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.

We kicked off another RCS Live by discussing some GSelector scheduling tips and tricks. Specifically, how to utilize Clock Goals and Clock Constraints to better optimize your rotations. Then, we created a couple Link Affidavits and customized printed Logs in GSelector’s Reports tab.

Many users don’t realize that they can quickly and efficiently use GSelector’s Clocks to encourage or discourage GSelector from scheduling elements by position. For example, if we’re looking to achieve forward momentum with fun, upbeat music for a Top 40 or Classic Hits station, users can quickly create Clock Goals to Maximize or Minimize Scalar attributes, like Mood, Tempo, Energy, and Opener. Otherwise, if they’re looking for more control with any attribute, use Clock Constraints. Again, speaking Clock position by position, Clock Constraints will allow a user to choose any attribute and value(s) to ban or only schedule. In this video, we break down how to add the attribute: Long Song (Songs longer than 5 minutes) that will be banned from scheduling as the last song position in the hour, preventing the next hour from running late.

Next, we discussed how to customize individual reports. We broke down each GSelector Report tab. Filter will allow the user to include or exclude elements. View will view the report. Columns will include what metadata is included in the report. Groups will organize the Columns metadata and sort it A-Z or Z-A. And users can have more than one grouping. For example, Directory by Artists: Most users want the Groups to be Artist first and Title second. Appearances will allow the user to copy Global Attributes or create their own colors that are specific to that report. Finally, there’s the Editor tab, which allows the user to manually customize their report. For the Link Affidavit, use Play Stamps to include when the element played and organize the Groups by Title. If you’re creating a Printed Log, don’t forget you can customize and filter the report based on the desired information. For example, if you don’t want to include ETM metadata for voice trackers, simply use the Filter to remove any unwanted data.

RCS has some special guests and surprises lined up for upcoming RCS Lives, in which we’ll discuss some of the advanced features and configurations of the full line of RCS products. You won’t want to miss it! 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.