NexGen Integration Troubleshooting - for Futuri Mobile & Tether

NexGen did not delete the losing songs in my "UPick"-style voting session.

There are several possible causes for this:

• NexGen not running on the utility/overnight machine (which is the PC that requests winners from Futuri)
• Voicetracks are bordering the LDR Vote Options Start or LDR Vote Options End (NexGen doesn’t modify content around voicetracks).
• If there are more than 64 elements between the UPickStart and LDR Vote Options End (including those two break notes), the voting session will fail. According to RCS, "elements" include songs, liners, spots, imaging, voice tracks, and break notes. If there are 64 or more elements during that timespan, you'll want to move the UPickStart closer to the winning song position (15 minutes or less is a good rule of thumb).
• Extra elements, like imaging, were inserted into the voting session.
• If you have updated the PC running the overnight processes for that station, you'll want to make sure the LDR and SRPlus credentials from the old PC's wizard.ini file have been added to your new PC's wizard.ini file.

I received an email from Futuri VIP Support about a "NexGen Communication Alert" but everything looks fine here.

These email alerts are sent when you're running a voting session, but NexGen is not requesting a winner for that voting session. Everything else may seem to be functioning as expected (and it'll look OK on your website), but if NexGen isn't requesting a winner, it won't delete the losers and the station will run behind schedule.

The most common cause for this is that there are too many elements in between the UPickStart and the LDR Vote Options End. See above for more reasons that NexGen might not "check in" and thereby not delete the losing songs.

NexGen is not inserting winning songs in my Top Song, Takeover, or FaceOff sessions.

There are two possible causes for NexGen to not insert winning songs into your Empty Song Slot(s):

• NexGen is not checking in with Futuri for a winning song:
  • Make sure NexGen and Echo are both running on the utility machine, and that the PC is connected to the internet.
  • Try to play another Begin Song Replacement (the command that tells NexGen to start requesting winning songs).
• The song NexGen is receiving from Futuri is invalid:
  • Check with Futuri VIP Support to see what song(s) are being returned when NexGen checks in with us. If these cut IDs are no longer valid in NexGen for some reason, you'll want to either correct that in NexGen or remove them from your Takeover or Top Song playlist.

I received an email from Futuri VIP Support saying "No Logs Received."

If Futuri has not received your log for the date specified, it means that we will not be able to activate "UPick"-style voting sessions for that day until we receive a log. It may be worth noting that NexGen will still delete "losing" songs to keep you running on time, but users will not be able to participate in the session.

If you use Top Song or Takeover, your music logs are also used for forward separation (to make sure we don't insert a song into NexGen that is already pre-scheduled).

For all stations, music logs also help us to send listener alerts BEFORE users' requests play on air (so they have time to turn on the radio).

If you receive a "No Logs Received" email from Futuri VIP Support, here are some suggestions to fix the problem:

• Confirm that Echo is running.
• Find the folder that the log push utility watches and confirm that the missing log is there. This folder is usually R:\NexGen\Music, but you can confirm it by navigating to C:\Echo, finding the folder for the correct station, and then looking at the station.xml folder for the input path.
• Remove the missing log from the watch folder and then put it back in. The log push utility should detect a change and send the new file to Futuri.

If you aren’t sure what to do, reply to the email and attach the missing log file. Futuri VIP Support will then troubleshoot with you to make sure the problem does not happen again.

I'm about to replace my utility machine. What do I need to do to make sure Tether keeps working?

Many NexGen stations are currently in the process of upgrading old Windows XP computers, specifically their utility machines.

To make sure your Tether functionality continues to work, you'll want to do the following:

• Instead of using NexGen's default wizard.ini file on the new computer, back up the current wizard.ini file on your old PC, and re-use that file.
• Back up the Echo folder on the C:\ drive and place it on the new PC's C:\ drive. It's worth noting that Echo creates its own log files each day, so we'd recommend deleting the old log files (from more than 7 days ago) before transferring Echo (for a faster transfer).

Once you have Echo on the new PC, you'll want to run Echo.exe and then navigate to File > Start on Boot to add the program to your startup tasks.

Some stations have an older utility called Music Load (with a green and purple logo) installed on their older utility machines. Music Load is an RCS program that pre-dates Echo. If you have Echo, you don't also need Music Load to send information to Futuri, and it does not have to move over to the new machine.

When I import my music log, there are no Empty Song Slots left, even though I have them scheduled in my log.

Most stations have NexGen configured to delete all Empty Song Slots when a music log is imported. You can configure NexGen to not do this (by un-checking the box under Config > Station > Music > Modify/View > Delete Empty Song Slots), and if you do, NexGen will instead ASK you every time you import a music log whether you want to delete Empty Song Slots.

To set up each day's Takeover (or Top Song or FaceOff) sessions so that it will include Empty Song Slots, there are two options:

• Option 1 - Import every hour EXCEPT the Takeover hour(s), telling NexGen it's ok to delete the Empty Song Slots in those hours, and then do a second import for the Takeover hour(s), telling NexGen NOT to delete the Empty Song Slots in those hours. This option is typically chosen by stations that want to put their Takeover imaging in their music scheduler, or pre-schedule a couple songs during their Takeover hour(s).
• Option 2 - Import every hour EXCEPT the Takeover hour(s), telling NexGen it's ok to delete the Empty Song Slots in those hours, and then place any imaging or extra elements for the Takeover hours directly in NexGen. In these cases, the music scheduler just doesn't schedule anything for the Takeover hours, and everything for those hours is managed directly in NexGen.