Tether - Audiovault Integration Overview/Installation

Tether integrates with several automation systems, including Audiovault v9.20 and higher. This series of articles is generally geared toward your station's IT/engineering staff, but it's a good idea for program directors to be familiar at a higher level with this information too.

There are three basic pieces to integrating Audiovault with Futuri:

• Now Playing information - Song elements and some song cart "commands" will be configured to export from Audiovault to Futuri.
• Voting session integration - We'll install a piece of software called Echo to copy winning songs into "placeholder" carts, so that the winning song can play wherever those placeholder carts are placed in the log.
• Music Logs- Echo will also be configured to watch the folder where your station's music logs are saved. These music logs are used for two primary purposes:
  • Voting Sessions - Depending on the voting feature your station uses, music logs help to tell Futuri what the vote options should be (or to see what songs should be used for separation purposes), and Echo will modify your log files to insert each voting session's corresponding placeholder cart.
  • Instant Alerts - Users can sign up to receive alerts when their requests are about to play on your station. Futuri's system compares what your station is playing now with what's scheduled in the near future, so that we can send these alerts ahead of when the request actually plays (so there's time for the user to turn on the radio).

Insallation 

To work through this installation process for the first time, please contact Futuri VIP Support.  A remote session with one of our Support Agents should take about 30-60 minutes per station.

This process includes the following steps:

• Now Playing Setup
• Crowd Control Setup
• Setting up the LDR Category in Audiovault
• Echo Setup
• Configuring Your Music Scheduler to Export Logs to Echo's Import Folder
• Testing

Now Playing Setup

Now Playing data from Audiovault to Futuri's Echo software is handled through TRE. These instructions assume that your station already uses TRE for other Now Playing exports (such as RDS or your stream), but if you don't already have TRE, Futuri VIP Support can help you to obtain a license for it (and initial TRE installation instructions) from BE.

To pass data from TRE to Echo, you will need either the Listener Driven Radio or XML Primary output enabled from TRE. If you do not already have this output enabled (or if your existing XML outputs are already in use), Futuri VIP Support can help you to put in a purchase order with BE for the Listener Driven Radio output, which is available at a discounted rate from the normal XML output. Once BE licenses the output, they will send back a new tre.bin file and you can replace the existing tre.bin with the new one, and then restart TRE.

To enable the Listener Driven Radio (or XML) output, open TRECfg.exe and navigate to that output's tab. Check the Enable box, and enter a folder path in the Path box. This could be something like C:\np, or you could put it in the station's Echo folder (likely C:\Echo), especially if Echo is the only utility that's going to use this file. Finally, type a filename into the File box. It doesn't matter what the filename is, as long as its extension is .xml

You'll also want to navigate to the Event Mapping tab and enter "LDR" under the Music list of categories. You'll create the LDR category in Audiovault further down in these instructions.

You may need to save TRECfg.exe and then re-start TRE to implement these changes.

Crowd Control Setup

Crowd Control is an Audiovault feature that BE has discontinued selling, but they have allowed Futuri to re-use its basic infrastructure to deliver winning songs with Tether. It basically works like this:

• Echo fetches winning songs from Futuri's web servers and writes the winning cut ID to a file.
• The Crowd Control script reads the cut ID from that file and copies the audio in that cut ID over to a "placeholder" cart called {ccSlot}.
• Audiovault plays the audio from the winning cut ID when the {ccSlot} is played. It should also copy over artist/title metadata.

Installing Crowd Control is fairly simple. On the on-air machine, navigate to C:\audiovau\Config\Scripts\AVAirEngine. You will need to add an avair.py file to that folder (which you can download here).

On line 16 of avair.py, set the file to equal the folder where you want Echo to write the winning song to. You probably don't need to change it from its default (C:\audiovau\CrowdControl\ccDownload.txt), but you should make sure that folder exists on the computer.

Once this has been done, restart the computer.

Setting up the LDR Category in Audiovault

The commands to trigger Tether voting features will live in an LDR category in Audiovault, and that category will be treated as "music" by TRE.

Once you have created the LDR category, you'll want to add cuts in that category for each of the following:

• 9999 - UPickStart
• 9998 - Empty Song Slot
• 9997 - Begin Song Replacement
• 9996 - End Song Replacement
• 9995 - Begin Top Song
• 9994 - End Top Song
• 9993 - Begin FaceOff
• 9992 - End FaceOff Next

As you create each one, you'll want to hit Start to let it record for a couple of seconds. You can later replace the content of each of these items with a piece of call-to-action imaging, but these elements must run for at least 1 second before segueing into the next element.

Echo Setup

Futuri's Echo software bridges Audiovault and Futuri's web servers, allowing listeners to interact with the station programming via the station website and/or mobile apps.

Echo should generally be downloaded from here and you can obtain a settings file (named station.xml) from Futuri VIP Support. Do not run Echo.exe without first configuring the station.xml file.

To install Echo (typically on the same PC as Audiovault), create the folder C:\Echo\XXXX (where XXXX is the station’s call letters) and extract the contents of the downloaded Echo.zip (link above) to the same folder.

In the newly extracted folder, place the station.xml file from Futuri VIP Support. It must be saved in the same folder as Echo.exe.

When finished configuring, save station.xml and repeat steps as needed for other stations. Each station will need its own copy of Echo.

Note:  Microsoft .NET 4.0 or higher is required for Echo. If you're running Windows 7 or higher, you should be all set, but If needed, you can download .NET 4.0 by clicking here and following the instructions.  When .NET 4.0 is confirmed to be installed, run Echo.exe and navigate to File > Boot on Startup so that Echo will start up with the PC. 

Configuring Your Music Scheduler to Export Logs to Echo's Import Folder

Note: If you configured Echo's value to be TRUE, this step is not necessary.

In order for Audiovault to be able to playback winning songs, {ccSlot} placeholders for those winning songs must be in the log. Echo will handle this, as follows:

• Echo will receive the log from your music scheduler when you export it.
• For "UPick"-style voting sessions, Echo will replace the group of vote options with a single {ccSlot} placeholder.
• For Top Song and Takeover, Echo will replace each element named "Empty Song Slot" with a {ccSlot} placeholder.
• Echo will place the modified log in the folder that Audiovault reads logs from, and will place a copy of the original log in a backup folder.

In order to make this work, your music scheduler should be configured to export logs to Echo's new "input" folder. To do this, open your music scheduler to its log export settings and add /input to the export path (i.e. M:\WXYZ\Music\input).

Next, in the original export folder (i.e. M:\WXYZ\Music) add folders called "input" and "backup".

Because Echo is configured to export its parsed copy of the log to the original export folder (i.e. M:\WXYZ\Music), it is not necessary to change the log import settings for Audiovault (since it will continue to pull logs from the same place it always has).

Testing

Once the steps above have been completed and Echo is running, make sure that there are no noticeable errors on Echo’s screen.

Make sure that the next song played in Audiovault is received by Futuri. Now Playing entries should also be displayed in Echo's GUI.

To test the Takeover/Top Song check-in process, you can play the “Begin Song Replacement” command. Within 30 seconds, Echo should ask Futuri for a winning song.

To test the music log parsing process, you can move the logs around to simulate a new log:

• Go to Echo’s output folder (found in the output field in station.xml, i.e. M:\WXYZ\Music)
• Cut today’s log and all future logs and paste them in Echo's input folder (found in the input field in station.xml, i.e. M:\WXYZ\Music\input).
• Within about 60 seconds, Echo should detect a change and put the parsed copy in the output folder (and a backup in the backup folder).

To do a full end-to-end test, schedule a voting session or Takeover in your music scheduler and export the log from there. It should land in Echo's input folder and within a minute or so Echo will move it to the output folder. You can then import that log in Audiovault and make sure the inserted {ccSlot} placeholder audio fills with a song when the time comes.