Table of Contents
- 1.
Introduction
- 2. History
- 3. Features
- 4. The Release Concept
- 2. History
- 5.
License
- 6. Installation
- 7. Getting Started
- 6. Installation
- 8. Configuration
- 9. The Event Scheduler
- 10. Scripting
- A. mAirListScript Reference
- B. skin.ini Reference
List of Figures
List of Tables
- 8.1. Log variables
- A.1.
ntPlayerStartparameters and interfaces- A.2.
ntPlayerStopparameters and interfaces- A.3.
ntEOFWarningparameters and interfaces- A.4.
ntCartPlayerStartparameters and interfaces- A.5.
ntCartPlayerStopparameters and interfaces- A.6.
ntCartEOFWarningparameters and interfaces- A.7.
ntPlayerPFLOnparameters and interfaces- A.8.
ntPlayerPFLOffparameters and interfaces- A.9.
ntPlaylistEmptyparameters and interfaces - A.1.
Currently available radio automation software can be roughly divided into two categories: On the one hand, there are commercial systems designed for professional radio stations, full of features, but also with extensive requirements for hardware and maintenance. Additionally, due to their nature as a non-mass product, these systems are often very expensive, usually unaffordable for non-profit organizations or private projects.
On the other hand, the growing popularity of internet radio stations resulted in a number of radio-in-a-box products, offering software-based broadcasting solutions, without the need for a mixer or any other hardware which can usually be found at a radio station.
mAirList acknowledges that there must be something in between --- people making radio in a professional manner, with professional or semi-professional equipment, but without the technical and financial background of a commercial station. mAirList provides an automation system that runs on standard PC hardware and easily integrates with any equipment in your studio due to its various remote control mechanisms.
mAirList is developed and maintained by Torben Weibert, born 1977, living in Dortmund, Germany. Torben is a researcher at the Computer Science department at the University of Dortmund, and in his spare time (when not working on mAirList), he takes care of all technical affairs at Dortmund's campus radio station eldoradio*. Torben's further interests include making music, photography, aviation and flight simulation.
The history of mAirList started in Dortmund, Germany, in summer of 2001, at the local campus radio eldoradio*. At that time, eldoradio* was running a software called Airlist in order to broadcast audio files during their live shows (but only jingles and reports, music was still played from CDs). Airlist wasn't very flexible. You could only play WAV files (so other formats like MP3 had to be converted first), and in order to add a file into the local playlist, you were required to manually enter various information such as artist and title. At least, Airlist integrated with the D.MAX mixer, reacting to fader start and PFL commands.
Torben Weibert had been working for eldoradio* since October 2000, but only as a DJ, and without any intention to get involved in any technical matter, despite being a computer science student. Nevertheless, being annoyed by Airlist's shortcomings, he decided to create his own alternative: mAirList was born.
Of course, mAirList 1.0 wasn't as feature-rich as the current versions, but at least it added some convenient possibilities: MP3 files were supported, and items could be simply dragged and dropped into the playlist from the built-in directory browsers. mAirList got its name from the fact that it had more features than the old Airlist (the syllable mAir is pronounced like the German word mehr, which means more.
For a while, mAirList remained inofficial alternative to Airlist, both programs residing side-by-side on eldoradio*'s studio computer, but finally, more and more DJs switched to mAirList, and eventually Airlist was abandoned.
It wasn't until October 2002 that mAirList was finally released to the public. The first public version supported up to three players, and used DirectShow for the sound output. The following versions of the 1.1.x release let mAirList grow rapidly, and BASS.DLL was introduced as the default sound engine.
In December 2003, mAirList 1.3 was released, with a completely remodeled interior, supporting an unlimited number of playlists and players. Having undergone a number of fixes and improvements, that version finally resulted in the first stable release 1.4 in October 2005. At the same time, the new testing branch 1.5 was established, the first release with an English user interface (and support for localization).
Today, mAirList is used in a growing number of radio stations, still mostly in German speaking countries. With the release of mAirList 2.0 in 2006, an English manual and English homepage is provided. The next goal is to make mAirList popular around the world ;-).
Chapter 3. Features
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.
Backtiming
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.
Table of Contents
At any time, two releases are avaible for download: The stable release and the development (testing) release.
If you want to use mAirList in a production environment, you should use the latest version from the stable release. These versions are thoroughly tested, though they lack the latest improvements introduced in the development release.
The stable release can be identified by the even number in the middle of the version number; the current stable release is 2.0.x, the previous stable release was 1.4.x, and the next stable release will either be 2.2.x or 3.0.x.
The development release (also called testing release in the honor of the Debian Linux distribution) is the place where you can take part in the development of mAirList by testing the latest improvements (which are often encouraged by the mAirList community, proposing new features in the forums). The purpose is to present these improvements to the public and receive feedback and, possibly, bug reports. As development versions may contain errors, you should not use them in a production environment.
After a certain time, no more features will be added, some final bug fixing takes place, and the latest development version will be turned into the new stable release. At the same time, a new development release will be started where the next improvements are implemented.
Development versions have an odd number in the middle of the version number, for example 1.5.x or 2.1.x.
mAirList was originally developed for eldoradio* in Dortmund, Germany, a campus radio station always short of money, and which couldn't have afforded any commercial product. Many similar organizations suffer from the same circumstances, so that mAirList is provided free to them.
In particular, the following licenses are available:
- Free license
- If you are a non-profit organsiation, or a private person running your own studio without any commercial background, you may use mAirList for free. However, you need to request a free license file.
- Donation license
- Even as a non-commercial user, you can express your appreciation and support the development by ordering a donation license. Prices are not fixed.
- Commercial license
- Any other user (commercial radio station, professional DJ, ...) will have to order a commercial license, allowing you to use mAirList in a commercial environment.
For prices etc. refer to http://www.mairlist.com/en/documentation/v2.0/html/. Free licenses can also be requested there.
Having requested or bought a license, you will receive a file license.ini, which has to be placed in the mAirList program folder. Without a license file, mAirList will be fully functional, but you will see a notification at startup, and you are not allowed to use the software after a testing period of 30 days.
mAirList is released as a zip archive, and does not come with a setup application. The configuration is stored in the file mAirList.ini, located in the same directory as
mAirList.exe (you can specify an alternative configuration file with the -c command line switch). This way, mAirList can be easily removed, and multiple copies can reside on your hard drive simultaneously without interference.
To install mAirList, simply unzip mAirList-<version>.zip which contains the following files:
mAirList.exe- The main program file.
mAirListConfig.bat- A batch file that runs
mAirList.exewith the-configcommand line switch in order to display the configuration dialog. BASS.DLL- Sound engine.
BASSMIX.DLL,BASSASIO.DLL- BASS support files for software mixing and ASIO.
mAirList.ini- Sample configuration file.
layout.ini- Sample layout configuration file.
manual.pdf- User's manual in PDF format.
If you have obtained a license file, place it into the same directory as these files.
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mAirList comes with an example mAirList.ini file which enables you to use the software without any prior in-depth configuration. This chapter gives a brief overview about the default configuration, and shows you how to use mAirList.
Figure 7.1, The mAirList default screen shows mAirList running in the default configuration. You can see the various elements marked with big red numbers:
-
The main playlist. This is where you put your audio files scheduled to be broadcasted, either automatic in automation mode, or manually in assist mode. Currently, four files have been put into the playlist, the first three of them are already loaded into the three players. In the default configuration, the players are loaded automatically with the top-most items; this can be disabled in the configuration or in the context menu (right click on the playlist).
The toolbar below the playlist gives you some information about the playlist: currently, it is running in assist mode, so you have to start and stop the players manually. Click AUTO to activate automation mode. On the right hand side, you can see the number of items (4) and the total duration (15 minutes and 2 seconds).
-
The players. In the default configuration, there are three players associated with the playlist, titled A, B and C. When loaded with an item, the players show the artist and title and the duration of the item. The green bar shows the progress once playback is started. You can click the time label to toggle between elapsed and remain mode. Or double click to activate backtiming mode, in which the player shows the (real) time at which playback will be finished (or would be finished, if the player would be started in this very moment).
-
The cartwall. It consists of a user-definable number of players (six in the default configuration). These players are not associated with the playlist but loaded and started individually. As you can see, a file has been loaded into slot number two, the other slots are empty.
-
The browsers. This is where you can search and select the files to be inserted into the playlist or the cart players. In this screen shot, a directory has been openened. Additionally, you can access the Repository where each broadcasted file is moved to.
-
The LED clock. Just for your convenience. You can disable this clock in the configuration dialog, or replace it with a standard 24-hour digital clock.
Before you can broadcast a file, you need to add it to the playlist or to one of the cart players. The most convenient way is to open a directory in the browser section, and drag-and-drop the file into the player. To open the directory, click the Add button above the browsers, and you will be prompted to select the desired directory. You can also add browsers containing a directory tree or pre-defined playlists (e.g. M3U). Click the little arrow next to the Add button and chose an option from the menu.
In order to add a file, drag-and-drop it from the browser (or from Windows Explorer) into the playlist. You can also drag a file directly into one of the players. It will be inserted into the playlist automatically.
By default, the auto load option is enabled: mAirList will automatically load the top-most three items into the three players. You can change the sequence of the items in the playlist by grabbing an item in its left-most column and dragging it into the desired position. Moving an item into the top three positions will automatically load it in a player.
You can also load the players manually by dragging and item from the playlist into a player (when starting to drag, you have to click the item in any but the left-most column). This is mandatory when auto load is disabled in the playlist's popup menu.
Before broadcasting an item, you might want to pre-listen to it. The default hotkeys are F5, F6 and F7 for player A, B and C, respectively. Press the same key again to quit PFL mode. (All hotkeys can be customized, or you can use other remote control methods like MIDI or joystick interfaces). By default, all players use your default sound card for both broadcasting and pre-listening. You can change this in the configuration dialog.
Activating the PFL mode, the Advanced PFL window will appear which allows you to set various cue points:
- Cue
-
This is the cue in point at which playback should begin. Anything before this point is cut off.
- Ramp
-
The ramp or intro point, usually the point at which vocals begin within a song. mAirList will visualize the segment between cue in and ramp with an additional progress bar, assisting you with ramp talks.
- Outro
-
The point at which vocals stop (and the presenter can talk again over the instrumental part). The progress bar is displayed dark green after this point.
- Fade Out
-
The point at which the automation should fade out the song and start the next item. This value is also considered when computing the effective duration of the item, and used as the end marker of the progress bar.
- Cue Out
-
The point at which playback of the item should definitely stop. Can be used to cut of noise at the end of songs.
Each cue point has three buttons:
- SET
-
Set the value to the current playback position.
- 0
-
Reset/delete this cue point.
- TEST
-
Let playback jump to this cue point.
You can also use the mouse wheel in order to fine-tune a cue point in 1/100s steps. The mouse wheel will affect the cue point which has been altered by one of the buttons lastly. So the steps of setting an exact cue point would usually be the following:
-
Listen to the PFL playback.
-
When reaching the approximate position, press SET.
-
Click TEST to listen to your selection.
-
Use the mouse wheel to fine-tune the point, and use TEST to test the new fine-tuned value.
Each type of cue point can also have a list of alternative values, for example when a song offers different end points for ramp talks, or in order to implement refrain hooks. To access this list, click the label displaying the cue point's current value. A new window will appear displaying all alternative cue poins. You can add the current value as a new alternative, delete an alternative or double click a value in order to copy it to the current value. Clicking TEST will activate test mode in which playback jumps to an alternative value when it is clicked.
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mAirList does not store its configuration in the Windows Registry, but in the configuration file mAirList.ini, located in the same directory as mAirList.exe. That file is read by mAirList when the program starts. Changes to the configuration cannot be made during run-time, but you have to restart mAirList in order to reload the changed configuration (though a number of options can be changed while mAirList runs, such as the appearance of the playlist, the automation mode, and so on).
Configuration is assisted by the configuration dialog, displayed when mAirList.exe is run with the -config parameter. For your convenience, a batch filed named mAirListConfig.bat is supplied in the distribution archive that runs mAirList with this parameter.
The configuration dialog is divided into various categories, which can be accessed through the left-hand menu tree, and which are described in the following sections.
The playlist is the most important element in mAirList's main window. It holds the scheduled playlist items and distributes them among the assigned players. By default, mAirList displays one main playlist, but you can choose to set up multiple playlists.
mAirList as a Standalone Cartwall
You can also set the number of playlists to 0. In that case, mAirList will turn into a pure cartwall.
For each defined playlist, there is an item in the menu tree on the left of the configuration dialog, displaying the playlist options page. In particular, the following settings can be made:
- Player count
-
Each playlist goes along with a number of players which are used to broadcast the elements in the playlist. For each player, a new item appears in the menu tree, from which you can access the player details page (see below).
- Number of items to keep in the playlist history
-
Set the number of items to keep in the main playlist after having been played. The items are drawn in gray at moved to the Played Items list later. Set to 0 to move any played item to the Played Items list immediately.
The further options are:
- Extended display mode*
-
If checked, mAirList uses a two rows to display each playlist item (one for the title, one for the artist). Otherwise, title and artist are displayed in the same row.
- Backtiming display*
-
If checked, the first column is used to display the scheduled, real or calculated starting time of each item.
- Display progress bar*
-
If checked, an additional progress bar is displayed below the playlist item while it is playing in one of the players.
- Show playlist item comments*
-
This option must be checked in order to make the playlist item's comment appear in the playlist.
- Allow automation
-
Uncheck this option to prevent the user from activating the automation mode.
- Separate ASSIST/AUTO buttons
-
If checked, two buttons labeled ASSIST and AUTO will be displayed to switch between assist and autmation mode. Otherwise, there's only one button to toggle between these modes.
- Toolbar position: bottom
-
Display the playlist toolbar below the playlist instead of above the playlist (which is the default).
- Clear history when opening or starting a new file
-
If checked, the playlist history is cleared when you start a new file or open a playlist.
- Always show duration
-
If checked, 0:00:00 is displayed in the duration column if the duration of an item is unknown or unset. Otherwise, the cell is left blank.
- Always show ramp
-
If checked, 0:00 is displayed in the ramp column if no ramp is set. Otherwise, the cell is left blank.
- Spacebar triggers AUTOMATION NEXT
-
If checked, the spacebar can be used in automation mode to fade out the current and start the next item.
The options marked with * can be toggled at run-time through the playlist context menu.
Finally, you can specify the prefixes to use in the left-most playlist column in backtiming mode depending on the type of starting time calculated for an item: Fixed (if a fixed time was entered in the Properties dialog), absolute (real time, calculated from the real starting time of the active player), or relative (offset from the top of the playlist).
Each player of each playlist can be configured independently on the appropriate configuration page. The options for each player are:
- Caption
-
This should be a single character (for example, 1, 2, 3, ... or A, B, C...) that identifies the corresponding player. It is displayed in the player control in the main window, and also in the playlist next to the playlist item loaded in the respective player.
- Color
-
Each player is assigned a color that visually identifies it in the main window. The color is used to indicate that the player is active, and also in the leftmost playlist column to mark the loaded playlist item. If you place colored stickers on your mixing desk, your presenters will quickly find the right fader.
- Output device
-
Click the Select-button to choose the sound card to use for this player. The sound device selection dialog is described below.
- PFL device
-
Here, you can choose the sound card to be used in PFL mode. If you own a mixer with PFL capabilities and switch the channel to PFL while pre-listening, this will probably be the same as the normal output device. But you can also choose to route the PFL signal to a different sound card, for example to a special PFL bus.
- EOF warning
-
The player will start to flash the specified time before reaching the end of file. Setting this option to 0 disables EOF warning.
- Show PFL/START/PAUSE/STOP buttons
-
Disable this option to hide the PFL/START/PAUSE/STOP buttons inside the player. This is useful when you do not want to control the players with the mouse but only through other remote control mechanisms like hotkeys, gameport closures etc. (see Section 8.5, Remote Control).
- Advanced PFL
-
If checked, the Advanced PFL dialog will be displayed while in PFL mode, and you can set cue points.
- Auto load*
-
If checked, the player automatically loads the next available item from the playlist.
- Auto unload on STOP*
-
If checked, the player is automatically unloaded when a
STOPsignal is received. - Auto unload on EOF*
-
If checked, the player is automatically unloaded when reaching the end of file.
- Auto STOP on EOF*
-
If checked, the player is stopped and reset when reaching the end of file. This setting is ignored when Auto unload on STOP is set.
- Include in logging
-
Check this option if you want this player to be included in the start and stop log files. Logging must be globally enabled on the Logging configuration page (cf Section 8.7, Logging).
- Include in database logging
-
Check this option if you want this player to be included in the database logging. SQL database logging must be globally enabled on the Logging configuration page (cf Section 8.7, Logging).
- Show time in seconds (instead of 1/10 s)
-
If checked, the elapsed/remaining time will be displayed in full seconds, otherwise in 1/10th of a second.
- Show ramp in seconds (instead of 1/10 s)
-
If checked, the ramp time countdown will be displayed in full seconds, otherwise in 1/10th of a second.
- Auto-truncate time
-
If checked, leading 0s will be stripped from the elapsed/remaining time if it is less than one hour.
- Simultaneous playback and PFL
-
By default, playback and PFL are mutually exclusive; you cannot pre-listen to an item when it's already playing in a player, and vice versa. However, if you use distinct sound cards for PFL and playback, you can enable this option and thus decouple PFL and playback. This is useful for end monitoring while the player is already active. (If this option is disabled, you can still pre-listen to an active item by opening an Extra PFL window for it.)
The options marked with * can be toggled at run-time through the player context menu.
For each player, you can choose which output device used for the on air signal and the PFL signal, respectively. Furthermore, mAirList allows you to route the signal to a specific channel pair on multi-channel (5.1 or 7.1) sound cards. The Output Device dialog allows you to select the desired combination.
mAirList supports three different output methods (or drivers), all of which rely on the BASS.DLL audio engine, which must be present in the mAirList program folder.
- BASS.DLL (WDM/MME hardware mixing)
-
This is the default. BASS.DLL decodes the input stream and uses DirectSound to send it to the WDM or MME driver of the sound card. When multiple files are played simultaneously, the sound card takes care of the mixing.
- BASS.DLL (WDM/MME software mixing)
-
While most sound cards can handle simultaneous playback of files with different sample rates, some can not, and distorted or pitched sound output will result. In software mixing mode, the mixing and sample rate conversion is done on software level, and only one (fixed rate) stream is sent to the sound card. Use this option only if your sound card suffers from the above mentioned problem, as it consumes more CPU resources. The file
BASSMIX.DLLmust be present for this driver to work. - BASS.DLL (ASIO, software mixing)
-
ASIO is a driver model offered by a number of (mostly mid- to high-end) sound cards. As software mixing takes place before the stream is sent to the ASIO driver, you need both
BASSASIO.DLLandBASSMIX.DLL. Unfortunately, due to the construction of the BASSMIX engine, mAirList cannot take advantage of the famous low latency of ASIO, in fact, latency can even be higher than with WDM. So you should only use ASIO if WDM doesn't work for your card.
Having chosen the driver to use for this channel, you can set the following options:
- Device
-
Select the sound card to use.
Old Sound Cards and the Emulated mode. In case the sound card is marked as emulated, it does not support WDM drivers but only MME. This is a disadvantage, and you should better get a different sound card with WDM support (which almost every card has today).
- Channel
-
For multichannel sound cards, choose the pair of channels (speakers) to be used. If you intend to use separate channels for your players, avoid using the default setting, but explicitly assign a channel to each player. Otherwise, clicks and pops may occur.
Making all Channels Visible. To make all channels of a multichannel sound card appear in this list, you have to set the speaker type in Windows' Control Panel to 5.1 or 7.1. If the speaker type is set correctly, but still only channels 1/2 appear here, try to set the force multichannel output option on the BASS.DLL page and restart the configuration dialog.
- Sample rate
-
You can enter a fixed sample rate to use for this sound card. If you have multiple players using the same card, make sure to enter the same value for each player. This setting is ignored for BASS.DLL hardware mixing.
On this configuration page, you can activate and customize the built-in cartwall. The following options can be set:
- Player count
-
Select the desired number of cart players (slots).
- Output device and PFL device
-
Just like the ordinary players, you can assign a sound card for the on air signal and the PFL signal of the cart players. For details, see Section 8.2.1 Output Devices.
- EOF warning
-
Choose the number of seconds before the end of file the cart players should flash. Setting this option to 0 disables EOF warning.
- Favorite cart sets
-
You can save the assignment of the cart wall (currently loaded files) to a *.mlc file from within mAirList. The most frequently used cart sets can be added to this list, and later be quickly accessed through the drop down box above the cartwall.
- Default cart set
-
Specify a cart set to be loaded automatically at startup. If left blank, mAirList will look for a file named
standard.mlc, or keep the cartwall empty if that file does not exist. - Save along with playlist files (.mlp)
-
If checked, the cart player assignments are included in the playlist files. When you open such a playlist later, the cartwall will restored.
- Save along with template files (.mlt)
-
If checked, the cart player assignments are included in the playlist template files. When you open such a template later, the cartwall will restored.
- Keep open when starting a new file
-
If checked, the cart players will stay open when you click New in the tool bar. Otherwise, all cart players will be closed.
- Write played items into log file
-
Usually, only the items played in the ordinary players get logged in the global log file(s) (cf. Section 8.7 Logging). If this option is set, also elements played in the cartwall will be logged.
- Simultaneous playback and PFL
-
This enables simultaneous PFL and playback, which is only useful if you have distinct sound cards configured for PFL and playback. See Section 8.2 Player for further information about this option.
On an additional configuration page, you can set the display options for the cartwall. Choose whether the cartwall should be displayed embedded in the main window (below the playlist(s)) or in its own window. If the latter option is set, you can additionally choose whether the cartwall window should be open at startup, maximized, and on which screen it should appear (in case you own more than one monitor).
On an additional configuration page, you can set various display options for the cartwall.
- Show PFL/START/PAUSE/STOP buttons
-
Disable this option to hide the PFL/START/PAUSE/STOP buttons inside the cart players. This is useful when you do not want to control the players with the mouse but only through other remote control mechanisms like hotkeys, gameport closures etc. (see Section 8.5 Remote Control).
- Mouse click START/STOP
-
If checked, the cart players can be started and stopped with a single left button mouse click.
- Show time in seconds (instead of 1/10 s)
-
If checked, the elapsed/remaining time will be displayed in full seconds, otherwise in 1/10th of a second.
- Show ramp in seconds (instead of 1/10 s)
-
If checked, the ramp time countdown will be displayed in full seconds, otherwise in 1/10th of a second.
- Auto-truncate time
-
If checked, leading 0s will be stripped from the elapsed/remaining time if it is less than one hour.
Furthermore, you can choose whether the cartwall should be displayed embedded in the main window, or in its own window. In the latter case, you can specify whether it should be displayed maximized and/or in the foreground at startup. Furthermore, if you own multiple monitors, choose which screen to display the cartwall on initially.
On this page, you can activate a number of additional elements to be displayed above or below the browser windows:
- Standard clock
-
A standard, 24h digital clock, displayed below the browser.
- LED clock
-
A fancy LED clock, as found in most commercial radio studios. Also displayed below the browsers.
- Station logo
-
An arbitrary image, displayed above the browsers in the top right corner of the main window. Supported formats are JPG and BMP. The image is not automatically resize, so be sure to use an image with the correct dimensions.
Additional options are:
- Save along with playlists files (.mlp)
-
If checked, mAirList will save information about all active browsers to the .mlp playlist files. When opening such a file later, the browsers will be restored.
- Save along with playlist templates (.mlt)
-
Accordingly, but for template files (.mlt).
- Keep open when starting a new file
-
If checked, the browsers will remain open when you click New.
- Always show repository browser
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If checked, mAirList will open a repository browser when you start a new file, or when you open a file which does not contain one.
- Old style browsers
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Show the browser windows as tabbook, instead of the new, fancy Outlook-style sidebar.
One of mAirList's most prominent features is that the software can be remote controlled in various ways. At this time, remote control by hotkeys, joysticks, MIDI and a special network interface is supported. mAirList offers a set of commands by which all functions can be controlled. A complete reference is given in the appendix.
Chaining Commands. You can chain multiple commands by placing a semicolon between them. For example, PLAYER 1-1 STOP;PLAYER 1-2 START will stop the first player and start the second player at the same time.
Hotkeys are the easiest way to remote control mAirList. You can assign arbitrary commands to arbitrary keys. The hotkeys are registered as system hotkeys, so they will also work when mAirList is not the foreground window.
To define a new hotkey, first enter the Key field and press the desired key combination. Then, select an action from the list, or type the desired command, and click Add.
You can also use the buttons of a joystick to control mAirList. This is a very flexible feature, many people have exploited this method to build an interface to the fader start connection of their broadcast mixer. For example, one can easily disassemble a budget USB gamepad and connect the fader start GPO outputs to the button connectors of the game pad. This way, you get an 8-port fader start interface for less than 10 Euro. It is also possible to connect the GPO directly with the game port of your computer (although you will need to add some additional resistors, in order for Windows to recognize this interface as a joystick).
The configuration dialog shows all available joysticks (use the Control Panel to install yours first), and all of their buttons. Select a button and choose the actions to take when the button is pressed or released respectively.
MIDI means Musical Instrument Digital Interface and is a very common interface in the world of musical instruments and sound processing. Virtually every keyboard, synthesizer and sound processor has a MIDI interface. Additionally, there are many low-cost MIDI controllers available. mAirList can receive arbitrary MIDI commands and map them to internal actions.
A MIDI command consists of three values: Status, Data 1 and Data 2. For example, when you press a key on a MIDI keyboard, Status would indicate the type of event (e.g., key was pressed), Data 1 the key (note and octave), and Data 2 the velocity. You can assign an action for each combination of Status, Data 1 and Data 2. For Data 2, you can additionally specify whether the received value must be less or equal, greater or equal, or exactly the specified value. This way, you can easily events that may differ in their Data 2 value (for example, the above mentioned key press on a MIDI keyboard).
mAirList can also receive commands over a TCP/IP network. For that purpose, a special web server is opened on the specified port, offering a standard SOAP interface. To send commands to mAirList, use the mAirListCommand software provided on the home page.
The network interface bases on the RemObjects SDK (available from http://www.mairlist.com/en/documentation/v2.0/html/) and can also be accessed by RemObjects own protocol.
SAS is a propietary protocol used by mixers from the company Lawo. The mixer is attached to the serial interface of the computer. You can set up the parameters of serial port on this configuration page. If enabled, mAirList will intercept all GPIO events of the form Sxxx and Rxxx, where xxx is a number between 1 and 256. You can assign a command to each of these events.