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Silence detector plugin

Started by ruvo80, February 22, 2016, 10:21:06 PM

ruvo80

I am not familiar with writing plugins, otherwise this would be the first plugin i would write..

Every radiostation's nightmare is the station to get silent. Perhaps someone can build the silencedetector as plugin?
You have to detect the output and then u can send a limit of silence. Perhaps then there is an oportunity to start a specific playlist or load a rotatioI? (most stations i know have a specific playlist to give a mark when silence is detected)
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FreerunMedia

There is a little program that is free to use that does exactly that. You can set it to monitor an audio output and with a little interface on the RS232 port, you can switch anything you want using a relay or solid state solution.

The free program is called Pica CZ ( website link: http://pira.cz/show.asp?art=silence )

When you use a modified gamepad you can use fader/button start, other keys and one button for the silence detection. If somebody build a plugin that would be nice but this is an other option.
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JoshTheRadioDude

I think that may be a bit more than what ruvo80 is asking for.  What this would entail is digitally monitoring the audio output of RadioDJ itself and starting up a specified playlist or rotation from the database if it detects silence for a certain amount of time (preferably user-adjustable).  Pira CZ would work for firing off an external audio source (from another program or other hardware), but it wouldn't set RadioDJ to run a chosen playlist or rotation.  At least not on its own.  To use Pira CZ, you would need a peripheral device (which would require some research to figure out how to integrate it with Pira CZ) and set up RadioDJ's controller interface to fire off an event to load that playlist or rotation whenever Pira CZ sends the signal to the controller's specified button.  That's all way too much work for something that can be done with a single plugin.
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kg4vma

A possible solution (that I tested--it worked!): have Pira monitor a virtual cable output, and set an autohotkey action that interacts with RDJ as the action for Pira to take when silence is detected.

Unfortunately, I really don't have the time to get into playing with autohotkey and making a script, but there's several tutorials out there to find. But, in essence, here's how I tested it: (Note, I also use VoiceMeeter as my mixer to aid in all this software based audio routing)

Using VoiceMeeter, I set an output to my Virtual Cable. I then launched Pira and configured it to monitor the Vitual Cable, and execute an AHK exe script I'd made in the past. That AHK script brings RDJ to the front, makes sure it's maximized, then moves the mouse around to load and play manual event I'd saved. Exit and restart Pira to save the new audio source and start monitoring; mute the source or stop RDJ playback to trigger a silence event, and watch it go!

...a little complicated for some, but it'll work!

Yvette - Hitz24

I think that a silence detector is more effective when it monitors the end of the line, not just RadioDJ.
RadioDJ is very stable and after many years of using it, I can say that if there was never a problem with RadioDJ. It kept on playing.
When there are problems, they always are in other applications, computers, connections or even FM-transmitters.

So a silence detector is more useful when monitoring a FM-radio (in case of an FM-station), or when monitoring the final stream (in case of an onlien station).

Yvette
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DJ Garybaldy

QuoteWhen there are problems, they always are in other applications, computers, connections or even FM-transmitters.

Yep I'll agree with you on that one.

Anytime there's large gaps of silence in RadioDJ it's a sign of some hardware on its way out . We just learned that with a dodgy hard disk...

Other than that using 3900 on fade out and the default silence remover settings I don't get silence everything crossfades amazingly.
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damagedgears

Pira CZ is quite powerful if deployed properly.  On silence, you can trigger via built in scripting tools (Pira CZ) to play an emergency M3U, email you, and take other actions, including RS232 commands, IIRC.

If you're running an on air station, however, you will probably will want an actual silence detection capabilities and/or backup player.  There are monitoring devices as cheap as $300 from Broadcast tools or a more fancy one with backup playback capabilities on board as well that goes for about $800 or so.  The $300 Broadcast tools one can also detect and call you automatically (on POTS, not VOIP) if you also have power outages, something that Pira CZ can not do.  Pira CZ is also incapable of detecting phase cancellation and other anomalies that may translate to on air silence or low volume should you run a Mono station/feed. 

A plug in would work, but would not also account for unexpected program errors and closures.