As part of our weekly RCS Live, we like to showcase all our RCS products, including Aquira and Aquira2GO. This week we were joined by Brian Radka and Max Davies from our New Zealand Aquira Team to help us break down Aquira2GO’s forecaster workflows. We reviewed how Sales Representatives could work remotely and help organize their sales projections, map out their day or route and more!

Aside from Traffic Directors, Aquira2GO is perfect for both the Sales Manager and the Sales Representative. The forecaster feature allows users to compare their revenue to budget and pipeline reporting. Users have contracts that are in Aquira that are also available to view or edit within Aquira2GO. With Aquira2GO, analyze your forecasts and budgets month by month or combine multiple quarters for a better overall picture.

Sales Representatives can also view each of their clients and adjust their budgets on the fly with Aquira2GO. If you’re on the road and you need to either update client information, attach a contract or review your prospects with your Sales Manager, it’s easy and convenient with Aquira2GO.

Once you’re logged into Aquira2GO, don’t forget to customize your experience. There are many tools and filters that users can implement in order to cater their reports to a particular client, budget, or forecast. Filter your sales down by the month or organize data with custom attributes that were created in Aquira. There’s even multiple areas that Sales Representatives can override their budget or forecasts for their Sales Managers for more accurate projections.

Aquira2GO is an extremely helpful tool for Sales Representatives and Managers who are not only on the road, but also need to quickly access a slew of Aquira metadata, contracts and numbers. Customize your workflows and incorporate Aquira2GO while you’re meeting with clients or reviewing contracts.

As always, RCS is looking for Aquira Beta users that want the latest and greatest features. If you’re interested in becoming a Beta user, reach out to RCS Support. Don’t forget to check out our past videos, including other Aquira tips and tricks over at www.rcsworks.com/rcs-live and we’ll see you next time for another RCS Live.

With billions of dollars at stake, audiences larger than ever, and incidents of ransomware hitting the headlines, now is the time to protect your network.

Cybercrime is on the rise and the stakes are higher than ever. According to the 2021 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report, global ransomware attacks rose to an all-time high in 2020, a 62% increase over 2019, with a notable spike of 158% in North America. It’s why radio networks need to address the problem before it’s too late.

This isn’t scaremongering, especially when you consider what happened to Cox Media Group’s WMMO-FM, which serves Central Florida. When the station suddenly stopped broadcasting, its listeners were told to check their connections. However, it wasn’t the listeners who had the problem. It was the network itself. It transpired that WMMO, along with all of Cox Media Group’s radio and TV stations, had been taken down by a ransomware attack.

To an industry that is reliant on listener numbers for ratings and to sell advertising, this is the kind of nightmare scenario that every station manager and owner fears.

Worse still, there’s a growing trend for this sort of ransomware attack, not only in the broadcast industry but across society as a whole. The recent Colonial pipeline hack, which led to fuel shortages across the US East coast, was the result of an employee using the same password on their work and their (compromised) home accounts.

As with so much else, prevention is better than cure. However, no matter how vigilant you are with your security, nothing can ever be 100% secure. But with lists containing tens of thousands of stolen passwords exchanging freely on the dark web every day, how long will it be before one of the thousands of logins you’ve created ends up in the wrong hands?

Simply being off-air for a few minutes is enough to ruin reputations and jeopardize your advertising revenue. And broadcast hijacks often go down in history. Remember The Max Headroom incident, where hijackers replaced WGN Chicago’s Channel 9 news with footage of a man in a Max Headroom mask getting hit with a fly swat? That was 32 years ago.

So, with threats both large and small seemingly on every side, what is the best way to keep your media business safe?

The answer is, of course, ever tighter security. But the price you pay for such measures is not only in dollars, it’s also an inconvenience to your creatives, who need the freedom of today’s best tech to get their jobs done.

The real solution is to arm your talent with tools that make world-class radio and which have world-class security right at their core. RCS Zetta is already the power behind the throne for countless radio giants worldwide, with RCS’s famous GSelector providing programming that audiences and advertisers love. And – should the worst happen, be it a technical failure, pandemic or a cyber attack – all of your audio is backed up to RCS Disaster Recovery’s ZettaCloud.

RCS decentralizes your operation, making it practically impossible to take down – your station and programming are everywhere. Remotely switching to the cloud takes seconds, getting you back on air with all your original programming intact. So, no matter where and when trouble strikes, you know that your shows will go on.

So, why not work with the best and be prepared for the worst? Get in touch to find out how easy it is to futureproof your stations with RCS.

For weeks we’ve been teasing that Beta users receive the latest and greatest features, like the brand new Zetta2GO Voice Tracking module. We’re happy to announce that Zetta 5.21.1 is officially released and now everyone can discover some of these new Zetta features. Who better to review these enhancements than Martin Blazek, RCS Zetta Product Manager? Martin joined us to highlight some of his new favorite Zetta 5.21.1 workflows.

Starting with GPIOs, in Zetta 5.21.1 users can now expand on their GPO output events and variables. Martin also showed us how to utilize RCS’ Port Viewer to monitor any GPIO functionality. In addition to GPIOs, Zetta 5.21.1 also includes a new Live Metadata (former Now Playing module) enhancement to include Notes and Scripts as part of the Live Metadata Export. We also discussed the new “Asynchronous & Play Through the Macro” for engineers who want more Macro control.

Next, we reviewed the completely redesigned Media Import tool. The traditional workflows still exists, we simple expanded the Media Import tool and made it more user friendly. Users can also preview any audio, despite not being part of the Zetta environment. Don’t forget, your mouse scroll click acts as a quick audition function.  Also note that while working in the new Media Importer, removing any files from the queued File Selection will not delete the asset, instead, Zetta will simply remove it from the collection of elements that are set to be ingested.

Moving onto the Metadata module, Zetta 5.21.1 now features a unique navigation toolbar that allows users to expand or decrease the height, width, and options to return the sine wave back to its normal view. In addition, there’s now more user friendly “double click” functionality when adding or editing queue volume points within the sine wave. Pre-Zetta 5.21.1, users could add custom Cue Points to a file and now users can lock those Cue Points. For example, if you have a reoccurring news cast and you want to set an RDS Live Metadata override like, “Traffic and Weather in 10 seconds,” users can create and lock a Cue Point at 50 seconds into a 60 second element. Once locked, even if the audio is overridden by an Auto Load function, Zetta will respect the locked Cue Point.

After a quick demonstration of the Zetta Light Theme, allowing users to now choose between the traditional Zetta Metal, Zetta Dark and Zetta Light, Martin dove into the new Zetta2GO features. Zetta2GO includes the new Metadata marks navigation as mentioned earlier. Users now have access to the Stretch and Fixed columns within the Logs, not only for display purposes, but Zetta2GO also allows the user to adjust the Stretch or Fixed properties. And finally, Martin reviewed the brand new, completely redesigned Zetta2GO Voice Track / Segue Editor module. As you know RCS releases roughly 2-3 Zetta builds per year, all of which you are entitled to with an active Support contract. Right when COVID hit, we listened to countless requests from our clients and acknowledged that even though Zetta2GO is made to enhance, not replace the Zetta experience, many of our clients would greatly benefit from an expanded Zetta2GO Voice Tracking module. Simply put, whatever you can do in Zetta’s Voice Track module, we replicated in Zetta2GO. Users can now set Trim In, Trim Out, Volume Points, and adjust Fade In and Fade Outs, just to name a few. We’ve heard a lot of buzz regarding this new Zetta 5.21.1 feature and it’s finally here!

As you can see, these are only some of Zetta 5.21.1’s new features. For full list of enhancements and fixes, don’t forget to read up on the Zetta 5.21.1 Release Notes. Otherwise, feel free to reach out to RCS Support to book your Zetta 5.21.1 upgrade. Of course, we’re always continuing to look for Beta users to test our new features. If you want to become a Beta user, again, reach out to your local RCS Sales Representative or RCS Support. We’re back again next week on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Twitch, broadcasting live every Thursday at 11am ET. See you then!

Did you know that as part of your GSelector contract, you also have access to Linker, the imaging portion of GSelector? From our experience, we’ve seen users commonly schedule basic pieces of imaging with simple rotations. And although there’s nothing wrong with that, for this week’s RCS Live, we decided to expand on the possibilities of what you can achieve with advanced concepts, utilizing Linker’s Related Links. Start thinking about content specific transitions to make your station stand out against the competition.

There are two types of Related Links: Fly-In and Clock Related Links, including Leading Links and Trailing Links. Both can be found under Linker | Related Links and their corresponding subtabs: Fly-In and Clock. The concept behind Related Links is that we do not want to schedule a generic piece of imaging, rather a specific piece of imaging that is tied to the scheduled song. This is called a relationship and there are many different types. We highly encourage you and your team to work with the empowering mindset that, “We want to do this and this.” Don’t settle for, “Don’t schedule this.”  Identify what piece of imaging you would want to schedule next to a particular song, category, or scheduling attribute. Once you identify that transition, establish a Related Link Relationship.

Fly-In Links are the last unofficial Pass Order in the scheduling process and will schedule in addition to the existing schedule. Whereas Leading Links and Trailing Links are included in the Clocks, most users prefer to use the Fly-In Link Only Replace option so that after GSelector schedules a generic piece of imaging, we would replace it with a more specific sweeper. Programmers will match a Song Attribute on a Link Attribute. And in GSelector 5.0.0, we’ll introduce the concept of Link Attribute Match, which will further expand your relationship possibilities.

In the video, we review each Fly-In, Leading and Trailing Link Relationship setting and its purpose. We also introduced examples of how users would incorporate Related Links into their everyday workflows. They could establish a “New Music Intro” so that whenever the “New Song” is scheduled, there’s a corresponding “New Music Intro” sweeper. Or if you’re a heritage station with a massive collection of Artist Intros, then use a scheduling attribute like Content and tie artist sweepers to their corresponding attributes. If you’re hosting an upcoming concert, like RCS-Fest example, then create an attribute: RCS-Fest and link it to any of your RCS-Fest performers, so that whenever GSelector schedules an RCS-Fest performer, you have a piece of RCS-Fest imaging tied to the song. Users can expand on this, creating two types of sweepers based on their corresponding attributes: “Enter to Win Your Tickets to RCS-Fest now at rcsworks.com” and “Another chance to win your RCS-Fest tickets coming up in XYZ.” Once you start to understand the philosophy of, “I want this to schedule,” Linker has endless possibilities.

What about forward momentum? With Zetta’s Link-Song chain type, Zetta will do its best to always play a piece of dry imaging over the song’s intro, right down to the millisecond. Users can define their Link-Song chains in their GSelector clocks and then create Segue Ban specific relationships with attributes like “Fully Produced,” “5 Seconds Dry,” and “10+ Seconds Dry.” After assigning them to the corresponding pieces of imaging, create multiple Segue Bans so that a “Fully Produced cannot schedule into a 5 Second Dry Song Intro or a 10+ Second Dry Song Intro.” Users can also mass change their songs by sorting Intro time, coping the desired assets into a Browse List and filtering them for the Multi Song Changer.

We also encourage users to keep their imaging fresh, without adding additional work. If you’re recording a 10 second sweeper, full of all the production bells and whistles, then take the same piece of imaging and split it into three sweepers: 10 seconds fully produced, 5 seconds of produced and 5 seconds of dry and finally a vocal only, 10 seconds of dry imaging. Now, that one sweeper turns into three sweepers. Keeping your station fresh with minimal work.

Speaking of GSelector 5.0.0, we’re always looking for Beta users to test out the latest and greatest RCS features, like the new Zetta2GO Voice Track module in Zetta 5.21.1. If you’re interested in our Beta program, reach out to your local RCS contact. We have some great RCS Live topics on the horizon, so don’t forget to check us out on Facebook, Twitch, YouTube and Twitter every Thursday at 11am ET!

With RCS’s line of radio products, we can take you from GSelector’s music log, to Zetta’s powerful radio automation, incorporate commercial and digital traffic with Aquira and stream live with Revma. During this week’s RCS Live, we were joined by Dawn Newberry, our Aquira specialist, to showcase how to create new contracts, as well as offering a couple Aquira tips and tricks from an experienced Traffic Manager’s perspective.

First, Dawn demonstrated how to create a new contract, including some of the advanced Aquira features. We highly encourage users to customize their Contract view by adjusting columns, inserting desired fields, and creating daily workflows as shortcuts throughout Aquira. Users can use alphanumeric Contract IDs, quickly select an Advertiser and Rate Card, define their own Contract Discounts and add the appropriate Sales Representative. Traffic Managers can also add their own scheduling attributes and Client Notes to help them throughout the Aquira workflow.

As we move onto the Spotlines and scheduling details, users can set their Start and End Dates, classify their orders, assign stations and begin to populate their contract schedule. Aquira is sophisticated enough to offer visual highlights in which users can hover over to see any potential conflicts, like self-imposed queries or sold out inventory. Traffic Managers can override or balance out their contract schedule, as well as add overrides for Rates and percentage rate differences.

For budget purposes, Aquira is also equipped with a Cost tab to deduct any possible costs that would take away from the overall budget. For example, if there was a Talent Remote and $100 would go to the talent or other expenses, Traffic Managers could add a detailed cost to identify and remove the $100 from the overall budget and include those deductions within their weekly or monthly reports.

Did you know that Aquira isn’t only radio sales, but it also can integrate with Google Ad Manager? Aquira’s Web tab allows users to adjust your CPM impressions to incorporate any online digital ads into one weekly report. Set your Unit Rate and the amount booked, Aquira will automatically set your rates and simply assign a pre-configured station for delivery.

Aquira also features its own Aquira2GO, in which multiple users can continue to work remotely from any device that has an Internet connection and proper VPN security access. Traffic Managers can add Media, upload copy and digital ads so that the Sales Representative can take the same information on the road for clients to preview and sign off on any contracts.

After we reviewed Aquira’s F1 Dynamic Help Guide, Dawn offered her personal tip that she feels not enough Aquira users incorporate into their daily workflows. Direct Reports, not the same as regular reports, but in Contract, Direct Reports can be assigned so that Sales Representatives can quickly and efficiently see their upcoming flight schedules, without having to reach out to their local Traffic Manager.

Of course, due to the financial significance of commercial radio traffic, RCS is always here to help you. As part of the Aquira onboarding process, Dawn and her team will convert your data beforehand, making sure that your monthly totals are in sync as we continue to train you and your staff how to properly maximize your Aquira experience. We usually meet with your staff on site and after the on-site training and subsequent follow up training is over, don’t forget that RCS Support is also here to help answer any questions you may have.

As you can see, Aquira is a very power traffic solution for both radio and online digital sales with Google Ad Manager integration. If you’re looking for more Aquira tips and tricks, don’t forget to check out our RCS Live Archive or  reach out to your local RCS Sales Representative, RCS Support or through our social media to get more information.