Cue Points (Scheduling)

[Acadiana Network Solution]

We have installed your MultiPlay software on a computer meant to schedule music and announcements throughout a recreational park we do IT work for.  We are struggling to configure the software to do what we need it to do.  In short, we would like to play a music playlist along with a 60 second announcement every hour....the music would fade out...then announcement...then music fade in to resume.  Also, can these announcements be scheduled to play at specific times of the day?  Thank you

[David]

Have you had a look at the Scheduler window (in the View menu) yet? That allows you to fire main or ad-lib list cues at specific times of day.

Is the announcement the same every time, or does it change?

[Acadiana Network Solution]

Thats where we set cue points but the msin playlist keeps playing. It does not silence so the announcement can play. Typically announcements will be the same schedule each day.

[David]

How have you go your background music cue(s) set up? Is it just one playlist cue?

Maybe email me your production file as it is now so I can see what you're trying to do.

[Acadiana Network Solution]

I couldn't figure out how to post the file on here so I emailed it to you. Here is a screenshot.

https://gyazo.com/55b90d07b98b55af5b0a1362551ee925

[David]

You can always just email me the files. How about a schedule like this:

Start playlist cue at the start of the day.

Schedule a control cue that fades the playlist cue down. The control cue then starts the announcement audio cue via an Advance Action of End Play. The audio cue (announcement) also has an Advance Action of End Play that starts another control cue that fades the playlist cue back up. The second control cue would have it's Advance Action set to No Action so it doesn't follow on.

You would need 3 cues (control, audio, control) per announcement. Any announcements that are the same could use the same 3 cues. Just trigger the first control cue for that set at whatever time of day you need.

So you'd need 3 cues for each unique announcement type. There is a way to reduce it to 2 cues per announcement, but I'll leave it simpler for now.

[David]

I've emailed you a working production complete with audio samples to get you going.

[David]

If anyone else is interested in this type of application, I've come up with a couple of different ways to do this.

[SynthKeyWizard]

If anyone else is interested in this type of application, I've come up with a couple of different ways to do this.

It can be useful. Maybe a "ducking" mode can be added to exclusive mode? To be able to fade all currently playing cues and then fade back again. Available settings are something like "fade-to-pad" time, "fade-back" time, and fade volume amount in dB.

[David]

I have thought about a ducking feature a few times, but I don't have a good reliable way to implement it in code yet. It's on the to-do list.