Revision History

This topic contains historical information on changes, enhancements and corrections to XStudio by version number and date. For the most recent changes and enhancements, see the What's New topic.

Version 2.6.0.180 - 02/26/2010

1.	Enhancement. An Intro Count Down Timer has been added. This feature can be optionally enabled to display a count down in seconds to the vocal of a song when the broadcast log contains the intro information.

2.	Enhancement. If XStudio gets disconnected from the audio engine, it will automatically try to reconnect to the audio engine.

3.	Enhancement. XStudio documentation now includes detailed information on the preference settings file (XStudio.ini). See the topic Preferences File Documentation in the appendices.

4.	Enhancement. XStudio now reports the host operating system in more detail and has been updated to reflect the release of Windows 7.

5.	Enhancement. Application icons for XStudio have been updated.

6.	Enhancement. XStudio is now aware of multiple monitor host systems and properly saves and restores its position on the correct monitor.

7.	Enhancement. Hot button configuration changes are now validated before closing the configuration dialog and updating the button properties to ensure the user has entered all required properties. Users can now press the [ESC] key to exit the button configuration dialog.

Fix. Under certain circumstances, XStudio would skip over a log directive and execute the following directive instead of the correct one. The problem applied only to fixed-time directives and was the result of two asynchronous events occurring within a 25-millisecond window in a particular order. These events are now synchronized to prevent this situation. Additionally, when a fixed-time log directive is about to be executed, a check is made to ensure that the directive execution time matches the current system time to the second. If the log directive time does not match the current time, it is not executed and an entry is made in the XStudio event log.

9.	Fix. Audio files of lengths greater than 99 minutes, 59 seconds were not displaying correctly on the playback decks. The full maximum audio length of 999 minutes, 59 seconds is now displayed correctly.

10.

Fix. If an attempt to play the last element on a log resulted in a stream error, XStudio would incorrectly select an element on the next-day log (since log transition had occurred). The result was that XStudio would recover from the stream error by continuing airplay from the wrong position on the new log. Now, the XStudio does not try to play the item that caused the stream error, instead moving on to the first playable element of the new log.

11.

Fix. An updated XEngine is included in this version, which corrects a problem that occurred if an outdated audio file was found in the primary audio path and a valid audio file existed in the backup audio path, the valid audio file was ignored. See the XEngine revision history for additional changes with this update.

12.	Fix. A change has been made to correct a problem where, under some circumstances, the hot button configuration dialog would be displayed partially obscured.

13.	Fix. Corrected a problem with calculating the Length and AuxMark values of large long-form PCM 44.1 stereo files. When the problem occurred, the length values would be displayed as negative numbers in the inventory list and the cart edit dialog.

14.	Fix. An audio file played by XStudio but not in the inventory list would be displayed in playback decks with no description. Now, if the description is available from the audio engine, it is used in this situation.

15.

Fix. Under certain circumstances, the splitter controls separating two windows would either disappear or end up out-of-place after a user maximized the window, moved the splitter control and then returned to a normal-sized view. The External Resources, Actions and Edit Action dialogs were affected and have been updated to work properly.

16.	Fix. Audio file headers automatically updated from v1.2 to v1.4 by Maestro or associated utilities left behind partial v1.2 header information, resulting in XStudio incorrectly identifying the audio file version as the older v1.2. XStudio now correctly handles this situation.

17.	Fix. If a user imported a previously-saved set of cart categories and the count and category names were the same as the original category list (only cart masks were changed), the list was not updated correctly. This problem has been corrected.

18.	Fix. A problem validating logs containing lower-case cart numbers has been corrected.

19.	Fix. Two small one-time memory leaks that occurred when XStudio was shut down have been eliminated.

Version 2.5.2.150 - 01/21/2009

Enhancement. Handling of malformed logs has been improved. Specifically, it has been observed that traffic logs produced by Wide Orbit occasionally contain invalid records, both under-sized and over-sized as a result of incorrect padding of the log record. If invalid log records cannot be handled, a message is displayed and the user can optionally view the log records that could not be processed.

2.	Enhancement. Additional validation of dates entered has been added to the scheduled event dialog. Users are now prompted in a more meaningful way when invalid dates are entered.

3.	Enhancement. The cart properties edit dialog has been updated to include .DAF file v1.4 information, if present.

4.	Enhancement. Minor cosmetic changes have been made to the XStudio main display. The Play Through Directives, Tomorrow's Log and Audio Engine Connection status LED's have been changed.

5.	Enhancement. If the logging detail level is updated in preferences and saved, the change is immediately applied. Previously, the preference setting was used only at system startup.

Change. Limiting displayed inventory to selected work station number (node numbers) has been implemented. Previously, the user settings in Preferences were ignored and all found inventory was displayed. The default behavior remains unchanged - if no particular set of work stations is selected, all inventory is displayed. Playback of audio is not affected - XStudio continues to attempt to play an item on the log whether or not it is available in the inventory list.

7.	Fix. If XStudio was closed while in a minimized state, on restart it would also be minimized. This occasionally caused some confusion as a user might not notice. Now, if XStudio was closed in a minimized state and restarted, the main display appears normally.

8.	Fix. Users utilizing an audio inventory file generated by either DCS or Maestro could experience faulty detection of changes to the inventory file. Once armed, XStudio would continue to update the displayed inventory even though no changes had occurred. This problem has been corrected.

Fix. If playback of an audio item was started, the item did not exist in the inventory and the logged length of the item could not be retrieved, the audit data would incorrectly indicate that the item did not play. This problem generally occurred when an inventory file generated by either DCS or Maestro could not be loaded by XStudio because of network problems or another application having a lock on the file.

10.	Fix. Additional checks are now made when loading an updated inventory data file to better deal with errors in opening or reading the data file.

11.	Fix. This version of XStudio includes an updated XEngine, which corrects issues with playback of certain MPEG files and usage of the alternate audio path. See the XEngine Reference for details.

Version 2.5.1.145 - 10/11/2008

1.	Enhancement. An updated XEngine is included in this version, which adds support for .DAF file Analog Gain Trim. XEngine now adjusts the playback level of a cart according to the Analog Gain Trim value for the audio file.

Enhancement. Pending audit records are now persistent between sessions in XStudio. If XStudio is closed and there are pending audit records (like an audio item that is still playing), they are saved to a data file and restored the next time XStudio is launched. As an example, if XStudio is closed while a song is playing and then restarted before the song finishes playing, the audit data file will contain a record confirming successful airplay of the item when the song completes play. In addition, if the item came from the log, the expected check mark is displayed.

3.	Enhancement. A number of dialogs have been updated to be more visually consistent in the XP and Vista operating systems. Included are the log item edit displays, registration, machine ID, password and about XStudio dialogs.

4.	Enhancement. The Jump to Current Log Time button now uses the estimated airplay time rather than the next directive time when repositioning.

5.	Change. When a log item is dragged and dropped to a different position the selected row is not changed, which conforms to common behavior among most applications. Previously, the moved item remained selected.

Fix. Under certain circumstances, a user editing the log by moving log items around could result in XStudio incorrectly playing the currently playing item twice. This problem could be triggered if the user dragged a log item located prior to an playing item and dropped it on the active item or if the user dragged the next-to-play item and dropped it on an active item. XStudio now makes additional checks to prevent the active item from becoming the next-to-play item in this situation. In addition, a new log status indicator (!!N+O!!) is now displayed if a user manually marks an active item as next-to-play to serve as a warning to the user that an active item has been marked as the next item to play from the log.

7.	Fix. Improvements have been made to better handle stream error conditions when a user repeatedly attempts to play items on a playback deck that already has three items playing

Fix. A problem that occurred when running XStudio on newer Athlon dual-core processor machines has been corrected. On these types of machines, a log directive could be triggered and processed twice within 25 milliseconds. If the processed directive was a cast-off directive and the next directive on the log was also a cast-off directive, the effect was XStudio would skip the content between the two directives.

Fix. When appending an item to a log and the last item on the log had a time of 23:59, XStudio would allow an attempt to add a log record that requires a log time one minute later than the last item, creating an invalid log time of 24:00. Now, only items that can be appended to the log after 23:59 are allowed. These items are spot (cart) records and open avails.

10.	Fix. If a user-defined log type was entered in dialogs that contain a log type, the manually-entered log type was not being limited to the 4-character maximum. Now, a user's manual entry is truncated to 4 characters if it is longer than is allowed.

11.	Fix. A Play Cart Directive's product code and customer number information is now properly displayed on the log, if present in the log record.

12.	Fix. When copying and pasting log items, the next-to-play item was not always updated properly. This has been corrected.

13.

Fix. If a user manually edited the XStudio preferences file and changed a station number to a single-digit value or a value of more than 2 digits, XStudio would not correctly find a log file for a given station date. This scenario is now correctly handled, although manual entries of more than 2 digits are truncated to the first two characters.

14.	Fix. If the host PC has more than 2GB RAM installed, the reported amount of available RAM was incorrect. On PC's running Windows 2000, XP and Vista, the correct amount of RAM is now displayed.

15.	Fix. When previewing a printed report on-screen, context help would be inadvertently triggered if the user used [Right-Click] to reduce the size of the previewed information. Context help is now suppressed in the print preview displays.

16.	Fix. When displaying the About window, context help was inadvertently triggered when attempting to open the pop-up menu that allows for printing and saving the application information to a file. Context help is now suppressed in the About display.

Version 2.5.0.140 - 07/21/2008

1.	Change. A new installation program is now used that reduces the installer "footprint" and is simpler to use. When the new installation program is run and the previous XStudio installer is detected, it is uninstalled (after user confirmation), removing files that are no longer needed.

Enhancement. This version of XStudio introduces an all-new Preferences dialog. The preferences area has been completely redesigned, featuring a more logical organization of settings that is easier to use and understand. Some additional properties have been introduced, including a startup Action, additional control over system event logging, back-up audio path and control over the frequency of inventory scanning when using a network drive as the primary audio path. See the Configuration section for more details.

3.	Enhancement. The documentation has been completely re-written and is now up-to-date with current version XStudio features and functionality. The help documentation is now supplied as a compiled HTML file (*.CHM), replacing the older Windows Help format (.HLP).

Microsoft Security Update 896358 not only fixes a vulnerability in HTML Help, it prevents HTML Help files from execution if the CHM file is installed on a network drive. CHM files installed locally continue to work.

Symptoms: When you open a CHM file from a UNC path or from a network drive even if the network drive is mapped to a drive letter, the HTML Help viewer opens and instead of displaying the topic, it displays an error message "Action canceled" in the topic pane.

Solutions: Install the application on a local drive to avoid this problem. Alternatively, there are some registry changes that can be made manually to re-enable using CHM help files from a network drive. A free HTML Help Registration Utility is available at the EC Software web site.

Enhancement. The option to execute an Action at system startup has been added. This Action is executed after XStudio has completed system initialization at startup, right before attempting to play the log (if the feature is enabled and the operating mode supports auto-play at startup). The startup Action is set in Preferences on the General properties page.

5.	Enhancement. Real-time cart number macro character conversion has been added. Cart numbers are checked for macro characters and automatically converted when playing a log element, executing a directive that includes cart playback, and in the Start Play and Stop Play tasks.

6.	Enhancement. The Edit Spot Record and Edit Play Cart Directive dialogs now check the entered cart number to ensure that each character is valid for use in the cart number. Valid characters include: A..Z, 0..9, {, }, !, ##, %, ^, @, =, +.

Enhancement. Support has been added for the Load Window directive to set the current voice number. The relay number for setting the current voice is 99. Entry syntax in the Description field is "$xx". The entered voice number must be two digits and can be any combination of letters or numbers. Suggested Description entry for clarity is "Set Voice $xx".

8.	Enhancement. The main display title bar now includes the current station in addition to the current mode of operation.

9.	Enhancement. When importing cart categories (cart masks), the imported categories can now be optionally appended to the existing categories.

10.	Enhancement. The hot button configuration dialog has been updated to allow using virtually any color combination for button background and text. Previously, colors were limited to a group of common colors.

11.	Enhancement. Music database information can now be exported to the dcsTools Generic Format or Comma-Separated Values (CSV). All displayed song title and artist information is exported to the selected format.

12.	Enhancement. The Open Log dialog has been updated for better performance. A number of other dialogs have also been updated for a more appealing appearance.

13.	Enhancement. The inventory pop-up menu now has items for immediate playback of a selected cart to decks 2 and 3 (channels 2 and 3) in addition to the original deck 1 menu item. These additions make it easier to quickly audition a cart from within the inventory.

14.	Fix. An error condition that could occur under certain circumstances when performing a log times fix-up has been corrected.

15.

Fix. If the PC on which XStudio is running shut down unexpectedly as a result of a power outage or similar event, XStudio could fail to complete system startup initialization when the system is restarted due to corrupted data that resulted from the unexpected shutdown. XStudio now properly completes system initialization if such an error occurs. However, depending on the type of data that was corrupted by the unexpected shutdown, the current log snapshot may not be available and the restoration of previous check marks for air play and time of air play might be incomplete.

16.	Fix. When exporting a Log Validation report to file, the text had very narrow margins, resulting in a less readable report. The exported report now formats properly when saved to file.

Version 2.4.1.131 - 04/09/2008

Enhancement. A new task, Set Auto-Segue, has been introduced. This task simply turns the [Auto] button on or off, based on the task setting. This task could be used as a fail-safe for a situation where a user turns off the [Auto] button, then leaves when an automated time period begins. The task can be used as a part of a log-driven Action, an input relay Action or as a Scheduled Event.

Enhancement. The cart header edit dialog now supports mmm:ss log length values - previously, only the CMINV??.DAT value of mm:ss was allowed. If a user updates a cart header to say, 199:59 (199 minutes, 59 seconds), the CMINV??.DAT value displayed is 99:59 to stay within the restrictions of that record field size.

3.	Change. The startup splash screen and selected "busy" dialogs have been updated to be more attractive and meaningful.

Change. When XStudio is launched for the very first time, Auto-Segue is now enabled as a default, playback deck 3 is visible as a default, and the hot buttons page is displayed (rather than the log hourly totals) as a default. These changes apply to the first startup of XStudio only - as before, these settings are saved at exit and restored when the software is restarted. The main display size is now larger as a default, so long as the screen resolution supports the larger size.

Fix. A stream error condition - failure to play audio because there were already 3 carts playing on a channel - would lead to XStudio failing to properly play the Next-To-Play item from the log when the user repeatedly hit the [Stop] button at the time the stream error occurred. This has been corrected.

6.	Fix. An error condition that could occur if the user hit the [Stop] button on a channel after the playing audio passed EOM has been corrected.

Fix. If a user deleted several log items and exited XStudio without saving the changed log, an error would occur when XStudio was restarted and the user attempted to scroll through the log near the end of the day. This error was caused by a mismatch in the original on-disk log loaded at startup and the day's log snapshot, which had fewer log records as a result of user deletions. The log handling routines have been updated to properly handle this situation.

Version 2.4.0.124 - 12/19/2007

1.	Fix. An eDatabaseError that could occur when installing and starting XStudio for the very first time has been corrected. A side effect of the error was that the automation database was not started, which led to problems when attempting to save preference settings.

Version 2.4.0.122 - 12/10/2007

Enhancement. Auto-segue can now optionally be automatically re-enabled when running in Automation mode and a user has disabled auto-segue to perform manual playback tasks. If enabled, the [Auto] button is reset only in Automation mode and only when a cart is started on deck 1 via the [Play] button or remote start.

2.	Enhancement. If the log has been edited within XStudio, users can now perform a "Quick Save" by clicking on the log status icon. Normal prompting for overwriting the existing log on disk will occur.

3.	Enhancement. Changing the default audio switcher, including changing the COM port that is used, is now automatically updated after the change without having to exit and restart XStudio.

4.	Enhancement. At startup, XStudio now forces auto-segue ON if the system startup mode is Satellite or Local Automation regardless of the user setting when the program was last exited. Live and Emergency modes continue to respect the previous user settings.

5.	Enhancement. Users can now view or save to file a list of all XStudio current session properties, including log states, audio switcher information, and other pertinent data.

6.	Fix. Improvements have been made in keeping the XStudio clock from disappearing behind the main screen.

7.	Enhancement. Automation Task dialogs have been updated to improve the user experience in working with the dialogs.

8.	Fix. When the next directive to process is on the next-day log, XStudio now properly handles the processing, transitioning to the next-day log as needed.

9.	Fix. Improvements have been made in handling the transition from one log day to the next when XStudio is not actively playing audio, i.e. running a satellite-delivered program.

10.	Fix. A bug that caused XStudio to not properly process cast-off directives at precisely midnight has been corrected.

11.	Enhancement. Improvements have been made in handling stop play Tasks and Hard Sync log directives. Previously, if two or more carts were playing on the channel for which the stop play was issued, XStudio would occasionally incorrectly start the Next-To-Play element on the log.

12.	Fix. If a change is made to XStudio's operating mode, all running actions (action threads) are now updated to reflect the change in operating mode.

13.	Enhancement. Improvements have been made in managing active carts. XStudio now checks the active list periodically, ensuring that no carts have been orphaned as a result of an unknown playback or communications failure.

14.	Enhancement. Improvements have been made in calculating whether carts have played successfully for audit reporting. Changes in the system clock no longer have any effect on cart elapsed-time calculations, including the transitions from standard time to daylight savings time and vice-versa.

15.	Fix. A bug that caused the next-day log status LED to not be updated properly in certain circumstances has been fixed.

16.

Fix. Audio folder change detection has been improved to eliminate certain conditions where a change in an audio file occurred and was not detected. While XStudio would use the updated cart information in playback, the on-screen inventory was not being updated, leading the end user to believe that the change had not occurred.

17.	Fix. A bug where the user edited a multi-cut cart header and lost the cart rotation list has been fixed.

18.	Fix. XStudio now properly handles empty breaks when in Satellite mode and a break relay occurs.

Version 2.3.1.99 - 06/28/2007

Remote start behavior has been modified to optionally ignore a start signal if XStudio is running in Live mode and the target cart deck is already playing audio. XStudio's default behavior for remote starts is as before - the new behavior is optional and can be enabled in Preferences | Audio | Remote Starts.

2.	The standard installation of XStudio now prevents inadvertent "double-launch" of the application. Only one instance of XStudio is allowed on each PC.

Remote administration of XStudio automation configuration is now available as an option in Preferences | General | Database Settings. It applies only to XStudio installations running with a local automation database (the default) and only the standard single-instance installation of XStudio. When enabled, users can use an administration application (XStudio Admin) to connect to the XStudio automation database and perform maintenance tasks, including updating music information, Actions, Tasks, External Resources, Scheduled Events and Log Data. XStudio Admin is available as a separate installation.

Audit reporting has been enhanced to include XStudio-specific transactions, including log splices, log item adds, edits and deletes. If users are reviewing audit data with older versions of ezAudit or ezSuite, those applications should be updated to current revisions, which support these additional transaction types and status codes.

In older versions of dcsTools audit reporting tools and in all versions of Google's CMED and Composer, these XStudio-specific transactions will display as "Unknown" transaction types.

The pending audit record mechanism has been revised to eliminate situations where the original fixed-size pending record list would get filled up with pending transactions. This would occur if XStudio's source audio folder was a network folder and the network connection was lost. The new mechanism uses a dynamic list limited only by the amount of available memory on the PC.

6.	Automation Suspend and Automation Resume log directive support has been implemented. In the context of use with XStudio, these directives toggle the [Auto] (auto-segue) state on or off, depending on which directive is used.

7.	When editing audio log items, manual entry of non-defined "Commercial Types" is now supported. Users are no longer limited to only those types available in the pre-defined list.

8.	Standard application event logging now includes more detail as a default.

9.	Log snapshot data, available in Automation Setup, can now be exported for additional analysis. Available export types are HTML, XML, Excel (XLS) and standard Text. Data exported is exactly what is displayed in the Log Status dialog, including any filtering that may be in effect.

Version 2.2.3.76 - 10/26/2006

1.	Certain log editing actions did not always correctly update the song Title column contents when the option to display the log description in that column is enabled. This has been corrected.

XStudio creates a unique log record ID for each item on the log that has been used internally to keep track of the item. This ID is now placed in the audit data file (used to generate audit reports and reconcile logs) to facilitate future implementation of more precise log reconciliation in ezSuite.

3.	The handling of LoadPlay log directives in Automation mode has been changed to check whether or not the directive contains a key ($=Cast-Off,etc) and to act accordingly if the key is present. Previously, LoadPlay directives and any directive keys were ignored completely.

Version 2.2.2.73 - 10/18/2006

The option to duplicate the log description text in the song Title column of the displayed log has been added. When enabled, non-music content log description information is also placed in the song title column, enabling the user to hide the log description column if desired and still be able to see the log descriptions. The option is disabled by default. To enable the option, locate the item "Duplicate Log Description in Song Title Column as Applicable" in Preferences, Misc. tab, toggle the check mark on, and save your preference settings.

When this option is enabled, the song title and artist for music carts is displayed as usual. Other non-music carts or music carts that are not in the music database, along with the log's non-cart items (Log Note, Program Title, Directive) will have the log description text in the Title column.

The log's column identification text (column header) for each column can now be edited to be more meaningful to the end-user. To edit the column header text, select the menu item "View | Log Display | Show/Hide Columns". Select a column item on the list and [Right-Click] to display a pop-up menu. Select the "Edit Item Text" menu item and change the text as desired. You can cancel text changes by clicking on the [Cancel] button.

Basic audio cart header information editing has been added. Users can now change the cart description, distribution, AUX Mark, begin and end dates. To edit a cart header, select a cart in the inventory display and [Right-Click] to bring up a pop-up menu. Select the menu item "Edit Cart Information". An edit dialog is displayed. Make the appropriate edits and click on the [Commit] button to save the changes. You can abort any changes by clicking on the [Cancel] button.

At present, only single-cut carts can be edited.

Version 2.2.1.72 - 09/24/2006

1.	Users can now import and export cart category information (cart masks, colors, etc). Import/export is available from a pop-up menu when working with cart category information in Preferences.

2.	An "Invalid variant conversion" error that occurred if a user left the cart category name blank and tried to save the information has been corrected.

3.	An "Invalid cast" error that occurred when a Switcher Fade task was executed has been corrected.

4.	Preference settings used by XEngine are now saved to a separate file in addition to the main settings file.

Version 2.2.1.69 - 07/10/2006

The locally-generated inventory file (CMINVZZ.DAT) can now be copied to a user-defined location and file name. To enable the feature, open Preferences and select the Audio tab. Enter a fully-qualified filename in the field provided. If an entry exists, 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.

2.	XEngine has been updated to better handle situations where it is unable to open an audio file due to file-sharing violations.

3.	A problem with the toolbar buttons on the log comparison dialog has been corrected. Previously, when running under XP, the buttons for showing log splice differences only and the horizontal view were not working properly.

4.	In Preferences, if no default station has been defined, if the user answered "Yes" to the prompt to set a default station, the wrong page was selected. This has been corrected.

5.	The Quick Start Guide has been updated to reflect current dialogs and steps to get started quickly.

Version 2.2.0.66 - 04/22/2006

1.	An updated version of XEngine is included in this build. It adds support for a larger number of client connections and eliminates attempts to email critical error reports to dcsTools.com.

Version 2.2.0.66 - 03/13/2006

1.	The Stop Play task now correctly stops ALL items playing on a channel when the task is set to stop play for a specific channel. Previously, only one item was being stopped on the selected channel.

2.	A minor memory leak in the scheduled events thread has been eliminated.

3.	Corrected potential AV's that could occur randomly when certain task items are performed. In some cases, a task item could be accessed after it had been removed, causing the AV.

4.	Application event logging as a default now includes more data when the "/debug" flag is not enabled. Previously, application event logging was fairly minimal unless the "/debug" flag was enabled.

Version 2.2.0.65 - 03/10/2006

Users can now set text and background colors for defined cart filters (cart categories). The Preferences | Cart Filters page has been re-designed to provide the means to assign text and background colors to each defined cart filter. The color combinations selected are applied to matching audio items on the log, providing a quick visual indicator of the items' category.

2.	Users can now select a font style of their choosing for log text, along with the font size (in a range of 8 - 20 points) and whether or not the audio items will be displayed in bold text. Log font settings are located on the Preferences \| Misc page.

The "On =>" (on-air) and "Next =>" (Next-to-Play) log items are now colored in a different way as a result of the changes made in items 1 & 2 above. Now, only selected columns of these items are colored in a special way and the color method is to reverse the text and background colors, ensuring these items are noticeable regardless of user-defined log category colors.

4.	A byte-alignment problem in audit data files has been corrected. Non-dcsTools applications can now read and use audit data files created by XStudio.

5.	A problem with log validation erroneously reporting audio carts as missing when the user has cart numbers starting with the underscore ("_") character has been fixed.

6.	Some minor memory leaks have been eliminated in threads that were destroyed before application shutdown and whose resources were not being released.

Version 2.1.0.61 - 02/09/2006

Added a "Send Control Command" task to automation functionality. The task is used in conjunction with a user-specified COM port to send user-defined data to an external device, either as a standard serial string or as binary data with optional embedded control codes. This task can be a part of user actions, just as any other task.

2.	Corrected an AV that would occur in certain circumstances when the log items of the last hour of the day totaled more than 60 minutes.

Version 2.0.12.59 - 02/04/2006

1.	An AV that would occur occasionally in the automation setup dialog has been fixed.

2.	When viewing a saved status log, last search criteria and the most recent 15 search strings are saved on closing the dialog, then restored the next time a saved status log is viewed.

3.	Backwards searching is now supported when searching a saved status log.

4.	XStudio now keeps track of its up-time for informational and troubleshooting purposes. Users can access the information from the menu item Help \| TroubleShooting \| System Up Time.

5.	Minor stability enhancements have been added.

Version 2.0.11.58 - 11/14/2005

A memory leak in the routine that updates the audio inventory has been fixed. The leak would cause an "Out of Memory" error after some number of days of operation. The time it took for the error to appear varied, depending on the frequency of the audio inventory being updated - the more often the inventory changed, the sooner the error would appear.

Version 2.0.11.56 - 11/09/2005

1.	An AV error that occurred as a result of an invalid timer has been fixed. XStudio now uses a pending activity queue instead of a simple timer to manage and initiate updating of the audio inventory.

Version 2.0.10.51 - 10/18/2005

1.	A routine causing an AV error when updating the audio scan delay timer has been revised.

Version 2.0.9.50 - 10/13/2005

1.	A bug that caused the audio inventory display to color carts ending today as out-of-date has been corrected.

2.	A bug that caused the audio engine to not play audio files with an end-date of today has been corrected. This behavior occurred only when the "Enforce Cart Dates" option was turned on in Preferences.

Version 2.0.8.49 - 10/10/2005

1.	A bug that caused an error message relating to the timer used to update the audio inventory has been corrected.

Version 2.0.7.48 - 09/25/2005

1.	Playback decks 2 & 3 can now be used either with the audio clipboard (the default) or to execute playback from the log. A button has been added to each transport to provide the means to toggle the usage of the deck.

When using decks 2 or 3 to play back from the log and an element is started via [Play] button, [Ctrl-2/3] or remote start, the element started is the [Next=>] (next-to-play) item on the log. Note that the [Auto] (auto-segue) button is toggled OFF in these cases. The assumption is that the user is now doing something manual (ie, cross-fade) and probably does not want auto-sequencing on until the user says so.

3.	The [F10] keystroke now toggles the [Auto] (auto-segue) button on/off.

4.	A music table, for storing song title and artist information, has been added. Users can import music information, including cart number, song title and artist, using data files exported for use with Maestro from popular music scheduling systems.

5.	Song title and artist information can now be displayed on the log, if music library data has been imported and/or entered in the music data table.

Version 2.0.6.42 - 08/23/2005

1.	Event logs are now stored as daily logs rather than a single file who's size is maintained. Event logs are kept for 14 days and have the naming convention "yyyymmdd_XStudio_EventLog.txt".

Automatic updating of the current log has been implemented. If the log is changed by an external program (re-merged or edited), XStudio will detect the change and update the log. The log is updated from the NxtU=> directive position to the end of the day, resulting in a so-called "spliced" log. Updates are performed only when a matching directive pair on the original and updated logs is found somewhere between the NxtU=> directive position and the end of the log. Both the original log and the entire new log are saved and can be later compared, if desired, to see the changes that occurred. To compare old and new logs, select the main menu item Edit | Automation Setup. The spliced log data is located in the "Log Data" tab. Double-click on an item you wish to view.

A persistent log scheme has been implemented. If a user exits XStudio and restarts the program, the "Aired" status and "AirTime" status is restored - as long as the original log on disk has not been changed since program exit. If XStudio is shut down, the log edited on-disk and XStudio is restarted, the log display will not contain the "Aired" and "AirTime" status. Each time XStudio completes air play of an item on the log, the day's status record is updated. You can view the log status for a given log date, as of the last time it was updated, by selecting the main menu item Edit | Automation Setup. The log status information is located in the "Log Data" tab. Double-Click on an item you wish to view.

Records of log update activity and log status are kept in the database for 62 days.

Version 2.0.4.34 - 05/25/2005

1.	Additional changes have been made to the methods that write event and audio scan logs to increase fault tolerance.

Version 2.0.4.33 - 05/10/2005

1.	The dialogs that display the event log, audio scan log and Source log file have been updated to "remember" the search panel status (visible or not) and settings.

2.	The method used to write event information to the event and audio scan logs has been revised to be more tolerant of disk writing errors.

Version 2.0.4.32 - 05/07/2005

1.	Handling of inbound data from an audio switcher has been revised to properly support the BT 12.4 switcher, which generates different switcher status data than other BT switchers.

2.	The About dialog has been updated with a slightly different visual appearance. The information can now be printed from a pop-up menu item.

3.	The clock and switcher status dialogs have been updated to present more intuitive pop-up menus.

Version 2.0.4.31 - 05/03/2005

The "Display Spot Times" option has been revised. Now, users can choose to display no information, the logged time of the audio element, or the "Estimated Air Time" of the audio element. The estimated air time is a best guess as to when a given audio item on the log will play, based on its position within a given hour. For instance, if the sum of the audio length to AUX mark of all items preceding a cart in the 1AM hour is 1:10:23, the estimated play time of the item is 2:10:23AM. The estimates are reset each hour, so in this example, the 2AM hour's 1st audio item would have an estimated play time of 2:00:00AM.

Version 2.0.4.30 - 05/01/2005

1.	A new column has been added to the log display. The column is called "Time Aired" and shows the start time of an audio item that has successfully played.

Version 2.0.4.29 - 04/28/2005

A problem with incorrect log time values in audit report data has been corrected. Previously, log reconciles would fail for times of the day where the time zone of operation, converted to UTC time, caused incorrect date values to be stored in the audit data. For example, all logged audio items appearing after 6PM for a machine running in the Central Time Zone would not reconcile properly in previous versions. These items had been reported as missing.

Version 2.0.4.28 - 04/27/2005

Support for input relay lock-out values has been added. For each defined audio switcher, users can set lock-out values for each input relay in a range of 1-59 seconds. If a second instance of a relay is received within the lock-out time, the second instance is logged and ignored (no action is taken). The default value is zero (0). Lock-out values are used within the application and are a supplement to a switcher's built-in de-bounce mechanism, if any.

Version 2.0.3.27 - 04/24/2005

Audit reporting and the on-screen display of successfully played audio items has been revised to include a "fudge factor" to handle situations where the conversion of time (in milliseconds) to Time_t values (in seconds), as required by DCS & Maestro audit file fields, results in a status of "CANCELED" or "NOT_COMPLETED". The revision allows for audio playback that falls within 1 second of the AUX mark length to be reported as "OK".

A timed dialog is now used to display unhandled errors - problems not caught by XStudio - to prevent the system from hanging up while waiting for a user response to the error dialog. Now, a dialog is presented, telling the user an error has occurred and offering to display the details of the error. If no response is made by the user within 5 seconds, the dialog is closed and XStudio will attempt to continue operations.

Version 2.0.3.26 - 04/23/2005

1.	Response to an emergency signal on button 4 of the remote start interface has been implemented. If remote starts are enabled, and a relay (closure) occurs for button 4, XStudio will take these actions:

a.	Automatic log-wrap is enabled.

b.	Play-Through-Directives is enabled.

c.	If no Next-To-Play item is selected on the log, one will be set, based on the first playable element from the beginning of the log. Note this presumes that XStudio has a log loaded.

d.	If an Emergency Action is defined (in Preferences), the action will be performed; otherwise, nothing further will be done.

The recommended method of implementing this functionality is to create an Action (perhaps named "xxxx Emergency) that contains any Tasks needed to handle the emergency. Tasks that might be included in a typical Emergency Action:

1.	A Mode update - setting the system to Emergency mode.

2.	An Update Switcher task to set appropriate switcher channels.

3.	A Play Start task, to begin playing items on the log.

4.	A DOut task to signal some other device of the start of Emergency operations.

If XStudio is operating primarily as an emergency fallback system, it is recommended that an emergency log be created. This log would be generic in nature, probably just a few hours of core music, for instance. In preferences, check the startup item "Load Log at Startup", which causes XStudio to first look for a valid log for today's date, then fall back to trying to load an emergency log for the default station.

Version 2.0.3.25 - 04/22/2005

Locally generated inventory information, where the audio folder is a Novell Netware volume, is now automatically updated as needed. The frequency of detection of changes is approximately 5 minutes. The inventory information is re-scanned only if either the count of audio items or the latest date-time stamp changes. Local drives continue to be updated as before, but any remote drive (network drive) is updated using the new method that checks for changes every 5 minutes.

A change to the handling of carts missing messages from the audio engine has been made to handle situations where the missing cart play attempt was made from a source other than the log. For these items, a dialog is displayed, informing the user the cart cannot be played because it does not exist in the audio folder.

3.	A minor cosmetic change in the display of played items on the log has been made to correct a single-pixel "shadow" on unplayed items.

Version 2.0.3.24 - 04/21/2005

1.	Changes have been made to the processes that manage log dates to improve accuracy and correct logic flaws relative to selection of the "Tomorrow" log.

Version 2.0.3.23 - 04/15/2005

Many of the message dialogs, both informational and error, have been changed to automatically close after a brief wait period to prevent the dialog from remaining on the display if there is no user present to acknowledge the information. Typically, the dialog will be displayed for 5 seconds, then closed if a user does not click on one of the buttons (OK, Cancel, Yes, No, etc).

2.	Setting the Next-To-Play marker as a result of a cast-off ($) directive has been updated to account for situations where the current Next-To-Play item is at a point on the log past the cast-off directive. No update of Next-To-Play will occur in this situation.

Version 2.0.3.22 - 04/14/2005

1.	Changes have been made to the log loading process to minimize the possibility of I/O 32 errors (file-sharing errors).

2.	A problem with the coloring of the directive content length not following the column when moved has been corrected.

3.	If a DCS or Maestro-generated inventory data file is being used with XStudio, the information is now automatically updated when the host DCS or Maestro updates the file. Periodic checks are made to see if the file content has changed at approximate 1-minute intervals.

Version 2.0.3.21 - 04/03/2005

1.	The Directive edit dialog has been enhanced to support additional directive keys, including "^" (suspend automation), "$" (cast-off load directive), and ":" (time offset directive).

Version 2.0.2.20 - 03/31/2005

1.	Initial release of XStudio version 2.