Silence detector

[neutralhills]

My biggest problem is that Windows 10 Pro now ignores my deferred updates and forces them on me anyhow, rebooting the system unexpectedly. Silence detection in RadioDJ, let alone running on the same system won't work worth a damn. I'm trying to be more aggressive about switching to my backup system and applying updates regularly, but Windows is still sabotaging me in this department. Think I'm going to have to switch to a streaming host that provides an AutoDJ failover for the rare occasion when my stream goes down.

Friggin' Microsoft...

[djclewes]

How do you do that

[Olav]

I would also like to see a Silent detection in RDJ.
We are linking in a remote studio via stream. Sometimes that studio is losing power on their playout system. That is out of my reach and I need to start the next track manually.

All of our dead air is due to these types of things, not that RDJ is failing. In my opinion, RDJ is among the most stable pieces of software for Windows I have ever used.

We have a silent detection system in our transmitters, and they alert me booth via email and SMS when it is silent.
But it means that I have to take action.
It would be great to make RDJ take action and play next track in the list when:
* AUTODJ is active AND
* set to AUTOMATED AND
* silent for a few seconds.

It is important that it is deactivated when running in manual mode as we only use an analog mixer and use RDJ as our music and pre-recorded programs playout.

[djclewes]

I agree. Be good to have the option of how long autodj waits before taking action

[djclewes]

When do you get silence?

Faulty track, database fault, event does not kick in properly, presenter fault.


Why do you get silence?


All the same answers above.

[djclewes]

Not trying to convince you. It would be good as a paid plugin

[xanaftp]

To bounce even more off of what was said in response to Olav, I agree that you have an issue that needs to be fixed... silence detection is a band-aid over a wound, but you need to fix the wound itself.

All that aside, there has got to be a way for you to tap into the silence alerts from the transmitter, such as the transmitter calling an HTTP API or something which then triggers the RadioDJ REST Server to do what you want it to do automatically. This will, of course, require development / coding knowledge (unless the transmitter supports HTTP calls, in which you can just have it directly hit calls to the RadioDJ REST server).

[Olav]

Hi!

It would not help when:

Quote
    Faulty track
    an event does not kick in properly
Quote
    database fault
Quote
    present fault.

Could not agree more!!!

But still, streaming is an issue as it will not continue to the next track until a play function is triggered. Therefore, I think, a silent detector would be good if something goes wrong.

Happy new year to all!

[neutralhills]

Therefore, I think, a silent detector would be good if something goes wrong.

The last dead air I had was caused by an unexpected Windows reboot on the main system, so having silence detection on that system wouldn't have helped. My automation and encoders are on separate PCs with audio processing between the automation and the encoding. When I have dead air it could be the automation, it could be the audio processing (either something died on the rack or the Breakaway One PC borked) or the encoder itself has gone down. Here's what happens on my hot spare automation:

• Pira CZ Silence Detector is set to monitor for 15+ seconds of dead air. It is monitoring the end stage of the audio processing right before the audio hits the encoder (RadioCaster).
• Passing this threshold trips the alarm condition.
• Pira runs a batch file that sends a kill command to RadioCaster on the encoding system in case it is still running and the fault is earlier in the chain.
• Pira spawns an instance of RadioDJ (set for AutoDJ and AutoPlay) and RadioCaster (auto connect) on the hot spare. This takes about 10 seconds and I'm back on air within 30 total seconds, albeit with a bit of my "sound" missing due to lack of audio processing.
• Pira sends an email to my phone, which is automatically translated to an SMS message letting me know my primary system just coughed out a hairball.

I don't have Pira set to restart if the audio comes back as I generally remote in from my phone to see what the hell happened (which is usually Windows). I can run a batch file on the primary automation that restarts RadioCaster on the encoder system while spawning RadioDJ on the main automation. If I don't see the audio coming in on RadioCaster, I know the fault is somewhere in the audio processing chain.

Anyhow, that's my setup. The hot spare is an off-lease PC from CDI computers (pic below of when I was setting it up). It's a Dell Optiplex 790 with 8 GB of RAM and it cost me about $150 delivered including the used FullHD monitor. Pira CZ Silence Detector is free.



I suppose it would be okay if Marius put silence detection into RadioDJ, but it's not something I need or would use.

[djclewes]

No matter if people want it or not it has turned in to a popular topic in future requests so surely that does give a hint that to some it would be a good plugin to have and others could disable or use it has a back up

[neutralhills]

No matter if people want it or not it has turned in to a popular topic in future requests so surely that does give a hint that to some it would be a good plugin to have and others could disable or use it has a back up

Only if we can get this pushed well back in line behind my ASSISTED button being orange and AUTOMATED being green. Much more important.