ZaraRadio, S.A.M., Myriad, Genosys, and the question goes on...

C

CharmingNathan

Member
Hello,

I am hoping people out there can advise.

We run a new-ish station with a very basic setup: ZaraRadio running on an ancient XP Laptop, playing mp3's on random setting and pre-recorded programmes.

However, we are looking to upgrade, including the playout system so have started looking at the options, the most popular appear to be the above.

ZaraRadio is basic but it's free, people seem to think that S.A.M. is either the worst piece of software ever written and no-one should use it, or the greatest gift to Internet Radio there has ever been. Myriad is supposed to be very difficult to setup, but great once it is. I have heard the same comment about Myriad as I have about Genosys, that for most I.R. setups, it is going way over the top.

In a former life, I used to be a Computer Technician, so conversant with XP, and have been obliged to get to know CentOS Linux to a very limited extent.

What does everyone here recommend?

Thanks for your time.
 
TBH Zararadio does the job if you have space dedicated to a studio and are prepared to have a windows box running 24/7 I do have this and a VDSL connection but the PC I've got for Zararadio uses 200W of electric, also updating the schedule requires a VNC connection so I've found it easier to use Sourcefabric Airtime but beware it is not the easiest to set up and has some bugs!

if you want to have live shows and something for jingles this is a good bit of software from the Netherlands (most of it is free but the advanced features don't cost all that much)

http://www.verdonschot.eu/

Some British software (I've got the jingles to work but not the automation; that may just be me misreading the instructions; the chap who develops it is very helpful)

https://www.playitsoftware.com/

Most of these are paid for apps but not as expensive as Myriad etc and there a few free apps

http://www.charliedavy.co.uk/
 
Thanks for the suggestion and recommendation, General Lighting, I shall look into that software.

This is a kind off add-on to my original question, and so obvious, I never thought to ask it!

One of the brilliant features of ZaraRadio is a random play option, so it will play your songs in any order it chooses 24 hours a day. 7 days per week, but do either S.A.M. Broadcaster, RadioDJ, or any other automation software have this feature?

I know they both have 24/7 automation, but this normally means playing A, B, C, and D, in rotation, in ZaraRadio, you could get A, B, C, D in one hour then C, B, D, A, in another.

I'm assuming they do, but I get the feeling it's not as quite as simple as it is in ZaraRadio of pressing the downward pointing arrow of a drop-down box and selecting "Random" and then pressing the play button - or is it?

Thanks for your help.
 
I found another guide to RadioDJ which explains (amongst many other useful things) how to do this.

I did try out RadioDJ myself and found it very impressive for freeware but the version I was evaluating choked on big MP3 files (1 hour or more) after a while (it was fine with smaller MP3 tracks). That may have been fixed now; unfortunately I haven't had time to try it again.

This guide is written by a Dutch chap but is in English...

http://dj-jhonny.nl/index.php
 
We use this italian software which is a bit of a nightmare at times called Xauto from Xdevel
it`s ok to run and seems stable. But when things go wrong the support is in Italian, not good.
But the software is quite a good platform to work with
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top