This section gives a brief overview on mAirList's features.
Playback of audio files is organized through one or more main playlists which contain the items scheduled for broadcasting. Playback takes place through a user-defined number of players, each of which can be assigned to a different sound card (and is usually connected to a fader on your broadcast mixer). You can define as many playlists and players as you like, however, for most purposes, a single playlist with two or three players will be suitable.
In addition to the playlist-bound players, mAirList offers an optional cartwall, again with a user-definable number of players (slots). The cart players are all linked to the same sound card and are typically used for the playback of jingles and short sound files.
With a single click, you can switch from assist to automation mode, and mAirList will broadcast your playlist automatically. The integrated event scheduler, which is available in either mode, can be used to play jingles or load playlists programatically at a given time. You can also insert break points and command markers for remote control of other mAirList instances.
mAirList comes with its own scripting language, mAirListScript. It's Pascal-based, thus easy to learn, and you can use many of the functions and classes known from Borland Delphi. With the interfaces offered by mAirListScript, you can manipulate the playlist and all of mAirList's internal data structures dynamically. Special notification scripts can be installed which get called automatically in certain events.
mAirList works with any Windows compatible sound card. For the best playback results, the sound card should be supplied with WDM compatible drivers (which virtually every modern sound card does). Additionally, mAirList supports ASIO drivers.
Playlists and cart players can be loaded by dragging items from the built-in directory browsers or Windows Explorer. Optionally, mAirList provides interfaces to three different types of databases, which can be used to search for songs or to organize playlists: eldoDB, radioDB and iTunes.
All of mAirList's features can be controlled through a number of remote control mechanisms: User-definable hotkeys, MIDI events, joystick buttons and SOAP remote procedure calls via TCP/IP. Converting a cheap game pad, you can easily build an interface to the fader start mechanism of your broadcast mixer.
Elapsed and remaining time of a playlist item or cart slot are visualized through a colored progress bar displayed in the player and, optionally, as well in the playlist.
The ramp (intro) of a song is visualized by an additional progress bar and a count-down time display, thereby making ramp talks a lot easier for the presenter.
mAirList instantly calculates the starting times of all items scheduled in a playlist, and can be configured to display these inside the playlist. Futhermore, when you double-click the time label of a player, mAirList will display the real time the item will be finished if started at this very moment.
The whole user environment (contents of playlists and cart players, open browsers, ...) can be saved into mAirList playlist files (*.mlp) and loaded later. You can also create template files (*.mlt) for frequently used profiles. Additionally, the assignment of the cart players can be saved into *.mlc files. The most popular assignments can be made avaible through a convenient drop down menu. All file formats are XML based, allowing for easy integration with 3rd-party software. Playlists can also be imported from *.m3u files.