To OtsLabs friends: the features that radio guys expect

[mpanda]

In order to prevent any kind of misunderstanding this post is not a complain, all my respect and gratitude goes to OtsLabs for the punctual, proactive, friendly support to satisfy all my needs since 2005.
Such support (added to the excellent performance of OtsDJ) conquered my fidelity and it's still taking me to express enthusiastic feedback either online or offline.
I think customer's feedback is one of the best driver of lifeblood for the success of a software house so it's a good way to exchange your great job.

Probably of all your customers radio users are a minority segment and that could explain the reason why OtsDJ still has not been developed to such direction.
I remember you declared to come from broadcasting field so you'd agree either OtsAV or Esperance don't include more tools than OtsDJ to improve radio production.
That means OtsDJ's package was and it still be great but it miss a main braodcasting feature: the jingles machine or third deck. (infact it was in the list of future upgrades to 2.0)
It's possible some user could point other features but believe me who is radio veteran like me coming from professional broadcasting field will agree on the lack of the third deck.
I presume you would have developed something similar for the vocal watermark implemented in OtsAV free version (a kind of third audio source in the pipeline)
The crucial nature of such feature induced me to invest money on OtsDJ project (I'm proud owner of 5 licenses and they worth any cent of their value) and to wait the completion of the path.
I don't know if OtsLabs will give such future upgrade for free or less (in my modest opinion the promise of free upgrades to 2.0 would be not considered as obsolete until the release of the jingles machine because it is a primary radio feature), I'll respect your decision anyway, but it's the feature that OtsDJ need since a long time and what radio guys expect.
Thanks.

[DJMartin]

The third deck or jingle deck is mentioned several times. I would love to have one for playing jingles, sound effects and it can be totaly manual usage. For you radio guys it will require some scheduling I bet.
I do hope a third or even fourth deck will show up in esperance concept.

[milky]

Radio has changed dramatically over the years. Fifteen years ago, most studios had two turntables, several self-cueing cart machines, often an open-reel tape deck for pre-recorded programs and maybe a CD player or two. The presenter would load up the cart machines with ads, and, whilst they were playing out, would select records and slip-cue one or both turntables. At the end of the ads, maybe a bit of live mic, and then fire off one of the records. That gave the presenter about 3 minutes to check the schedule, select the next carts, and away it would all go again. SOme of the higher profile presenters even had a "producer" who would so all the hack work so they could be "the Golden Voice" without too much stress.

When I bought my first Ots License in early 2000, I tried "Otsjuke" in a radio studio, and, with a few adjustments, it worked OK. I used one deck to preload a track. Whilst that was playing, I had enough time to select several other tracks, plus a block of commercials, and set them in the playlist. With extensive use of the "Stop and Recue" directive to stop the next deck, preloaded with the next track, it was workable and sounded similar in presentation to the analogue studio.

The digital age, along with cost pressures and networking changes have made the playout program the core component. The cart machines, reel-to-reel, CD players, turntables - even the wall clock are all gone. Now, it's all controlled through very sophisticated software, similar at the core to Ots with playlist search and cue, but with many "tools" which can be invoked from the keyboard or via touch-screen. These include numerous decks (minimum of 4), voice-tracking, intro/outro markers visible on the screen, analogue and digital clock/countdown from various cue points and many more. All child windows are resizeable and dockable, and can be dropped off the screen completely when not needed. When this happens, all other windows resize to take up the real-estate.

THIS is the direction I would like to see Ots Broadcaster move. Keep the audio engine, playlist search etc. They are great, super stable and proven over many years. There needs to be a major overhaul of the screen layout, the number of decks etc.

Furthermore, there are back-office requirements. Trafficking is a huge area of commercial staions. Ad rotation  (you shouldn't play two car ads back-to-back for instance), ad attrition (drop when the due date or countract count is reached), ensuring that the contracted number of ads is played with proof for the client, automatic billing to the client at the end of the campaign, or at agreed times, the ability to adjust the schedule on the fly, etc, etc.

Then there are copyright reporting needs. Every track played has to be reported in the appropriate category. Most countries also have the equivalent of our "OzCon" (Australian content). There is an obligation for most stations to play a higher percentage of local content, and be able to accurately monitor, adjust and account for the content levels.

I realise that the back-office components are not Ots Corp's cup of tea, and that is fine because there are other packages out there that can take care of that, BUT there must be front-end and back-end "hooks" - at the very least, the ability to import/export csv files with the appropriate details.

Like you Mario, this is NOT a grumble, it's a factual statement of the minimum requirements necessary for Ots to compete in the Broadcast Industry.  

[Lane]

There is one other thing I think is key for many radio users. Voice tracking is a reality. I simple couldn't run my station without it. Live is wonderful (well, actually, I suck at live, I appreciate the opportunity for a 'retake' ), but I simply can't be there all the time. The ability to right click any point in a playlist, and pull up a recording interface that lets me record and preview, and click to save, would increase the usefulness tenfold to me. I could set up a 4 hour block of content, voice track it all, and go pick the kids up from school all while sounding like I'm live.

I recall another radio user here who tried to voice track with OtsAV, and it amounted of an hour show taking a half hour to prepare with the external recording, saving, processing and importing to Ots. Not much of a time saving.

[mpanda]

The third deck would be perfect for voice tracking where the vocal track will overlap the 'outro' and the 'intro' of disk to disk music flow.
Some way like the watermark in OtsAV free version.
It would work like an 'internal' live input.

[JAylmer]

Mr Lane:  Instead of "voice tracking" why not use a text-to-voice reader. Sure it's not your own voice but these days they sound so real I doubt that you could pick a synthetic voice from a human one.  Also text readers don't take holidays or get sick.  The text reader I use has speech inflections just like a person (mostly).

The text is stored in a database and much could be reused.  Time & station id are also done and all synchronised to OTS playlist as playlist items.
Artist & Title information are read from the OTS file.

You could do crossovers back and forward to "Amy".

[Jumpin' Jeff]

That would be great if you could teach the reader your own voice to make it even more realistic. We don't everything to sound like Ford Sync or Apple Siri.

[JAylmer]

http://www.ivona.com

Check out the quality.  And they can create your voice also, (not sure of the price tag:)

You could also have a number of fill-in announcers

[mpanda]

uhmmm.... I don't think synth voice could be the best interaction with listeners... they expect more from their favourite jock.
Sometimes you can see jocks who make radio to satisfy more their own need than to increase the audience experience.
IMO to make Radio means something 'plus' you can give TO audience, not the opposite.
Outflow vs Inflow.......Successful radio is the best 'outflow' in the air.

[Jumpin' Jeff]

http://www.ivona.com

Check out the quality.  And they can create your voice also, (not sure of the price tag:)

You could also have a number of fill-in announcers

That's all good and all, but where is the life in her voice? It all seems a little bland to me. That's where you can determine synth or real. All the words are equally drawn out as well. Too uniform, and you can here the occasional break in her sentences. Don't get me wrong, it sounds great. Todays tech in synth voice is the best ever, but you can still tell it's not real.

[JAylmer]

Looks like I took a bit of a beating with the synth voice.  In five years time we will discuss this again!

Perhaps it could be used for short periods of time with certain audiences. 
Mature audiences may be easier to fool while younger audiences expect you to run up and down the wall continuously.

Agreed there is no substitute for a live Jock but if it is too expensive to pay a Jock for 7/24 then perhaps an "Amy" for a few hours per day, might be better than nothing?
Could read news perhaps as received via RSS/Twitter/Email, can announce station ID, time, announce tune title, artist, programmed messages, you name it, its all possible and best of all; quick to set-up as you can reuse. A bit more character in her voice as suggested and it would be convincing.

I have to admit that sometimes I do notice the "equally drawn out" quality of the synthetic voice and I cringe a bit.  But equally I do get some new people seriously wanting to meet her as she does appear to interact with the group.

[Lane]

It's really a performance. Synth can't do that. It might be fine for top of hour weather reports or something. When I talk about the local car wash fundraiser, part of my job is to motivate people. Not to merely inform. Interesting idea though, that I've actually experimented with for the weather. I still wasn't happy with it though.

But I also don't see how that is practical in terms of getting Ots to play it. I'm not thrilled about the amount of steps needed to get audio into Ots, particularly for a one off file. I ultimately want to be able to drop any audio file in on the fly, have it play, and never be part of the Ots media library.

[Jumpin' Jeff]

My comments weren't meant to beat you with. Just friendly comments was the intent.

[mpanda]

Voice tracking it's an opportunity for some kind of 'not live' broadcasting productions.
I mean countdowns, infotainment and several formats where the jock need to act scripts, screenplays or production elements like cuts of interviews.
We did that way with voice tracks of Casey Kasem and Scott Shannon for Tom Round's American Top 40.
Where the jock need to entertain by 'ad lib' (on live or less) there voice tracking could not work as vocal insert is strictly related to the music's mood flow and most of all to his public speaking skills, empathy, gag and culture applied to the whole contest of the show in real time.

[Lane]

and I'm lousy at all of that!