Changing PlayoutONE's on-air studio using an IP command

If you have more than one PlayoutONE PC capable of acting as your on-air machine - for example, more than one studio - you can easily switch between them using an IP command sent to the Audio Engine.

On this page, we'll explain how to set up one of these commands, which can be saved as a pre-defined command and easily re-used when needed or saved to a Quick Key.

Communicating with the Audio Engine

PlayoutONE's Audio Engine controls which PC is set as your on-air machine. This will normally be your main studio control room or server in Audio-over-IP environments.

The Audio Engine can process incoming TCP/IP commands, which allow us to use the Command Manager to create commands to switch between available PlayoutONE machines.

The default port for Audio Engine commands is 9001. If you use another port, adapt the examples below to suit your network configuration.

Changing the on-air machine

The ONAIR CHANGE command allows PlayoutONE to set the machine its running on as your on-air PC.

We're able to trigger this command on other PCs running PlayoutONE on your network by sending an IP command to the Audio Engine you want to put on air:

IPCOMMAND [PCNAME]:9001 ONAIR CHANGE

For example, if you wanted to make a PC called P1-XMPL-ST2 your on-air machine, you would send the following command:

IPCOMMAND P1-XMPL-ST2:9001 ONAIR CHANGE

You can create multiple predefined commands in PlayoutONE to make switching studios quick and easy.

When triggered, the on-air PC won't immediately change. Instead, the currently playing item will finish playing gracefully on the current on-air PC before the next item starts playing from the PC you have just given control to.

Creating a predefined command to switch the on-air PC in Command Manager.

Creating a Quick Key to change studios

Once you have created commands for each of the PCs you may want PlayoutONE to use as the main on-air machine, you can create a bank of Quick Keys allowing you to easily switch between them.

Create a bank of Quick Keys with the number of buttons you need, then right-click an empty one and select 'Edit Key' to set it up.

You just need to give each key a user-friendly title, like "Change to Studio 1" and select the predefined command you created earlier in the Command Manager. For example, "ST1 TAKE CONTROL":

Tick "Use Custom Command" and make sure you have selected the radio button next to the right of your pre-defined command to use it.