OAS Playout - a comprehensive, easy to use live assist package for the playback of music, jingles and other sound 'bites'. It is specifically targetted towards the small scale radio station market such as hospital radio, community radio and Restricted Service Licenses (RSLs) where economical leased versions are available for fixed durations. As well as a very friendly hands on user interface, Playout also includes flexible levels of automation, powerful playlist generation, music logging and voice tracking capabilities. It is supported by a separate dedicated application, which provides the capability to quickly and efficiently load music and audio required by your station into the system and includes powerful editors to allow information held about tracks to be changed for single or multiple tracks.

OAS Playout - Basic Mode

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• Two separate Player consoles operating independently from each other
• Support for multiple sound cards (one per Player)
• Each 'console' providing two sub players, the Main Player and Jingle Player
• Main players used primarily for music playback but can also play Jingles/Ads etc.
• Jingle players provide loading of adverts, jingles etc. from a central selector
• Automatic track sequencing with 'intelligent' overlap/fade capability
• Automation and scheduled voicetrack facility
• Custom Playlist generation capability
• Scrolling track history list
• Configurable "button wall" for fast loading & playback of jingles & other sound "bites"
• Dynamic normalization process on existing compressed audio formats (import engine)
• Easy to use with clearly colour coded displays and highlights
• All audio maintained via ODBC compliant database

A closer view.....

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The Players.....

	The Main Players allow up to four audio items (tracks) to be loaded into each of the play panels (these are the boxes with the buttons labeled ‘Start’, ‘Load’ and ‘Clear’ next to them). Information about the item (title, artist etc.) is then displayed in the play panel. Any of the loaded panels can be played – the information is then displayed in the topmost play panel (with the ‘Play’ and ‘Stop’ buttons next to it). Information about the playing track is displayed in this section of the console – time remaining and position. A track can be stopped/paused and cued (via the slider). Tracks from the 4 panels can also be automatically played one after the other by toggling the Normal button to Auto with automatic or predetermined overlap points. There is also an additional play 'multi-panel' into which any number of tracks may be loaded in queue. The panel displays the tracks in the form of a list with only basic information displayed for each track. As tracks are played out from one of the 4 main panels, the topmost item in the multi-panel is moved up into the next main panel ready for playback.
	The Jingle Players can have any number of items loaded into them from the Jingle Selector - the central panel from which all jingles & ancillary audio are selectable. . These are displayed in a scrollable list inside each player. Like the main player, individual items in the list can be played or the list can be played out automatically one item after the other. The Jingle Players also provide an ‘Auto-Fade’ facility which will drop the volume of the main player when an item is played from the Jingle Player then restore it afterwards.
	Playout's Button Wall provides instant playback of jingles or other audio from a single keypress or mouse click. This customizable dialog allows up to 12 buttons to be assigned jingles and when invoked "floats" over the main players. Any number of preset configurations may be loaded into the system and selected into the wall at a given time. Like the jingle consoles, the wall also incorporates an auto-fade capability to "duck" the main audio from the main players. The assignments for each button may even be changed dynamically within Playout via a few mouse clicks. Jingles may also be played from the wall even when the dialog is minimized by pressing the appropriate function key assigned to the button. The button wall is fully resizable and many stations use a dual monitor system, often with touch screen capability specifically for use with the wall.

Accessibility......

 

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The Main Players access the music via the Load buttons which provide selection of any audio material from any available category. This includes all music, along with any number of user defined categories - jingles, adverts or predefined playlists. Audio can be easily located via a fast & intuative search engine.

The Jingle Player's interaction with the audio database is performed through the central Jingle Selector which is always visible on the main screen. The selector can be loaded with a preset list of audio clips - ads, jingles etc. which may then be loaded into any Jingle Console via the appropriate load button or into any player through the use of standard "drag and drop" capability. The continuous presence of this selector on the display allows for fast and easy loading of jingle or advert sequences. The Button Wall dialogs are also invoked from this panel.

Automation

Playout provides two levels of automation capability. The first is invoked by putting a Main Player into Auto mode - by toggling the Normal button over to Auto. In this mode, any tracks loaded into the Player are automatically played out in sequence, overlapping and fading out in accordance with the cue points set for each track. Any number of tracks (hours or even days worth) may be loaded at any time however this mode of operation is primarily intended for short periods of automated back to back track playback.

The second mode of automation is only available with the retail variant and requires one or more playlists to be defined beforehand. These define a specific list of tracks (including adverts and jingles if required) to be played out. Once this mode is entered, the system proceeds to play the list out in order, automatically restarting again once the list is completed - in this it is more suited for extended periods of unattended operation eg. overnight.

This mode of operation also provides several layers of failsafe capability to deal with possible system crash including backup playlists and the ability to automatically switch to a backup set of music files in case of fatal system failure. The system allows the dynamic updating of playlists during automation mode and can action the changes immediately, it also includes the ability to apply advanced rules to avoid track duplicates and inject jingles and ad breaks at specific intervals.

Voicetracking

Voicetracking allows entire programmes to be pre-prepared by simply selecting the music you wish to include then recording and placing your links (or segues) at appropriate intervals between (or over) the tracks. Then at the designated date and time the programme is to be aired, Playout automatically executes it, including the option of switching into automation mode on completion once the programme is complete - ideal for overnight unattended operation. More on the voicetrack interface is on the next page - OAS Playout Manager.

Music Logging

Playout provides the ability to maintain a music log of all tracks which have been played within the Playout database. Each entry is date and time stamped within the database and may be manipulated via the Playout Manager tool.

Next.... managing the audio with OAS Playout Manager.