ProppFrexx ONAIR User-Forum

I just learned how to make a script. I have made a one hour script and added it to the scheduler so it just repeats every hour.

The first track is the top hour ID I made on script line one, then music on line 2 set to loop line here so the top hour only plays at the top hour. Then I have multiple songs and some PSA's in the script.

I have set "Allow early start" and set the time to 2 minutes before and after the top hour time is reached to allow early or late start.

However, almost every time the top hour comes the damn software is fading out songs. Really annoying. I tried adjusting settings but ONAIR keeps doing whatever it wants.

For example starting a 4 minute song at 1:59 and fading it at 2:00 or 2:02.

Ive tried to read up on the forum but found no answer.

So what am I doing wrong? And why does this software NOT time out the hour properly with random songs/PSA's in the script etc. Other software I've tried does this!
And if ONAIR can't find a track to play to fill in to prevent dead air or going over/under time, then there should be an option to add a WHOLE folder of FILLER tracks ONAIR can pull from to make the timing work out. This is how this software should work. The bridge track feature is ok, but not plausible for every damn hour, plus you can only specify ONE track! If I was an internet broadcaster or a real station this would be pretty unprofessional. I can see bridge track would work well if the next hours show was a live broadcast coming from an external broadcaster streaming to ONAIR. But for script playlist, this is silly.

So...?

PF is not doing what it want, but only doing what you configure
Please check the Max. Delay option in your Program Entry.
Click on the '?' Icon at the top right of the window to get help for every option.

To explain this a more in detail:
A program is started in advance by it's given show in advance setting, eg 90 sec. This is the maximum time a soft starting program might start early. The max delay time defines how long a current track might play (remaining time) before the new program is forced to start. As such with both setting you can define, that a current track at least runs for x sec. Before it got stopped in order to start the program.

I however did not implement any automatic fillers or song picks to make a program exactly X minutes long for the following reasons:
- it does not sound professional, if the last minutes of a program are filled by jingles or sweepers
- picking a last track based on its duration would violate its script filters, category or history
- most professional stations anyhow are moderated or use voice tracking, where this feature is anyhow useless
- with the existing settings you can ensure, that a track is not cut after a few seconds
- and there is always the option to pick those tracks manually and pre-prepare an exactly length playlist manually if really needed

However, I might add such a feature in the future, but I am still not sure how to deal with existing features, like filter rules, script rules, histories etc. as all these are concurrent features which are not working, if the system would have to pick songs based on their matching duration! As basically just picking tracks duration based is not very professional.

Please note, that a new Program Option ('TryEnsureExactLength') was added to v3.0.14.0 which should overcome of your issues described above.

See here for details:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1122

In the end I would like to note, that 'picking tracks, so that their playback duration matches an exact length while maintaining certain other rules, like histories, filters, script-rules etc.' is a NP-complete problem, which can not be solved by a fixed algorithm. Effectively it can only be solved one a 'try-and-error' basis. However, given the real-time approach of ProppFrexx, as it only picks/schedules new tracks when needed, this is only possible to a certain extent. See also my previous post.

OK, I think I understand. I will try this out.
Thank you!