Suggestions for reducing random freezes on RadioDJ?

[xanaftp]

Greetings. Our radio station, on one of its systems, is experiencing periodic random RadioDJ freezes (usually 5-10 seconds long). Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but this causes REST command failures, and sometimes brief dead-air for a few seconds. I would like some suggestions on what I can check for, or change, to reduce this freezing. Here is our set-up:

*RadioDJ software 2.0.0.1 is installed on two computers: Engineering, and On-Air. Both computers run Windows 7.
*RadioDJ MySQL database resides on the Engineering computer. All RadioDJ instances use the same database.
*Both computers use ethernet via the University's high-speed network.
*Music library is on a shared network M drive. This drive is local to the Engineering computer.
*There is a Node.js server that manages our radio station and both RadioDJs, and provides a station API, which runs on the Engineering computer.
*The OnAir computer is the primary computer used for serving off-air automation, rather than the engineering computer. This is so DJs can see it.
*The periodic freezing has only been observed on the OnAir computer (I classify it as a remote computer since it does not house the MySQL database nor music library).
*The freezing tends to happen from time to time AFTER RadioDJ loads a new track and attempts to begin playing, but BEFORE any audio actually starts coming out (so I suspect it may be an issue loading audio data rather than an issue with MySQL).
*The freezes are generally 5-10 seconds long and happen a couple times per day. There has been one freeze lasting longer, triggering our Node.js fallback mechanism that switched our system over to the Engineering computer for automation (thinking OnAir crashed).

Generally, the freezes don't do much harm, apart from failed REST commands which can result in the queue not being cleared when it should (we heavily rely on REST working on both RadioDJs given we use a Node.js API sub-system). But the longer freezes sometimes result in dead air time.

Suggestions for troubleshooting these matters would be greatly appreciated. I'm not necessarily expecting an answer to a fix given the complexity of this set-up, but some guidance on where to look / test to find the issue.

[Marius]

5-10 seconds is way too much time to load a track. On my test setup with a gigabit connection with the files residing on a Zyxel NAS the files are loading in less than a second, so something is happening there. I understand that you have a high speed network, but are you sure that in some moments the network is very busy?
Also in the moments you see that freezing, can you open task manager and see if it's not a process on the main computer that is using a lot of resources?
Can you try to put some files locally (on the main RadioDJ computer hdd) to see if it behaves the same?

[Calypso]

Do you use the auto DJ feature? And how many tracks are added with your rotation? What I noticed with my setup (several systems with a central database) is that database performance is critical, especially whenever it has to load a new rotation. If lots of tracks are added by a rotation and your database performance isn't the best you can get quite some delay in which RadioDJ freezes.

[country101]

I agree with Marius here in part. Have you updated to the latest version of RDJ? it might help in some aspects. I agree that 10 secs is to long. I have seen this with 1.8 back in the day but that was because my network was busy and even though I had Gig network, my router was the cause. it was doing something with the packets and just needed a reset. I would make sure your MYSQL is optimized. Make sure you have the latest network card drivers. Just make sure everything is up to snuff.

[golf97fm]

I  must agree that this V2 version is laggyer and you get more pauses than i had in the previous version 1.8
when loading and running heavier rotations 2-4 seconds pauses

I rebuilt my system and run Win 7 X64 and cut all software back ... Barebones running

I use 1 PC for Radiodj and Database and Music
And another PC for Stereo Tool Fm broadcast and streaming

V2 in the allot better in other respects

Previous to that i ran V1.8 and stereo tools / streaming etc all on 1 pc with no issue....

Phil

[Marius]

There are a lot of changes between these two versions. The new version uses .NET Framework 4.6 which has higher system requirements than 3.5. Also the track processing is higher in the new version to achieve more accurate cue point mixing.
Anyway, even with these changes on a decent computer should not be problems.

[golf97fm]

So Marius well PC spec do you recommend ..??

[Marius]

To tell you the truth, i always try to make the tests and optimize the code for low/mid range computers, because if it works on them, for sure it will work on better ones too.
My non-stop test computer is a Zotac ID82 with 8GB DDR3 and Windows 10 64bit kept up to date, which as you can see is not a UFO, but i never encountered any freezing problems like the ones described here.

[golf97fm]

I am not a fan of windows 10... 

I am waiting for the next batch of money install new server Rack and Servers... Maybe try 3 Servers  / 1 x SQL / 1 x Music server / 1 x RadioDj

I wonder is it is an issue with Windows 7 x64 but i find it very stable and normally problem free

Maybe would be interesting to see who is getting these Freezing problem and on what platform ..?

Maybe see if is common to 1 platform and find a workaround or patch..?

[country101]

I have non UGM like Marius. Mine is running windows 10 pro and not a burp. The one thing I found is it smoother opening than the previous version. V2 is barely a blip on memory usage. Heck Chrome uses more memory than RDJv2. I am still running the latest stable version of MariahSQL. It has yet to fail. I suggested to make sure you have the latest version of drivers, software etc. Defrag and the like too. I have no issues here on an i5 PC. I do wish however that we could get the update files in a zip so we dont have to do reinstalls all the time.

[Marius]

I do wish however that we could get the update files in a zip so we dont have to do reinstalls all the time.

OFFTOPIC: One easy workaround to this is to create a new folder for the new installation and then you simply update the files you want, as you would do from a zip file. However the way i setup the installer, will only update the .dll & .exe files, leaving all configuration files as they are if they are found, so i think that the update process is way quicker than replacing manually all files. Not to say that manually replacing files increases the chances to skip by accident updating some files which can cause errors.

[Capt_Fuzzy]

I wonder is it is an issue with Windows 7 x64 but i find it very stable and normally problem free

I've been running RadioDJ on a Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit box for over two years with no major issues, except for what I myself have caused...
I seriously doubt that it's Windows 7...

[odonel]

I concur Captain,

I am running mine in a VPS with 3GB ram. My only issues are nothing major.importing takes a long time and some tags are messed up. Other than these, it seems pretty stable even on that VPS. Are you guys running any other apps? Check your sound and video drivers.

[bdclaus]

I getting somewhat of the same problem.
My test bed is acer laptop dual core 4gb ram, Hard wired into the my network gb connection.Running 2.0.0.3 Maria DB Music on a Nas Drive (Synology) 75+K of titles. Using AutoDJ Rotation is Random, No Sweepers or voice.  What seem to happening is song starting fine but the infomation is lagging between 3-5 seconds. this is happening on all songs in the playlist (avg. about 7 titles). When it gets down to 2 titles the program starts add more to the play list. This where I'am getting a lag between 10-12 sec while it loads the data.(song is still playing fine). Now Iam starting to get Same Artists back to back randomly. The AutoDJ Filters Same Song 120 min, Same Artist 60 Min, and Same Album 60 min. Any thoughts or suggestions.
Brian

[He-j]

Did you tick the Repeat Rules boxes in the rotation.

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