Navigating Monitor
This guide will walk you through the options available in Monitor.
Jump to:
Main screen
The main screen in Monitor gives you a quick overview of the status of your radio station.
| ALL OK |
This means out of all of the checks that Monitor has performed, no issues have been found. |
| Problems X |
This means that out of all of the checks that Monitor has performed, 1 or more of them have come back with a problem. |
| Maintenance Mode |
When Maintenance Mode is active, alert emails are paused. |
Application Status
Shows the status of the Applications Monitor is set to Monitor. Green means that the application is running. Red means the application is not running or that there was a problem. If the application shows as black, then it's not being actively monitored.
Station Status
Displays the number of stations within the installation and the status of each station
| Station | The name of the Station |
| Status | The current status of the Station |
| Program Logs |
When Program Logs have been scheduled up until. |
| Traffic Logs |
When Traffic Logs have been scheduled up until (only in PlayoutONE Pro) |
| Now Playing |
The current Playing item |
Tool Bar
| Main Settings |
Displays Main Settings for Monitor |
| Station Settings |
Displays Station Settings for the station highlighted in the Station Status grid. This can also be accessed by double-clicking on the station in the status grid. |
| Show Log |
Shows the Monitor debug log |
| Run Ignition |
Starts the Ignition process. |
| Maintenance | Puts Monitor in Maintenance Mode. |
Main Settings
🗄 Database
SQL Server
| SQL Server | The SQL Server location. Default is localhost\p1sqlexpress |
| SQL Database | The SQL Server database. Default is playoutone_standard |
Hard Drives
| Monitor Hard Drive Space | Enables the checking of Hard Drives |
| Hard Drive List | Shows a list of Hard Drives detected within the PC that monitor is running on. Tick the hard drives you wish to Monitor. |
| Warning Threshold | Warn when disk space goes lower than the percentage value. |
Data Backups
| Audio & Data |
Enables the Audio and Data backup routine. |
| SQL Database | Enables or Disables SQL Database backups. Default is switched on |
| Monitor Only | When this option is checked, Monitor will monitor the data and backup locations and alert if they differ but won't actually copy any files. This is to be used when you use another process to do the actual backing up of the data but you still wish to be alerted of problems. |
| Main Directory | The Main PlayoutONE Data location. This can be found within PlayoutONE Settings. |
| Backup Folder | The Directory or where you wish the backups to reside |
| Delete From Backups | Select in days for when items should be deleted from the backup. For example, if we delete a file on the 1st January, and we set this option to 14 days, it will remain in the backup until 14th January. |
| Alert Threshold | Alert when the main and backup directories become different by the set percentage. |
| IPG Gap | IPG (Inter Packet Gap) throttles bandwidth when backing up the main directory. A larger number uses less bandwidth whilst a lower number will use more bandwidth. Default is 0.8 |
| Full Backup | When pressed, Monitor will perform a full backup manually. |
| Backup SQL | When pressed, Monitor will perform a SQL Backup only. |
| Maintenance | When pressed, Monitor will run its maintenance plan. Maintenance includes deleting old log files, audio and performing SQL optimisation. |
WebVT
| On | Turns on the WebVT® audio service. WebVT® Audio service is responsible for creating .opus and low quality .mp3 audio files for WebVT®. |
| Static IP Updater | Turns on the PlayoutONE WebVT® Static IP Updater. This is to be used in conjunction with your .webvt.net address. The WebVT® Static IP Updater runs every 3 hours and ensures your .webvt.net address points to your current IP Address. |
| Hostname | Your WebVT.net address |
| Username | <user>#PlayoutONE |
| Password | The password supplied by PlayoutONE |
| Update | Forces a manual update. |
🪪 License
The license tab can provide you with all the details of your PlayoutONE Pro license.
| Name | The licensed Organisation Name |
| The license email associated with the Organisation | |
| Affiliate | The affiliate associated with the License |
Current license connections
This table shows the current connected applications to Monitor. If you need to disconnect an application you can right-click on it within the table and choose to disconnect it.
You sometimes may need to do this if all of your concurrent connections have been used.
By default, Monitor will disconnect any applications that have not checked in with Monitor within 20 minutes.
License status
| ID | The PlayoutONE License ID |
| Status | The current status of the license. |
| Count | The number of concurrent connections this license will permit. This is divided up into two sections. PlayoutONE: The number of PlayoutONE applications that can be open at the same time Apps: The number of PlayoutONE Applications (LiveStream, FileCopy, AutoImporter etc) that can be open at the same time. |
| Multi Station | The number of licensed Multi Stations this license permits. |
| Expiry | The expiry date of this license |
| Region | The region the license is licensed to |
| Last Check In | The Date/Time Monitor last checked in with the PlayoutONE License server. This is usually every 12 hours. |
| License PC | The current PC that is designated to run Monitor on. |
| Virtual Machine | Ticked if running in a virtual machine environment. |
| Satellite License | Ticked if this license is a Satellite License. Satellite licenses carry restrictions on what they can and can't import. They are designed to be listening to a Satellite Master, which feeds audio and Music / Traffic log files. |
Licensed products
Shows which products are licensed.
🔥 Ignition
Ignition is activated by Monitor automatically when
- Monitor first launches
- The PC running Monitor has been turned on for less than 15 minutes
Outside of these parameters, you can click the 'Run Ignition' button from the main toolbar to trigger the process.
Within the Ignition settings, you can choose which applications should be started by Monitor when Ignition is triggered.
There's also an option to make Monitor startup automatically with Windows (recommended).
💾 Applications
The applications tab within Monitor allows you to set up which applications you wish to check. Applications can also be restarted if Monitor detects they are not running.
Monitoring applications on other PCs
To monitor applications on other PCs, you will need to make sure Studio Monitor is running on the PC running the application you wish to monitor.
With Studio Monitor, select the application to monitor and then set the application number. This can be found in Monitor by hovering over the 'Monitor Remote' toggle buttons.
Switching on Monitor Remote allows Studio Monitor to update Monitor periodically.
✉️ Email
Email settings stored here can be shared with FileCopy, LiveStream and AutoImporter.
| Enable Email | Enables Email |
| SMTP / Server API | Uses the SMTP Protocol or Synchronicity Server API to send an email. |
| SMTP Server & Port | The SMTP mail server. The SMTP Port. Whether the SMTP Server requires SSL |
| SMTP Username | The SMTP Username |
| SMTP Password | The SMTP password |
| SMTP From Name | The SMTP Name to display when sending the email. Recommended to be set to PlayoutONE Auto Importer |
| SMTP From Email | The SMTP From Email. This is usually the SMTP Username if an email address. |
| SMTP Recipients | Email recipients to send emails to. Separate multiple recipients with a comma |
| SMTP Logo Size | The Size of the Station Logo to show on the email. Default is 150 |
Troubleshooting
Sometimes you can run into difficulty when setting up Email. We always recommend testing your settings before saving by using the test button.
If using Gmail to send email, please read this troubleshooting guide if you are having issues sending.
📡 Multi-Station
The Multi-Station tab shows all stations that are part of the database. You can add or delete a station from here.
We recommend you speak to Aiir Support before altering the settings here.
⚙️ Options
Settings
| Run Monitor Tasks Every | Amount of time in seconds that Monitor should perform it's task checks. |
| Keep Recycled Items For | Amount of time in days that Monitor should keep something in the Media Finder Recycle bin |
| Warn If Missing Audio Detected In Media Finder | When enabled, Monitor will periodically check the Media Finder for any missing audio. It will then email a list of items found without audio. |
| SQL Database Synchroniser | Allows you to synchronise certain SQL Tables within the database to another SQL Instance. Useful for a backup server |
| Minimise Monitor To System Tray | Minimises Monitor to the Windows system tray. |
Station Settings
🎛️ Dashboard
The dashboard gives you quick information on the status of the station you are looking at.
| Program Logs | Shows when Program Logs are scheduled up until |
| Traffic Logs | Shows when Traffic Logs are scheduled up until |
| Last SQL Backup | Shows the time of the last SQL Database Backup. |
| Database Log Size | Shows the SQL Database log file size. |
| Database File Size | Shows the SQL Database file size. |
| Warnings | Displays and Global or Station Warnings. Global warnings affect all stations. Station warnings affect just the station you are looking at. |
| Schedule Grid | Shows a visual representation of where Program and Traffic logs are scheduled up until. The number displayed when looking at the Traffic Log report denotes the number of commercials scheduled in that hour. |
| Multi Station Number | The Multi Station number. For reference only. |
🚨 Alerts
The alerts tab allows you to configure which alerts you wish to be notified about.
Notification time & recipients
| Alert Check | The time each day to run the alert checks. |
| Email Recipients | The recipients that should be notified in the case of an alert. If this field is left blank, then the recipient's details in the Main Settings are alerted. |
Program Log Notifications
| Email If Program Logs Are Scheduled | Sends an email if Program Logs are scheduled when the daily check is run. |
| Email if Program Logs Are Not Scheduled | Sends an email if Program Logs are not scheduled when the daily check is run. |
| Include Expired Items In Gap Times Email Report | When you receive a Program log report, you'll also see a column showing the gap time for the hour. Enabling this setting will include any current expired items on the log within the gap time calculation. This is useful sometimes as expired items may not be expired when the hour comes to air. |
Traffic Log Notifications
| Email If Traffic Logs Are Scheduled | Send an email if Traffic Logs are scheduled when the daily check is ran. |
| Email If Traffic Logs Are Not Scheduled | Send an email if Traffic Logs are not scheduled when the daily check is ran. |
| Email If Traffic Doesn't Merge Properly | Sends an email if any Commercials scheduled do not fall between a TrafficMerge Start and End. This report is useful for spotting when the Program Log Commercial Break times do not match with the Traffic Log. |
| Email If Any Hours Do Not Contain Traffic | Send am email if any Program Logs scheduled do not contain any scheduled commercials. |
| Traffic Log Types To Monitor | Select the different Traffic Merge break types to Monitor for alerts. By default, TrafficMerge should be checked. |
Silence Detection
| Capture | Choose to capture audio levels from an Input or Output device connected to the PC. |
| Silene Detection On / Off | Turns on or off the silence detection within Monitor |
| Silence Threshold | The time in seconds to wait once audio falls below the audio level before triggering the silence alert. The audio level threshold can be altered by moving the fader underneath the level meter. |
| Audio Device | The actual audio device to monitor for audio. If Remote Monitor is selected then Monitor can receive audio levels from LiveStream or Studio Monitor via IP. |
| Accept Audio Levels From On-Air Machine Only | When Remote Monitor is selected, you can choose to only receive audio levels from the current On Air Machine. This ensures that if the On-Air machine falls silent, Monitor isn't fooled by other sources sending their audio levels. |
| Triggers | When silence is detected or audio returns, Monitor can trigger a number of FileCopy jobs. These in turn can be linked to PlayoutONE Commands or external triggers. |
✅ Options
Social, weather, metadata and Audio Engine
| Enable metadata outputs | Master switch for whether metadata is enabled for this station. |
| Enable Facebook | When enabled, Facebook posts may be sent from the Log within PlayoutONE and WebVT® |
| Enable weather | When enabled, Weather information will display at the top of PlayoutONE. Also used for Temperature announcements. To use the weather service, please sign up for a free openweathermap.org account |
| Enable Audio Engine | When enabled, the PlayoutONE Audio Engine will be used instead of standard playback devices. |
Isolation Mode
| Replicate Audio | When enabled, you can choose to replicate 12 hours or the full audio database to the on-air machine. See Isolation Mode |
| Replicate Database | When enabled, the SQL Database will be replicated to the On-Air machine. See Isolation Mode |
| Email If Activated Automatically | If PlayoutONE is set to automatically enable Isolation Mode in the event of a communication failure with the server, then Monitor can email you to let you know that this has happened. This setting does rely on Monitor running and may not work if your server has decided to go offline in the first place! |
| Replicate Database Button | Replicates the current snapshot manually to the current On-Air machine. |
Reconciliation
| On / Off | Turns On or Off the currently selected reconciliation profile. The dropdown allows you to select the vendor format to reconcile in. |
| Format | Choose whether to reconcile just Music, Commercials or both. |
| Filename | The filename to save the reconcile as. This uses the standard Windows DateTime format. |
| Folder | The folder to save the reconcile format in. |
| Test | When editing a reconciliation profile, you can choose to manually run this profile on the selected date. |
| Reconcile Parent Rotator Instead Of Resolved Child | Reconciles the Parent Rotator UID rather than the cart that it resolved to. |
| Reconcile Automatically Everyday | Allows you to run this reconciliation profiles automatically every day at the specified time. |
| Clear Reconciliation Files | When checked, reconciliation files older than X days will be deleted. |
| Reconciliation Grid | Shows the different reconcile profiles setup for this station. |
⚙️ Metadata Options
From the Metadata Options tab, you can add as many different metadata outputs as you like for this specific station.
| Adding a metadata output | Click the metadata service you would like to add. Click 'Yes' to the popup and fill in the details for the service you've chosen. |
| Editing a metadata output | Double-click on the metadata service in the list of outputs. |
| Enabling or disabling a metadata output | Tick or untick the 'Enabled' tickbox in the list of outputs, or right-click and choose 'Start/Stop'. |
| Refreshing a metadata output | Right-click on the metadata service and choose 'Refresh'. |
| Deleting a metadata output | Right-click on the metadata service and choose 'Delete'. |
| Duplicating a metadata output | Right-click on the metadata service and choose 'Duplicate'. |
For more information on the various output types, check out our guide here.
🗓️ Metadata Schedule
PlayoutONE's metadata schedule allows you to set up a weekly schedule on where Monitor sources its metadata from.
The Grid
The Grid shows you which meta profile is assigned to each hour. The default is 'P1' and this tells Monitor to get its metadata from PlayoutONE.
Adding new profiles
- Click the 'New Profile' button
Fill in the meta profile details:
Meta Profile Name The name for the Meta Profile Meta Profile ID A unique two-digit ID Meta Profile Colour The colour to display the Meta Profile on the grid On / Off Whether the Meta Profile is enabled. Source The source of where to get the metadata from
Meta From PlayoutONE: Takes the metadata from PlayoutONE
Custom Meta Text: User-defined custom text
Meta From Other Source File: Reads the metadata from a .txt file
Meta From Other Multi Station: Gets the meta from another Multi Station within the Organisation- Click 'Save'
Assigning profiles to the grid
- Highlight on the grid the profiles you wish to change
- Right-click, choose 'Add'
- Select the meta profile from the drop-down to add to the grid positions selected
Editing A Profile
- Select the meta profile on the grid
- Right-click, choose 'Edit'
- Make the necessary changes
- Click 'Save Profile'
Deleting A Profile
- Select the meta profile on the grid
- Right-click, choose 'Edit'
- Click 'Delete Profile'
❓ Miscellaneous
Export Logs
This option allows you to export logs from PlayoutONE in their native .dpl text file format. The logs created are split into hourly files.
Delete Logs
The option allows you to delete a specific day or hour from the PlayoutONE Log.
Other
| Commercial Type | Sets the commercial type for this station. This is used for certain reports. |
| Sync Categories From | Choose another station in a multi station database to synchronised category information from. The synchronisation happens every five minutes. |
| Stretch Filling | See Filling section under Streching |
| Hours To Look Ahead | Sets the number of hours ahead to look for Stretch Fill commands. |
| Artist Separation | The number of minutes that should pass before an item with the same Artist may be considered to be used as filler. |
| UID Separation | The number of minutes that should pass before an item with the same UID may be considered to be used as filler. |