Audio Properties

The Audio Properties tab includes several groups of settings related to audio handling, including location of audio files, XStudio inventory list generation and maintenance, audio channel-to-deck mapping, remote starts and audio engine communication parameters.

Audio Properties

Audio Settings

The audio settings group of properties is used to identify the location of your audio files, decide whether or not you want XStudio to enforce start and end dates for audio playback, and optionally designate a backup audio folder. Items with a check mark in the REQ column require user entry, while unchecked items have default values which can optionally be changed.

Property

REQ

Description

Enforce Cart Dates

If checked and the host audio engine is XEngine, audio files (carts) that are out of date will not be played. If the host audio engine is a DCS or Maestro system, this setting has no effect. The DCS or Maestro unit determines whether or not out of date carts are played. The default for this property is unchecked, meaning cart dates will not be enforced.

Audio Path

This property defines the drive and folder location of audio files that are used for playback. If the host audio engine is XEngine, then this path must be entered. If the host audio engine is a DCS or Maestro, this field can be left blank.

Backup Audio Path

If XEngine is the host audio engine, you can optionally define a backup audio folder location. If an audio file is not found in the primary Audio Path when attempting to play the audio, XEngine will look in this folder for the requested audio and play it back, if found.

XStudio does not automatically synchronize the contents of the primary Audio Path and Backup Audio Path locations. There are a number of readily-available, inexpensive software tools that perform this task. Consult with your XStudio vendor for current recommendations.

Inventory Generation

The inventory generation group of properties controls whether or not XStudio builds a list of available audio for use in inventory lists, etc., and if so, offers control over displayed inventory and audio file scanning operations.

Inventory Generation properties (expanded view)

Property

Description

Generate & Use Local
Inventory

The default value is checked (enabled). If enabled, XStudio will scan the Audio Path for audio files and build a list of audio available for playback. The scan operation occurs when XStudio starts up and whenever a change in audio files in the folder is detected. Detected changes include arrival of new audio files, deletion of audio files, and changes in existing audio files.

If checked (enabled), this property overrides any inventory settings for any of the defined stations.

Limit Displayed
Inventory

As a default, XStudio will create an inventory list for its own use that includes all audio found in the Audio Path. Audio files used by XStudio contain distribution information referred to as "node numbers" or "station distribution". There may be as many as 64 different "work stations" (nodes) that are allowed to use a given audio file. This property allows you to restrict the displayed lists of audio files that XStudio has catalogued to just those nodes or work stations that you select. Changing this property has the effect, generally, of reducing the number of carts displayed in the XStudio inventory lists.

See the topic on using the Include List edit dialog for more information on selecting nodes to include and editing the node list for more user-friendly names.

Limiting the displayed inventory does not affect whether or not XStudio can play a particular cart (audio file). Even though a cart might not be visible in the inventory list, if XStudio is called upon to play the cart, an attempt will be made to play it. Normal date restrictions, if enabled, apply.

Copy Inventory File to...

The locally-generated inventory file can be copied to a user-defined location and file name for use by another application. To enable the feature, enter a fully-qualified filename in this field. If this entry exists at run-time, each time XStudio's local inventory is updated, a copy of the inventory data file is made. If the field is left blank, no copy is made.

Limit Copied Inventory

If you are copying the locally-generated inventory file to another location, you can restrict the contents of the data file to selected "nodes" or "work stations", similar to the displayed local inventory but with a different set of included work stations.

See the topic on using the Include List edit dialog for more information on selecting nodes to include and editing the node list for more user-friendly names.

Audio Scan Options

Scan Interval

The scan interval is the frequency with which XStudio checks the primary audio folder for changes, in seconds. The default value is 300 seconds (every 5 minutes). This property applies to network drives only. If your primary audio folder is a local drive, this setting is ignored. Valid interval entries range from 60 seconds (one minute) to 86,340 (23 hours, 59 minutes).

"Lazy Scanning"

This property, when enabled (checked), slows down the inventory scanning process and would be used typically if the primary audio folder is a network drive, you're having network performance problems and want to "lighten the load" a bit on the LAN.

Lazy Scan Delay

If "Lazy Scanning" is enabled, this property value is the amount of breathing time between file scan operations, in milliseconds. The default value is 50 milliseconds. Valid entries may range from 25 milliseconds to 500 milliseconds.

Audio Output Selection

This group of properties allows you map available physical audio output channels to the XStudio playback decks. This setting is applicable only if you are using XEngine as the host audio engine (the default).

If you are connecting to a DCS or Maestro, playback channel 1 on the host unit will be used for log playback and channels 2 and 3 map to the DCS or Maestro channels of the same number, as applicable. Refer to the topic on Using XStudio with DCS or Maestro for more information.

Map each XStudio playback deck using the drop-down list of available audio outputs. If a PC has a single sound card with a single audio output available, there will usually be two items in the list. The first item is typically named "Microsoft Sound Mapper" and corresponds to the audio device you have set as the default device to play Windows sounds - OS startup, close, etc. The second device will be the actual sound card in the PC. In this example, the two entries end up at the same place - the single audio output on the PC.

If your PC is equipped with only one sound card, be aware that Windows will be using the same device to play system sounds. It is highly recommended that you disable all system sounds in this case. This will prevent unwanted sound from appearing on your "on-air" channel.

If you have more than one sound card or a sound card equipped with multiple audio outputs, the list of available devices will be larger. It is highly recommended that you select a device other than the "Microsoft Sound Mapper" or the audio device that is set as the default audio device in Windows.

If you have a single sound card with a single output, you can still use the second, third and fourth audio decks in XStudio, if desired. Simply assign the same audio output as used for the Log Playback Device. At playback time, the audio playing on decks 1, 2, 3 and/or 4 will be mixed to the single output device.

Many standard sound cards will support 12 streams of audio mixed together (3 from each playback deck) on a single output. However, not all support that many streams. Consult your sound card documentation for information on how many streams are supported by the sound card.

Items with a check mark in the REQ column require user entry, while unchecked items have default values which can optionally be changed. Note that if no audio output channel is mapped to a deck, playback for that deck will be routed to the default Windows playback device.

Property	REQ	Description
Audio Output for Log (Deck 1)		Select the audio output channel that will be used with Deck 1, the primary audio playback channel, from the drop-down list. As a default, all log items will play through this deck.
Audio Output for Deck 2		Select the audio output channel that will be used with Deck 2 from the drop-down list.
Audio Output for Deck 3		Select the audio output channel that will be used with Deck 3 from the drop-down list.
Audio Output for Deck 4		Select the audio output channel that will be used with Deck 4 from the drop-down list.
Default Hot Button Deck		Select the audio playback deck that will be used with hot buttons from the drop-down list. When a blank (unconfigured) button is configured using the hot button configuration dialog or is configured by drag and drop from the log or inventory, the default deck selected here is assigned as the playback deck. The default value for this property is Deck 1.

Remote Starts

If the PC running XStudio is equipped with a game port, you can wire up remote starts to the game port and enable them for use with XStudio. See the Remote Start Interface topic for wiring specifics.

Remote Start Properties (Expanded View)

This group of properties optionally enables the remote starts and allows you to adjust both sensitivity (frequency of polling) and de-bounce.

Property	Description
Enable Remote Starts	The default is unchecked - remote starts are disabled. If checked, XStudio will attempt to initialize the game port for use.
Remote Start Options
Ignore if Deck Active	This property applies to Live mode only. The default is unchecked - the feature is disabled. To enable the feature, check this item. When enabled, if the playback deck for which the remote start was pressed is already playing audio and the deck playback source is the log, the remote start will be suppressed (ignored).
Remote Start Button 4 Usage	Choose whether Button 4 of the Remote Start Interface is used as an emergency relay (the default for backward compatibility) or is assigned to playback Deck 4 as a remote start ala Decks 1..3.
Sensitivity	When remote starts are enabled, XStudio polls them every few milliseconds to see if one of the remote starts has been pressed. This property controls the frequency of polling. The default value is 100 milliseconds (1/10th second). Valid entries range from 50 - 250 milliseconds.
Debounce	This property controls the de-bounce duration and can be used to reduce the number of "double-fire" possibilities where a user presses the remote start repeatedly and rapidly or if you have issues with the remote start wiring circuit inadvertently issuing two pulses (button-presses) when only one is intended. When the remote start button is pressed (closed), XStudio will discard any additional closures of the button for the time value entered in this field, in milliseconds. The default value is 500 milliseconds. Valid entries range from 0 (disabled) to 1000 milliseconds (1 second).

Host Audio Engine Connection

XStudio uses TCP/IP to communicate with the host audio engine, either XEngine or a DCS or Maestro host. In the latter case, rcServer software is used to convert the TCP/IP data to serial data that the DCS or Maestro can understand and act upon. See the topic on Using XStudio with DCS or Maestro for additional information.

XStudio needs to know the host’s IP address and the ports to use for communications with the host audio engine. This group of properties allows you to change communication parameters if needed.

If you are using the default XEngine in a standard configuration, you will not need to adjust these properties unless some other application on the XStudio PC is already using one of the TCP/IP ports that are used by XStudio as a default.

Property	REQ	Description
IP Address		The IP address of the host audio engine. The default value is: 127.0.0.1 The default value should be used unless XEngine is installed on another PC or the rcServer software used to convert TCP/IP to serial for DCS and Maestro is located on another PC.
Listen Port		Default: 5391 This TCP/IP port is used for control and response communications with the audio server engine. The value must be the same for both XStudio and the host. If XEngine is used and is located on the same PC, changes to the port numbers are automatically updated for XEngine.
File Xfr Port		Default: 6001 This TCP/IP port is reserved for transferring file data between XStudio and the host audio server and is not presently used. It is for future expansion.
User Name		Default: XStudio This setting is used only when using XStudio to control a DCS or Maestro system. It identifies XStudio to the rcServer application, which may be hosting several connections.
Enabled IP Event Logging		If checked, XStudio will log TCP/IP-specific events to a separate log file and would typically be used for troubleshooting communications problems between XStudio and a host audio server not located on the same PC as XStudio. The default value is unchecked (disabled).