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Live Assist Logic

Hi.  I'm currently assessing Playit Live as a replacement for Simian at Brooklands Radio.  The automatic function works very well for unattended playout but trying to work out the logic behind live assist for presenter driven programmes is proving difficult.


The software is setup with 3 channel boxes each routed to separate soundcard outputs.  I'm creating a presenter clock with standard furniture items interspersed with tracks selected by the scheduler.  Each hour has a timestamp at the top and a 2 minute break note for the live news.  This clock creates a sequence of hours with everything in about the right place.  


As a presenter, I want to move things around and directly load tracks to the playout channels from the playlist, as I can in other systems.  I also want to practice the top of my programme and take level from the next track on the channel it's about to be played from.  


If the travel is next, in Simian I would either drag bed directly to a channel box or right click on it and make it next.  This doesn't seem to be possible in Playit Live, any dragging to channels is met with a computer says no cursor.  As far as I can tell, it's not possible to drag from the playlist to a channel and it doesn't seem possible to move later in the playlist and load from there.  The only way to move down the playlist is to permanently delete a track from the list or continually eject the channels until the right one loads.


Decks mode doesn't work for us as there's no playlist.


This is probably not the right software for what we want to do but I would welcome any advice on how to set this up in traditional live presenter mode with a playlist.  It feels like I'm missing something?  


Thanks in advance, Mark.


Hi Mark,


The sequence of playout is managed entirely from the playout log. The choice of player that a track is assigned is automatically determined by its order in the log. Items in the log will play from players from left to right. If you want to change the player that the track is assign you can reorder it in the log by dragging and dropping the item in the log.


mp4

Thanks Jason...I hadn’t noticed the close relationship between the top items in the list and the players. Doh!


It would be good if the players had their own shortcut keys for start, pause, unload and recue. “Next” seems to be the only way to start playout from an assigned key which doesn't work when using the players with discrete outputs on a desk with a GPIO interface. I think another poster has tried mapping the next shortcut to all three channel remotes but I can see presenters getting confused. They can use the mouse but better if at least the start for that player could be remoted to the desk.


The software is great for auto playout though. 

Hello Mark,


Although the players SEEM to be a bit like CD players PlayIt Live just uses them in order.


Like your setup, I've got three audio channels (associated with each player) and in automation I leave all three faded up (my fourth channel shares between the quick carts and prehearing items and is left faded down if not in use).


The way PlayIt Live seems to want to work is for each item to play out automatically unless the transition is set to stop after an item (click the green down arrow and it becomes a stop sign).


Then opening the fader (having previously closed it) sends a "play next" (which will always play next on whichever channel PlayIt Live has the next item) and assuming you have opened the fader with the next item in the player it works as you would want.


This will also work if you use fewer sound card and mixer channels than players (so all players go to one sound card output) as "stop" will end the item (which you could fade out early), you can talk then open the fader and the next item will start (irrespective of the player it appears on).

As a more general observation on your intended way of operating, I do wonder if you would be better off with two instances of PlayIt Live (on different computers). 


If one were running the unattended playout and a second system fed the mixer with a switch box to take either mixer or unattended output to air then there would be no problems with getting ready.


If the unattended playout system is also on the mixer on another channel then with care about the levels you can switch between the two and nobody notices.



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