Despite COVID, it’s business as usual for RCS and we continue to install all of our products all across the world. We thought it was time for an onboarding refresher to break down all of the steps on how we help you install and configure your RCS system. For this session, we were joined by Brian Willard, Field Technician Services Director, and Adrian Guanipa, GSelector Support Lead, to go through each product and how we guide you through the onboarding process.

The most important part of any install and configuration is knowing all of the details. That’s why Brian and Adrian have complied a checklist of every small detail that you may have missed. Let’s be honest, you’re operating your station(s) AND learning a new piece of software. That is a lot to juggle for you and your staff. By taking point, let us help you with the process. Throughout this RCS Live, we joke that we’ll “hound you for information” and that’s because we want to make sure everything is installed the way YOU need it to be. So as the first major step in the onboarding process, we’ll be asking you a lot of questions to make sure we know the answers and understand your specific workflows. Of course, if you’re installing Zetta, most likely you’ve already worked out the major details between Sales and Brian himself.

If your onboarding consists of Zetta and GSelector integration, we prefer to space out training sessions for you and your team so that we don’t overwhelm users. Usually, we schedule the GSelector training two weeks before the Zetta installation. Every new GSelector client will receive three one-hour training sessions and two half hour follow up sessions. If you’re upgrading to Zetta, then you’ve already purchased Field Technician Service time, in which our FTS team will conduct multiple training sessions for you and your team. We like to break these up between departments, so there might be a programming session one morning, traffic in the afternoon, and when we switch over to live Zetta, we’ll be on hand to answer any questions during the morning show. Both the GSelector server installation and the onboarding training can be scheduled online via one of our RCS onboarding portals. If you’re an existing RCS customer, it’s the same installation portal if you’re looking to schedule an upgrade your current system.

In regards to metadata, we have seen all types of ways users have created a database. Simply put, we’ll convert whatever metadata or audio you give us. In regards to GSelector, we can import or build any database as long as we know where to include the data. Most users define an Excel column header with their desired attribute, which we can convert so that GSelector can correctly import it.

At the end of the day, we have thousands of clients who have converted their database and we have seen it all. Rest assured, we’ll be available to not only ease your mind, but provide any helpful tips or guidance along the way. And if you do have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out to your onboarding contact. Finally, we’re also very flexible and understanding in case life throws you and your team any curveballs during the onboarding process. Again, your onboarding contact is here to help guide you, so don’t hesitate to contact them. Also note, if you would like a copy of any of the documents reviewed in this video, please reach out to your local RCS Sales Representative and we’ll forward them along.

Here at RCS, we are excited for our upcoming products releases, including Zetta 5.20.1 and GSelector 4.9.0. Expect RCS Live sessions in the upcoming weeks, in which we’ll break down each product’s new features. We’re also planning on demonstrating Zetta Site Replication vs. Z-Casting, Zetta Hot Sparing, and of course, more GSelector scheduling tips and tricks. We’ll be posting Facebook events to RSVP and set reminders. Make sure you follow us on www.Facebook.com/RCSSoundSoftware and if you have questions you want answered, let us know and we’ll cover them every Thursday at 11am ET.

One of Zetta’s most unique features is the Background Recorder. Many users take its workflows literally, which is fine, as a way to record something in the background. However, did you know that the Background Recorder, or BGR, can be interpreted as its own station with clocks and logs? In this video, Jeff Zigler, RCS Senior Sales Engineer, joined us in breaking down many of the ways you can utilize Zetta’s Background Recorder and maximize its efficiency.

Starting with the setup and configuration. Users first must identify the recording sources via Configuration | Computer | Record Devices. After defining the recording inputs, assign a task that the Background Record, or BGR, can execute via Configuration | background Recorders. Users can have multiple Background Recorders or a single Background Recorder that can execute multiple tasks. If you’re looking to record to a single file, under Configuration | System | On Demand Recordings, users can record to a file outside of Zetta, an FTP site or select an internal asset and drag it into the defined area to have the BGR continue to overwrite that specific asset.

After defining and configuring the Background Recorder, users have access to the Recorder Clocks and Recorder Logs, located under Tools | Recorder Clocks or Recorder Logs. Think of the Recorder Clocks as a repeating 24/7 grid, broken down by the hour. Whereas the Recorder Logs represent Thursday 10/8/20. Let’s say that it’s a holiday and you don’t need the BGR to execute its workflow. We wouldn’t want to delete the workflow from the Recorder Clocks because that means the next time the day is scheduled, we lose that workflow. Instead, we should go to the Recorder Logs and remove the workflow due to the single holiday. Users can work within this window similar to Zetta’s Clocks or Logs. Right Click, insert a Control Event and then you can insert and manipulate Execute Commands, Macros and more. Jeff even used the example of a station that configured their Background Recorder to execute a task in which a GPO triggered the front doors to unlock at exactly 5:45am to let the morning show talent into the building and then at 6:00am, the BGR would lock the doors. Users can trigger individual recordings like curating a “Best of Morning Show,” or free up resources by executing tasks normally done by the File Server. Users submitted their own examples of playing back live recorded News or creating a macro, assigning it to a Hot Key and then firing it via Zetta2GO. Remember, macros are essentially combined functions that can be triggered as one. And with the Background Recorder’s Recorder Clocks and Recorder Logs, users have full control on scheduling or executing workflows. Treat the Recorder Clocks and Recorder Logs like you would a station’s Log module. There’s lots of ways you can maximize your workflows by combining the Recorder Clocks with everyday tasks.

Next, we continued with more user examples. Within the Metadata module, there is a section for Playback Method and the option Play Incoming File. If you have an ongoing recording and you want to essentially treat the Background Recorder as a DVR, you could begin a recording and then using the Play Incoming File Playback Method, start to the play the recorded element while it continues to record. There’s also ways to utilize Zetta’s TCP/UDP/GPIOs alongside the BGR to change routes, Hot Spare and more.

With fall upon us, we’re working on some unique topics to cover for upcoming RCS Lives, including Zetta Site Replication vs. Z-Casting, Zetta 5.20.1, GSelector 4.9.0 and its new unique Clock breakdowns. Make sure you follow us on www.Facebook.com/RCSSoundSoftware to RSVP for these free upcoming events and if you have questions you want answered, let us know and we’ll cover them every Thursday at 11am ET.

With the Fall Ratings Period on our minds, we decided to tackle Advanced GSelector Scheduling Techniques as part of this week’s RCS Live series. We broke down the Category Changer, Optimizations, including MultiShot, Legacy and Floating, Consideration Window settings and more.

Starting with the Category Changer (Library | Category Changer), we reminded Music Directors a quick and efficient way to make their weekly music changes. Don’t forget about the F7 History Window that can be displayed or hidden and options to add or remove metadata columns. Each user can also have their own Category Changer Browse Format.

Moving on the Optimizations tab, by default the Optimizations tab is disabled. Users can enable it via Setup | Station | Features | Advanced | Enable Optimization Options. Once enabled, there are three GSelector Optimizations users can choose from: MultiShot, Legacy and Floating. Each are part of the Optimization scheduling process. Remember, there are three phases of the GSelector scheduling process: Plotting (Preemptive positioning based on dayparts), Scheduling (GSelector assigns the asset a score) and Optimizations (GSelector will juggle the asset with other assets to see if there’s a better scoring element that could fit in said position). By default, GSelector uses Legacy | Light for all scheduling.

Multishot is for smaller categories with higher turnovers, similar to Disabled | Slotted. The concept is that GSelector has slightly more flexibility in how it can schedule elements that are supposed to be in consecutive order using basic GSelector rules like Minimum Separation, Yesterday Song and Vocalist Separation. Obviously, there would need to be values in each of those rules for MultiShot to take effect. If a normal turnover category schedules as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc… then the MultiShot would allow for one position to move slightly: 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Notice that it will only move one position to make sure that GSelector maintains the desired consecutive order. These settings can be adjusted by Light, Medium, Heavy, Auto and Custom.

Next, we have Legacy and Floating optimizations. These are used for higher turnover categories with lots of elements and a turnover greater than eight hours. The concept is that GSelector will dig deeper to find a better scoring element. The main difference between Legacy and Floating is that Legacy will dig within the scheduled Category Group and Floating will search within a defined Floating Group of multiple Category Groups. For example, with Legacy enabled, if GSelector schedules a Primary Gold record, then it will dig within the Primary Gold Category Group to find a better scoring song. It will not look at any other Category Group. Compared to Floating, in which a user would define a Floating Group, like Floating Group 1, and then using the Assignment tab, they would choose multiple Category Groups and assign them the Floating Category Group 1. For example, one could combine the Category Groups: 1970s Primary, 1970s Secondary and 1970s Fill. So if a 1970s Primary element was scheduled, GSelector will look at the Floating Group to find a better scoring song. It would search through 1970s Primary, 1970s Secondary and 1970s Filler. The Optimizer strength will determine how far down GSelector will search. NOTE: There is no Goal or Rule that users have to add to the existing Priority Lists. These Optimizations are part of GSelector’s third scheduling process.

Did you know that there are Consideration Window specific settings that you can enable or disable? From the first row of Editor icons, on the far right you’ll find the finger with up down arrows dropdown Consideration Window Options. Settings range from hiding elements that have a score of 0 or displaying Packets and more. It’s good practice to play with these settings to make sure the Consideration Window is performing exactly how YOU want it to.

Finally, we went over some small tips like Airplay Starvation and taking backups. If you find your category spin separation is slightly too big – if 7 spins is the average, you have elements with 10 spins and others with 3 – then Airplay Starvation will tighten the gap so that you’ll see turnovers more like 8 and 5 respectively. With cryptoware attacks on the rise, don’t forget about Data Exchanges. They’re free and part of your GSelector contract. Think of Data Exchanges as a Cloud or Email backups and RCS will maintain the most recent backup as a security measure in case of emergencies. Best practices: take the time to send yourself a Data Exchange once a week.

With fall upon us, we’re working on some unique topics to cover for upcoming RCS Lives, including Zetta Site Replication vs. Z-Casting, Background Recorder, Zetta 5.20.1, GSelector 4.9.0 and its new unique Clock breakdowns. Make sure you follow us on Facebook.com/RCSSoundSoftware to RSVP for these free upcoming events and if you have questions you want answered, let us know and we’ll cover them every Thursday at 11am ET.

Returning to our Zetta “Back to Basics” Series, this week’s RCS Live was all about configuring, importing and exporting your audio. We broke down some of the important settings, all the ways users can import audio, and finally we demonstrated one of the hidden ways to export audio.

You may have heard the phrase, “Zetta is a modern piece of radio automation software in which users can add MP3, WAV, ACC files, automatically set the Trim In, Trim Out and Segue points, save them as a default audio format and then perform nondestructive normalization.” In this video, we broke down what that means. Under the Configuration | System, users can define their Marks Analysis from the Audio Processing tab, including the dB settings. Then, from the Audio Format tab, they can specify how they want Zetta to save or export each asset type.

Next, we discussed the four ways to import audio. Users can burn audio from a CD, use Windows Explorer, drag and drop an asset or create an Auto Import function. We also made a note regarding the Marks Analysis option within each defined Auto Import’s Advanced tab. Finally, we demonstrated how to export audio out of Zetta with a simple drag and drop to the desktop, defined folder or email.

RCS has some special guests and surprises lined up for upcoming RCS Lives, including Zetta 5.20.1 new features, GSelector 4.9.0’s new customized Clock structure and more. As always, reach out if you have any questions or looking for workflow solutions. Don’t forget to follow us on www.Facebook.com/RCSSoundSoftware for updates and we’ll see you every Thursday at 11am ET.

Desde que comenzamos nuestra transmisión en vivo (RCS Live), hablamos de todas las formas en que la línea de productos 2GO de RCS puede maximizar su eficiencia para trabajar en forma remota. Debido a que solo hemos organizado este tipo de sesiones en inglés, decidimos repasar en español: cómo programar, transmitir y otras cosas más, como parte de nuestra transmisión en vivo de esta semana (RCS Live): Preguntas y respuestas en tiempos de trabajo remoto desde casa.
Con relación a la programación de música, los usuarios pueden realizar cambios de categoría en Selector2GO, programar su guía y luego ajustarla dentro del Editor. No olvide que los usuarios también pueden habilitar la opción “Guardar en el servidor” para que cuando un usuario exporte una programación en Selector2GO, aún pueda enviar su archivo plano al sistema de automatización radial. Por supuesto, si tiene GSelector y Zetta, no es necesario exportar la guía porque GSelector y Zetta cuentan con integración 100% , en vivo. Consejo profesional: haga clic con el botón derecho y abra una nueva sección de Selector2GO como una “Nueva pestaña”, para que pueda trabajar en varias estaciones o áreas de Selector2GO navegando entre pestañas.

Pasando a Zetta2GO, los usuarios pueden agregar audio, editar metadatos, locución grabada y continuar transmitiendo en vivo; todo desde su navegador. Al igual que con todos los productos RCS 2GO, no hay que descargar ninguna aplicación, solo necesita que su dispositivo tenga acceso a Internet para utilizar RCS 2GO. Durante Facebook Live, también hablamos sobre la mejor práctica para agregar primero audio nuevo en Zetta2GO y luego cambiar a Selector2GO para agregar más metadatos de programación.
Luego vimos Revma, la red de entrega de contenido de RCS y su aplicación para conferencias. Piense en esta aplicación, como una sala digital en la que los anfitriones pueden invitar a los participantes, para transmitir todos desde una sola salida digital. Una vez configurada la sala y ya transmitiendo en vivo, los administradores pueden controlar esa transmisión en un teclado de acceso rápido para que los usuarios puedan manejar el secuenciador, a través del módulo en vivo de Zetta2GO, habilitar la tecla de acceso rápido de la aplicación y comenzar a transmitir en vivo; por ejemplo, un programa matutino con varias personalidades. Cuando termine la transmisión, simplemente apague la tecla de acceso rápido y/o apague la transmisión en vivo de la aplicación Conferencia.

Finalmente, hicimos un breve repaso de Zetta Cloud (desarrollado en Amazon Web Services) utilizando los mejores procedimientos de seguridad. Dado que Zetta Cloud no es una máquina virtual en una instancia de AWS, los usuarios pueden acceder a su Zetta Cloud desde cualquier dispositivo que tenga Internet y podrán iniciar sesión con Okta, un proceso de autenticación de dos pasos. Zetta Cloud tiene su propio codificador que se puede pre configurar en donde está ubicado su transmisor, para que en caso de que ocurra un desastre, iniciar una sesión y habilitar la transmisión, desde su teléfono. Zetta enviará todo el audio, metadatos, horarios, cambios en la guía de programación, copias de seguridad SQL para que una vez que haya pasado la emergencia, simplemente restaure los datos de Zetta Cloud o detenga el secuenciador y regrese a su Zetta local.

Como siempre, si tiene alguna pregunta o busca soluciones para trabajar en forma remota, comuníquese con Horacio González, su representante de ventas para Latinoamérica

o envíenos un mensaje directo en las redes sociales. ¡No olvide seguirnos en Facebook, www.Facebook.com/RCSSoundSoftware y nos vemos el próximo jueves para otro RCS Live.