Automation stops part way through an event, help needed please...

[ignitenz]

Hi all,

Just lately, we have an issue where an event fires but only plays the first couple of items then just stops everything. It's almost as if AutoDJ disables part way through the event - RDJ doesn't freeze, it just stops playing. I can manually start by clicking the play button at the top left of the screen.

I've checked the log. Nothing. I've unticked the play! command, but that doesn't help either.

It always stops at exactly the same place in the event, right after a saytime playlist made in playlist builder (see "stopped-1"). I've deleted and recreated with no change.

Image "builder" shows what the saytime playlist is comprised of.

Image "events" shows how the event is made.

Any help would be much appreciated!

[Kiwi]

What status is RadioDJ in when it stops? AutoDJ/Automatic? Manual/Assisted? Or another combination. This may offer a clue as to what is happening.

I usually use the following command for events...

Disable AutoDJ
Clear Playlist
Load
Enable AutoDJ

This ensures AutoDJ is activated when an Event is triggered. I sometimes include the Enable/Disable Assisted command to ensure this command has not been changed for some reason.

I don't see any of these commands in your image "Events". Although you do mention the Play! command which can create issues if not inserted in the correct place.

Another thought..

Check the previous Event to see if it has an action that would stop AutoDJ?

Not sure if this helps but thought I'd offer this perspective.

[ignitenz]

What status is RadioDJ in when it stops? AutoDJ/Automatic? Manual/Assisted? Or another combination. This may offer a clue as to what is happening.

AutoDJ & Automated. See recently added "stopped" image above.

I usually use the following command for events...

Disable AutoDJ
Clear Playlist
Load
Enable AutoDJ

This ensures AutoDJ is activated when an Event is triggered. I sometimes include the Enable/Disable Assisted command to ensure this command has not been changed for some reason.

Thanks for that. So where in the event would you place these items? Might be easier to refer to the numbering in the events pic for clarity.

I don't see any of these commands in your image "Events". Although you do mention the Play! command which can create issues if not inserted in the correct place.

Play! was right at the start of the event, used to immediately overide the rotation.

Another thought..
Check the previous Event to see if it has an action that would stop AutoDJ?

So, when you look at the events pic, the event fires as it should, but plays only item 10 & 11 before stopping the event and as you can see in the builder playlist pic (or the events pic), there is no reference to AutoDJ at all.

Not sure if this helps but thought I'd offer this perspective.

I'm really stoked you did, Kiwi. Thank you.

[Kiwi]

When you say "I can manually start by clicking the play button at the top left of the screen." What is in the Playlist" The balance of the EVENT Time News Break items or another Playlist"

Meanwhile...
Have you tried your Event with the Play! command at the bottom of your list? Move the actions up one and Play! would become number 11

This will of course fade out the current output and immediately start your News Event.

If you wanted to use my example you would get rid of the Play! command and load the tracks in the order you have them, then the command Enable AutoDJ. This would mean the News wouldn't start until the current output came to an end so the News wouldn't necessarily start at the TOTH.

Disable AutoDJ
Clear Playlist
Load
Load
Load etc. etc.
Enable AutoDJ

Hope I have made this clear and you can solve the issue.

[ignitenz]

Thanks again for your help Kiwi. Much appreciated.

When you say "I can manually start by clicking the play button at the top left of the screen." What is in the Playlist" The balance of the EVENT Time News Break items or another Playlist"

Yes, the balance of the event plays when manually restarted by clicking the play button.

Meanwhile...
Have you tried your Event with the Play! command at the bottom of your list? Move the actions up one and Play! would become number 11

This will of course fade out the current output and immediately start your News Event.

Yes, the play! item was placed at the end of the list, taking up position 12.

If you wanted to use my example you would get rid of the Play! command and load the tracks in the order you have them, then the command Enable AutoDJ. This would mean the News wouldn't start until the current output came to an end so the News wouldn't necessarily start at the TOTH.

Disable AutoDJ
Clear Playlist
Load
Load
Load etc. etc.
Enable AutoDJ

It's important for us to have news played on the hour (rather than up to a few minutes after), so I guess this won't work for us. But thanks for the suggestion anyway.

Hope I have made this clear and you can solve the issue.

I'm still baffled as to why this was working fine for the past couple of years and now isn't. The only thing I've changed is the colour scheme and redefined some track types from Music to Jingles, so doubt it's that. It's all very weird.

[Kiwi]

Another thought...

Have you thought of creating a Manual Event for Say Time instead of the Playlist Time?

Name the Event
Manual Event
Load Plugin Action
[Say Time) Say Time: Scheduled Time Announcement
Insert this Manual Event into the Rotation

I also notice in your Image "Stopped" that your Jingle appears to play before the Time Bed, yet they are loaded in the opposite manner.

You say "Yes, the play! item was placed at the end of the list, taking up position 12." - Does this mean you had Play! at top and bottom as I can't figure why Play! would be number 12 if you only had Play! at the bottom. Would it not be number 11 if you still had the same number of items in your Event?

Have you tried a Repair Database and/or Optimize Database procedure?

Still pondering...

[ignitenz]

Hey Kiwi,

Another thought...

Have you thought of creating a Manual Event for Say Time instead of the Playlist Time?

Name the Event
Manual Event
Load Plugin Action
[Say Time) Say Time: Scheduled Time Announcement
Insert this Manual Event into the Rotation

Yes, I have that running in our weekend rotation, however it often overrides the first second or two of the next song in the rotation, which is OK if that song doesn't start with vocals but pretty unprofessional sounding when it does.

I also notice in your Image "Stopped" that your Jingle appears to play before the Time Bed, yet they are loaded in the opposite manner.

Yes, we have two events which fire at different times as TOTH. One is with news and the other is without. The one in the pic is without, so where the jingle lands is different to the News (and other info) event. The problem happens for both types of event though, ie: everything stops after the saytime playlist.

You say "Yes, the play! item was placed at the end of the list, taking up position 12." - Does this mean you had Play! at top and bottom as I can't figure why Play! would be number 12 if you only had Play! at the bottom. Would it not be number 11 if you still had the same number of items in your Event?

This is where I get confused with RDJ. All event items are created as "top", but for some reason, they appear in the created event as backward. So, the event starts with the higher numbers and ends with #1. It really makes no logical sense if you look at the event I've posted for example... The vent kicks off with #11 when you'd think logically, it would kick off with #1. So there was only one Play!, which was inserted at the beginning of the list (as in it plays first) at #12.

Have you tried a Repair Database and/or Optimize Database procedure?

Yes, and that seemed to work for 3 or 4 hours then it started playing up again.

Still pondering...

Oh, also, on Sunday we run a different format altogether requiring a different rotation (fortunately our station is off-air atm), I tried using the usual weekday events (which is where the issue is) instead of the Sunday event and it seemed to work fine. So the weekend event works over the weekends on the weekend rotation, and the weekday event (both with and without news) seems to work at the weekend using the weekend rotation, but not when it is supposed to during the week using the weekday rotation. I'm really confused. I'm starting to think I need to start from scratch, which will mean a reset of the dB and the loss of thousands of queue points. EEK!

Thanks for sticking with me through this.

[Kiwi]

I know Events can be confusing.

Actions in an event are triggered progressively (from first to the last), so if you load 3 tracks, each one on top of the playlist, after completing the event the 3rd track will be the first in the playlist. So in reverse order. In your case you want the Time on the Hour to play first so that will be the last action you add. After Time you have "Load Track" so this will be second last, then News will be third last etc. etc.

In your case I would put Play! as the last item because you want the Event to start at a specific time. But you don't want it to play until everything in the Event is loaded. I consider Play! to be a "Command" not an "Action". You will note you are not given a choice to
place the Command at the Top or Bottom of the Event. It goes into the Event where you want the command to take place.

I tested an Event similar to yours 5 times and each time it started and played through the Event. I had the Say Time exactly as yours with the one sec intro, then loaded a song, jingle etc. I placed the Play! command at the bottom. All went well

I hope it works for you.

I'm using the same RadioDJ and MariaDB versions as you.

[ignitenz]

But if I take Play! out of the event, it still stops after the saytime playlist but before the rest of the event plays out.

Which makes me think there's something disabling autoDJ, but for the life of me I can't see where/why.

Thanks for replicating at your end and the explanation behind how the events work.

I think I'll try to recreate a new event from scratch, identical to the last and give that a go. Hopefully, that'll remove any oddities that were there in the original one. I'll let you know how I get on.

[Kiwi]

I didn't take Play! out of the event. It is the last item in the Event. In your example Play! would be # 11. So after your "Load Playlist Time On The Hour" add Start Playing to the Event. This is where the Play! command should be not at the top of the event.

I hope this is clear.

Hope you have success with whatever you decide to do.

[ignitenz]

All good, thanks for your help anyway.

After rebuilding the saytime playlists and associated events, I found they worked for around 2 hours then went back to their useless best.

I give up. Come Saturday I plan download the music from the PC and wipe everything from it, dB and all.

The last 5 years has been hugely stressful and merciless in many ways and this was helping keep me sane - until it no longer worked properly, which just further compounds things.

I doubt I'll be back here, but who knows.

Thanks to everyone here for the support you've given me over the years. It's been much appreciated.

[Kiwi]

It's good you are taking a couple of days before deciding what to do. Mull things over. It would be a pity to throw the last 5 years away. Have you considered re-installing RadioDJ in case there is some issue there? Remember to do a backup of the database. Another option maybe to go to an earlier version of MariaDB.

Do you think it could be a hard drive issue? Maybe perform a disk cleanup or other maintenance?

No matter what you decide I wish you all the best and success in whatever you do.

[ignitenz]

Thanks for your kind words.

I was referring to the past 5 years generally speaking, not using RDJ for the last 5 years. Lol.

This morning I rolled back the RDJ dB to late September, which made no difference. Now I have completely uninstalled Maria dB (which was v10.3) and installed v11.2 stable instead. I've restored a RDJ dB which was done in July, well before the current issue arose.

I'm sure I did a disk optimisation when this problem first arose, but I'll do another one again just to rule that out.

Failing that, I'll reinstall windows and use the PC for another purpose.

EDIT: After a disk optimisation, installing the new v11.2 Maria dB and the July RDJ back-up, so far it hasn't skipped a beat. Hopefully it'll stay that way - and I can breathe a huge sigh of relief!

This now raises another issue though...

There have been songs, jingles and IDs imported since the July back-up. How can I find which of these files are present on the PC, but are now not included in the dB?

Cheers,
Baldrick.

[stevewa]

Look in the songs table to see the latest imported audio track.

Then get a list of audio files on the computer sorted by date . Files newer than the latest song in the db are the missing tracks.

[ignitenz]

Look in the songs table to see the latest imported audio track.

Then get a list of audio files on the computer sorted by date . Files newer than the latest song in the db are the missing tracks.

Thanks Steve, much appreciated!