Hi -

Centova does so much so well but as yet I have not worked out how to achieve the following. Here are the details

1) I want to start a scheduled playlist at exactly 8am and have that playlist end at exactly 9am.

2) The first (and only) track of that playlist is a 5 minute music/introduction track and has an image of the dj hosting the show and the track titled "You're listening to the 8am to 9am breakfast show with" "Bob Smith" in the metadata. This track info and the image of the dj then show on the web page using the widgets.

3) The dj listens to this first track of the show. As soon as he hears the opening bars of this track, he stops the web player and then connects to the server using BUTT and goes live.

4) Having tested steps 2 and 3 I found that the metadata and image in step 2 stay on the webpage for as long as the dj remains connected with BUTT - this provides accurate info on the live show to those that arrive at the player web page during the broadcast.

5) The dj ends his show by playing his last track which is more like elevator music than a real song. At the end of the 60 minute scheduled playlist I need centova to end that scheduled show - so that a new one, along similar lines, can run from 9am to 10am.

6) The way I though the show could end is by giving the dj just a 60 minute window for his connection time so that when he gets to the end of the 60 minutes Centova just cuts him off and the next show scheduled for 9am begins to plays its opening intro/music track.

Can this be done and if so how ?

Any answers or guidance much appreciated.

Hmmm - I cam across this here:  http://www.centova.com/en/faq/cast3/troubleshooting/scheduled_playlists_do_not_start_on_time

Can't you just send a signal to the source to skip to the next song?

Theoretically yes, however in order to do that, we would need to implement a realtime scheduler in the control daemon to send the appropriate signals at the exact time required by the playlists. We are considering this for a future release.

YES TO THIS - Not being able to end playlists at an exact time (ie top of the hour) is a major headache.

Centovacast is a reasonable priced piece of software.  Even though it does many things, it doesn't do everything.

To do more advanced functions, as you need, you should look at automation software like SAM by Spacial Audio, Station Play List by Station Playlist, OTS by OTS Labs, etc.

Hi Dennis -

Thx for responding. Am familiar with SAM, but the challenge here is to get this running on the server. Airtime does do this ie it will end a broadcast bang on the end of the show window whether a track is playing or not.

Centova provides excellent stats general playlist management, Airtime provides better schedule management options but poor stats and widgets. Between them there's a good solution. But getting Centova to start and stop a scheduled show to the clock rather than to when the last playing track ends would make a huge difference in its usability.