Delayed Now Playing data in Aiir

Stations using some automation systems have reported delays in their Now Playing data on their Aiir website, mobile app, or Alexa skill.

Unfortunately, this isn't something we at Aiir can fix, as it relies on how your system exports its metadata.

Most playout automation systems can 'push' updates to third-party services like Aiir each time the metadata needs to change, for example, when the current track changes:

Instead, some playout systems require external systems to 'pull' or 'fetch' updates periodically. We do this as frequently as we can, but it's a slower process than having updates pushed out:

The gaps between 'pull' requests cause delays in metadata updating on your website, app, or skill. Aiir may have checked in just as a song was finishing, meaning it may be several minutes before we check in again and update the information.

Aiir updates the metadata we receive from playout systems as soon as it knows something has changed.

Can't you check more frequently?

We have to strike a balance between frequent pull requests and maintaining overall system performance for all Aiir users.

Constantly checking in to see if anything has changed consumes system resources, meaning potentially, a few stations could consume a disproportionate amount of our platform's processing power, which we want to avoid.

How do I fix this?

You will need to contact your playout system's support team and request they provide a means to 'push' out metadata updates, rather than pulling them.

A more drastic approach would be switching to an alternative playout system which supports pushing metadata, like PlayoutONE.