Scheduling and Programming Request

[Shameer]

Hello i have been using your product now for over 6Mths and i am a very satisfied customer this product pack a bang for pennies.

And now for my request
1 i would like to see RB be networked in such a way that i can Schedule all my programming from a work station computer instead of having to produce them on a work station then disturb the on air talent to schedule them in the on air studio in a sense i would like to be able to connect to the on air computer through a work station and do all my scheduling from that work station.

2 I would also like to see the events scheduling moved from the main screen and be i\and instead have it run in the back ground and have a Calendar layout look so i can choose a day and schedule all that i need to schedule for that day the reason i want the events schedule moved from the main playout screen is that i want to program a week ahead and when doing it the present way the events list becomes too cluttered and its easy for someone to mess with it and delete events  whilst i would like to see tjis i would like all the options that is currently attached to the events schedule to remain (the celar playlist, play immediately, delete events and all the others this part of RB is of great importance to me .

Thanks in advance for considering the changes i have suggested
Regards
Shameer Ali

 

[dave-t]

And now for my request
1 i would like to see RB be networked in such a way that i can Schedule all my programming from a work station computer instead of having to produce them on a work station then disturb the on air talent to schedule them in the on air studio in a sense i would like to be able to connect to the on air computer through a work station and do all my scheduling from that work station.

This is quite easy to do IF you store your music files, databases and playlist on a networked drive (NAS)

Share the network drive on 2 PC's ensuring that they are the same drive letter

I have 2 PC one for playout and one for scheduling, ripping and database management

On the production Machine you can use RadioBOSS to create schedules via command line which save the schedule to the shared playlist folder.

You then simply play that playlist from the playout machine either manually or via a schedule on that PC.

 

[djsoft]

Shameer
Dave answered the 1st part of your question and I don't have anything to add.

Regarding scheduler, events are not assigned to a particular day. Like you can have time announcement event which runs every day.
So implementing a calendar view is challenging and it's not planned yet... Maybe we'll add a sort of overview (read-only) to quickly check all the eventa.
In RB 4.9 color indication for events was added - you can use it to make you list look better and easier to navigate.

 

[Shameer]

And now for my request
1 i would like to see RB be networked in such a way that i can Schedule all my programming from a work station computer instead of having to produce them on a work station then disturb the on air talent to schedule them in the on air studio in a sense i would like to be able to connect to the on air computer through a work station and do all my scheduling from that work station.

This is quite easy to do IF you store your music files, databases and playlist on a networked drive (NAS)

Share the network drive on 2 PC's ensuring that they are the same drive letter

I have 2 PC one for playout and one for scheduling, ripping and database management

On the production Machine you can use RadioBOSS to create schedules via command line which save the schedule to the shared playlist folder.

You then simply play that playlist from the playout machine either manually or via a schedule on that PC.

Hello Dave & Dimitri  i already have the configuration Dave mention what i have is an extra drive in the On Air machine where i store all music playlist and database files and that drive is shared through my network so managing the database and creating playlist is not a big deal that is done with a breeze what i would like to avoid altogether is having to go into the on air studio to schedule the created playlists  and events since my On Air studio is very busy and pretty soon it would not be possible to ask the On Air announcer for a few minutes in the studio to schedule playlists and events.any help in this regard would be welcomed

Regards
Shameer Ali

 

[dave-t]

Hello Dave & Dimitri  i already have the configuration Dave mention what i have is an extra drive in the On Air machine where i store all music playlist and database files and that drive is shared through my network so managing the database and creating playlist is not a big deal that is done with a breeze what i would like to avoid altogether is having to go into the on air studio to schedule the created playlists  and events since my On Air studio is very busy and pretty soon it would not be possible to ask the On Air announcer for a few minutes in the studio to schedule playlists and events.any help in this regard would be welcomed

Interesting because I have been thinking about the same thing.

effectively what you (and I) would like is to be able to write the *.sdl for the "on air" machine from another PC as well as having an independent *.sdl file for "production" PC that creates the playlist ?

What would be good, would be the ability to load different *.sdl files into RB but I don't believe that this is currently possible ?

Over to RB on this one I think it would be a great feature if added

 

[dave-t]

Actually - it may be possible already.

In the schedule window you can load and save SDL files - I have not tried it but it looks as though it is there already?

 

[Shameer]

Hello Dave this works well it certainly minimises the time spent in the On Air studio.I will have to put it through some rigorous testing but like everything else in RB i am sure it was built like the rock of Gibraltar.
thanks for this i somehow overlooked this part of the program, whilst not having to go into the On Air studio would be my first preference this certainly saves a lot of time.

Regards
Shameer Ali
a Happy RB user ;D

 

 

[dave-t]

Hello Dave this works well it certainly minimises the time spent in the On Air studio.I will have to put it through some rigorous testing but like everything else in RB i am sure it was built like the rock of Gibraltar.
thanks for this i somehow overlooked this part of the program, whilst not having to go into the On Air studio would be my first preference this certainly saves a lot of time.

I must admit I missed it too  ;D

I need to have a play with it to see if it does exactly what I want!

 

[Shameer]

Hello Dave,

just had a look @ your website, here's wishing you a successful launch and i am a bit of an oldies person myself so if i can help you out in anyway just let me know.

Regards
Shameer Ali

 

[dave-t]

Hello Dave,

just had a look @ your website, here's wishing you a successful launch and i am a bit of an oldies person myself so if i can help you out in anyway just let me know.

Thank you very much  We launch on Monday and there is still lots to do so a couple of sleepless night ahead. Really enjoying it and working with great software and a great responsive team at RB 

 

[dave-t]

Dmitry

Ok had a little play with this and it does work but not very easily and it would be nice if it could be developed at some point in the future.

In an ideal world it would be good to be able to

• Load and save SDL files from any location
• Be able to set the default location and file

this would be very beneficial for production/on air situations or where we would like to build a "new season" schedule for future use. It would also be good for where multiple studios are in operation.

Worth considering?

 

[dave-t]

Having thought about it for a few more minutes it would great if there was a application similar to PLG to build schedules and have the main schedular with a simple option of which SDL file to use.

Assuming the SDL file is an XML file, I would have thought that this would not be difficult to creat an application as a big chunk of the coding is probably already there?

 

[djsoft]

Dave, Shameer

Scheduler has load command which can be used to load any .sdl file.

An example:
load C:\shared\mynewschedule.sdl

This works exactly as List->Load command does: clears the event list and loads a new sdl file.

There are several possible ways to call this command:
1. Create an event to do this at specific time (eg. at 3am) - the new .sdl should also have an event to run the "load" command for the next update.

2. Use the new Remote Control API to update events on request:
http://ip-address:9000/?pass=nnn&cmd=load C:\shared\mynewschedule.sdl

PS I'd advice to backup event list before experimenting with this: List->Save, just in case.

Assuming the SDL file is an XML file, I would have thought that this would not be difficult to creat an application as a big chunk of the coding is probably already there?

SDL file uses INI-like structure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INI_file
It's a text file and can be easily edited manually or generated.
For the SDL Generator, I'm not sure how it should work... eg. where it will take events from.
BTW a special case of SDL Generator is Adverticement Scheduler.

 

[dave-t]

Dmitry

Scheduler has load command which can be used to load any .sdl file.

An example:
load C:\shared\mynewschedule.sdl

This works exactly as List->Load command does: clears the event list and loads a new sdl file.

There are several possible ways to call this command:
1. Create an event to do this at specific time (eg. at 3am) - the new .sdl should also have an event to run the "load" command for the next update.

Yep I have worked this out but could you possibly produce an example of the SDL file to as mention in item 1 please?

2. Use the new Remote Control API to update events on request:
http://ip-address:9000/?pass=nnn&cmd=load C:\shared\mynewschedule.sdl

PS I'd advice to backup event list before experimenting with this: List->Save, just in case.

I have not used the new API yet simply because I am too busy as we launch on Monday. I have also not played with the ad scheduler either but from a quick glance I don't think this could be used to generate standard SDL files ?

I am sitting here working on a schedule on my production machine which will be be loaded onto the "on air" machine" ready for launch. Yes it does work fine although I think that it is a feature that could be developed in the future to make it a little more "slick"

 

[djsoft]

1. Create an event to do this at specific time (eg. at 3am) - the new .sdl should also have an event to run the "load" command for the next update.

Yep I have worked this out but could you possibly produce an example of the SDL file to as mention in item 1 please?

You shouldn't do it manually, I mean edit the SDL file.
When you prepare a new SDL file, just add a new event with load command, save .sdl file and then it can be loaded on the onair machine.

If you still want to do this manually, you can open SDL file and insert the following:

[eventLoadSDL]
EnabledEvent=1
DateTime=3:00:00
FileName=load C:\path\newschedule.sdl
Days=1111111
UseDaysOfWeek=1
TimeType=0

Insert to the very beginning or to the end of the file, but not in the middle of any [event..] entries.
This event will load the C:\path\newschedule.sdl event list at 03.00 every night. So to update events you just need to update the newschedule.sdl file and it will be picked up by program at 3 AM.

I am sitting here working on a schedule on my production machine which will be be loaded onto the "on air" machine" ready for launch. Yes it does work fine although I think that it is a feature that could be developed in the future to make it a little more "slick"

Do you mean we should create something like external event editor?

 

[dave-t]

Dmitry

If you still want to do this manually, you can open SDL file and insert the following:
Code: [Select]
[eventLoadSDL]
EnabledEvent=1
DateTime=3:00:00
FileName=load C:\path\newschedule.sdl
Days=1111111
UseDaysOfWeek=1
TimeType=0
Insert to the very beginning or to the end of the file, but not in the middle of any [event..] entries.
This event will load the C:\path\newschedule.sdl event list at 03.00 every night. So to update events you just need to update the newschedule.sdl file and it will be picked up by program at 3 AM.

Thank you - I will paste this in to the SDL file then edit it with the GUI. I find working with a text editor on this type of file very difficult due to my eyesight 

If I move this event in the event window to organise how it is displayed on the screen, will it have an impact or the SDL file as I not you say this should be at the beginning?

Quote from: dave-t on Today at 06:01:27 AM
I am sitting here working on a schedule on my production machine which will be be loaded onto the "on air" machine" ready for launch. Yes it does work fine although I think that it is a feature that could be developed in the future to make it a little more "slick"
Do you mean we should create something like external event editor?

Yes !  in the same way we can use the main playlist, or, the PLG to generate playlist (I use both) I would like the option to have an external "event/schedule builder"

While I am editing the schedule for the "on air" PC, the event that are supposed to be running on the "production" PC are not running.

There is a possibility, that I will be running another station later this year and I would like to be able to simply add another PC + RB License and run both existing and new station from one central "management" machine.

Therefore the "management" PC will be generating playlist via a single schedule for 2 stations but I will need the facility to generate the "on air" playlist as separate files. I will then have 3 SDL files and the current way of creating and editing them would be difficult.

I will also drop you an email on this topic.

 

[djsoft]

If I move this event in the event window to organise how it is displayed on the screen, will it have an impact or the SDL file as I not you say this should be at the beginning?

It's a regular event, so you can do anything you want with it

Therefore the "management" PC will be generating playlist via a single schedule for 2 stations but I will need the facility to generate the "on air" playlist as separate files. I will then have 3 SDL files and the current way of creating and editing them would be difficult.

All right. What do you think are the downsides of the current scheduler editor window? This information would be useful when creating a separate app to edit events. Several users asked about external editor before, so we could combine all the request to create a good piece of software.

 

[dave-t]

All right. What do you think are the downsides of the current scheduler editor window? This information would be useful when creating a separate app to edit events. Several users asked about external editor before, so we could combine all the request to create a good piece of software.

the main thing is that when you load a playlist it becomes the active one (?) so you have to switch back to the default when a schedule is due to run.

by having a separate event building you could develop a new schedule over a period of time prior to implementing it without impacting on the current schedule of playlist generation and play out.

Obviously you would need the normal safeguards for saving or exiting without saving

 

[djsoft]

Currently, one of the possible solutions is to install another RadioBOSS to a different folder and use it to manage SDL files.

 

[dave-t]

That would breach my license agreement with you 

Yes that would be a work around although it would have many dangers as schedules would run in the second instance and potentially mess things up!