it temporarily, press Ctrl+M or click the green field in the top right corner of the
window (see screenshot). It turns red while muted, and the same click or Ctrl+M switches it back on.
View attachment 15816
Another option on the same tab is “Check mouse for movement”. It limits the announcements of what is under the mouse pointer to real mouse movements, which may already help if you only want to tone it down.

I’ll think about making this easier to find, for example by asking on the first start whether the speech guide should be on. Thanks for pointing it out!

Best regards,
Roland

Hi Raymond,

a small correction to my tip: on the “Speech Guide” tab there are two options. “Activate speech guide on app start” only mutes the speech, urgent messages and the “started” announcement are still spoken. If you want no speech at all, uncheck “Initialize speech guide on app start” instead (needs a restart of RemotePLE). Ctrl+M and the green field only apply to the mute (activate) option.

The settings can be opened with F10, or via the window menu: click the program icon at the left of the title bar (or press Alt+Space) and choose “Settings F10” at the bottom of that menu.

Best regards,
Roland

 

[Roland]

This is what NextTrackPreview is supposed to report - we'll check if it works properly for the cases you have described.

Hello Dmitry,

I would like to show whether "Stop after current track" is switched on.

What I found (local test instance, a track playing, API enabled):

1. `cmd=set break on` / `cmd=set break off` works: the button in RadioBOSS follows (answer `OK`).
2. The state is not visible anywhere I looked. In `action=playbackinfo`, `NextTrack` stays filled and `NextTrackPreview` stays at `known="1" resolved="1"` with the next track, whether the button is on or off. `Options` shows only `repeat_list`, `shuffle`, `queuemode`. This is the same when I toggle the button by hand in the program.

Questions:

- Is there a way to read the state of this button through the API (a command, or an attribute in `playbackinfo`)?
- If not: could you please add it, for example as an attribute in `Options` (such as `break="0|1"`)? That would be the easiest place for a client to read it.
- Does `NextTrackPreview` / `NextTrack` behave differently in another situation (for example only when the current track is close to its end)?

Im using version: RadioBOSS 7.2.5.0.

Thank you very much,
Roland

 

[djsoft]

"break" state will be added to playbackinfo endpoint in the next update.

- Does `NextTrackPreview` / `NextTrack` behave differently in another situation (for example only when the current track is close to its end)?

In most cases it just shows the next playlist track after last played track.

 

[Roland]

Hi All!

The new version 1.0.1.010 is now released: Launchpad pads, on-air view, next-track marking and audio output fixes

Since 1.0.1.007:

• New: support for a Novation Launchpad Mini MK3 as a pad controller (cartwall) for jingles, drops and voice tracks. It is switched on per server profile (Settings, tab Advanced, "Use Launchpad") and is off by default, so nothing changes for anybody who does not want it. RadioBOSS has no cartwall interface, so RemotePLE plays the pads itself over the sound card: to a live output and, if you like, to a separate preview output (headphones). Pads are organised in pages, level sets and groups (for example "a new opener stops the previous one") and have several play modes: once from the start, once with pause/resume, loop. The keys on the right side of the device control the playout: select the next track, start it, fade out, stop.
• New: the pad window (Ctrl+Alt+L) shows the 8 x 8 grid with short names and colours and is where you assign pads and manage pages, sets and groups. From the start the pads get a colour per source (song, voice track, jingle, drop, opener, promo, contribution); your own colours can be set in RemotePLE.ini.
• New: an on-air view (Ctrl+Alt+O): a large window for a second monitor with clock, remaining time, title, progress and the next entries. It is always available, no Launchpad needed. Alt+Enter puts the pad window, the on-air view and the waveform of the cue point editor into full screen on the monitor of your choice.
• New: marking the next track (RadioBOSS only). After a stop RadioBOSS does not know a "next track" and starts again at 1, so RemotePLE remembers it itself: "Mark track" in the context menu of the on-air list, Ctrl+Alt+Up/Down moves the mark, Ctrl+Alt+Enter starts the marked track. It shows as a "Marked" column and a row colour in the on-air list.
• New: an optional HTTP interface (off by default, enabled with ApiPort in RemotePLE.ini, protected by a key): it reads and sets the current show and returns the marked and running track as JSON (GET /api/v1/vormerkung). It runs independently of the Launchpad.
• Changed: when switching the server profile, everything shown from the old server is discarded at once. A server that does not answer no longer freezes the program while connecting: the servers are queried in the background first, at startup it gives up after 2.5 seconds at most.
• Changed: Esc closes the settings window without saving.
• Bug fixes: the audio output of the program could not be set to a device that the pad player already used; live and internet streams played on the Windows default device instead of the selected output; switching between the main and the internal RadioBOSS instance kept the state of the other one; closing the tag editor after saving wrongly asked about unsaved changes; the notice about missing RadioBOSS credentials could cause errors when it came from a background task.

Latest (Beta-) Versions can be downloaded at https://buck-edv.de/apps/RemotePLE/ (the page is available in 7 languages)

So far the Mini MK3 is the only supported controller, other models (for example the Launchpad X) could follow. If you use a pad controller, a cartwall or a second screen in the studio, I would be very interested in how you work with it and what is missing. As always, a simple "works well for me" is welcome too.

Best regards,
Roland