Futuri Mobile - SS32 Integration Overview/Installation

Futuri Mobile integrates with several automation systems, including SS32 (Scott Studios). 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 with this information at a higher level, too.

There are two basic pieces to integrating SS32 with Futuri:

• Now Playing information - Song elements and some song cart "commands" will be configured to export from SS32 to Futuri.
• 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:
  • 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).

Installation

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
• Echo Setup
• Configuring your music scheduler to export logs to Echo's import folder
• Testing

Now Playing setup

Now Playing data from SS32 to Futuri can be configured with either of the following utilities:

• DSM32
• TRE

DSM32

If this is your first time using DSM32, you will need to tell it whether you are using SS32 or Maestro. This is done via the SS32/Maestro tab.

Setup SS-32 to send Format D to DSM-32 on port 5500 or set DSM-32 to connect to Maestro on port 11108

All users will then create a new Pass Through account as a host, using Format XML. The IP address is the IP of the PC where you'll be installing Echo, the port should be 9000, and Send Only First (Playing) Line should be checked, as shown in the screenshot below:

TRE

For the most direct data chain possible, we recommend sending Now Playing data directly from DSM32 (above) to Echo. However, some stations that already export Now Playing data from DSM32 to TRE may prefer to send all Now Playing data through TRE. The following paragraphs assume that your station is already sharing data from DSM32 with TRE.

To pass data from DSM32 through TRE on its way 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 SS32 further down in these instructions.

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

Echo Setup

Futuri's Echo software bridges SS32 and Futuri's web servers, allowing listeners to interact with the station programming via the mobile apps.

You can submit your station information here, and our VIP Support Team will pre-configure your Echo application for you. 

To install Echo (typically on the same PC as DSM32 and/or TRE), 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

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 SS32 (since it will continue to pull logs from the same place it always has).

A Note on Placeholders

Placeholders' names are tied to their position in the clock. For example, the first voting session of the 10am hour is LDR/1001, and the second voting session of the 9pm hour is LDR/2102. The same naming scheme is used for Takeover placeholder carts.

During the first voting session of the 10am hour, Echo will save the audio to LDR/1001 and LDR/1101, just in case the winner will be played in the next hour. Once LDR/1001 has played, winners will be saved to LDR/1002 and LDR/1101, etc.

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 SS32 is received by Echo. Now Playing entries should also be displayed in Echo's GUI.

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).