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MB STUDIO

Quick start guide - Last revision: 14 September 2004

All rights reserved. Any part of the present documentation cannot be reproduced, transmitted,
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MB SOFT - Via XX Settembre 33 - 18038 SANREMO - ITALY
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THE MAIN WINDOW

On the top of the main windows there 4 text box :

* Current Date or Game port Bits (that is' a realy contact closing on game port, example an
impulse coming from a sat receiver)
* INTRO of the currently playing song or the elapsed time of current on air item
* REAMINING TIME to the end of the currently on air item (in some case this value is not
available , for instance an internet stream with unknown length)
* CURRENT TIME

This is the scroll bar that allows you to change the play position of the on air item (in some cases
it is not possible to change position, for instance audio file of unknown duration or streams coming
from Internet)

This is the description of the current on air item .

In the case of disk files the exact path is visualized

These buttons determine the mode of operation of MB Studio (manual - semiautomatic -

automatic)

PLAY
Manual. It play the first item of the list.
If there are more items in the list you can click it multiple times to enqueue the following items;
right click to undo the operation.

PLAY ALL
It plays all the items in the list, ignoring scheduled playlists or breaks (MB SPOT).

AUTOPLAY
It plays all the items in the list; it automacally insert breaks scheduled with MB SPOT. Scheduled
playlists are still ignored.

AUTOMATIC
Fully automation mode . It plays all the items in the list; breaks and playlists are automatically
loaded.

NEXT
Stop the current play and skip to next item .

STOP
Stop playing. The program remain idle waiting for user action.

II
Pause playing.
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The on air list will show you all queued items .

Click the loudspeaker icon to prelisten an item. (you need a second audio card or a card with
second output)
Left click an item to insert a new item or remove/replace it.

In this section MB Studio display the last internal operation that was performed.

In this section MB Studio display the title of the current playlist.

This is the NEWSLINE; a section in which it is possible to display the latewt news coming from
some web sites . An active internet connection is required. Just choose a channel from the combo
box.

This icon open LIVE PLAYLIST for LIVE ASSIST mode .

This icon display the breaks list scheduled with MB SPOT.

This icon display the list of the songs

This icon open the list of sms messages received

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When this icon is active, the songs starts from their INTRO point rather than from their
START point

When this icon is active, the songs starts from their START REFRAIN point rather than from
their START point and they finish when they reach the STOP REFRAIN point. If a song
doesn't have a REFRAIN point this icon is ignored.

This icon enable/disable the song announcement (both with pre recorde files or speech
syntesis).

This icon lock/unlock one or all commands of MB STUDIO .

This section allows to insert/overpos ing inputs of the audio

card.

This section display the next scheduled break or playlist .

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THE ITEM TYPES
To manage to the best all the available resources, different type of items are used for distinguish
a jingle from a song or from an external so urce or an itnernet stream.

To add a new item to a playlist or to a break, left click on the desired position:

ADD SONG
open the list of the songs and it allows you to choose one or more titles

From this window it is possible to display, select, add, modify, remove and delete the songs
from/to the database.
The songs are usually listed in alphabetical order but you can change this order left clicking on top
of the following columns:
Artist –
Title -
Language - Language of the song (Example: Italia no, Français, English or Any)
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Genre - A musical genre free entered from user (max 10 characters)
Year - Year of publication
HITS - Number of play
Added on – Addition date
INTRO - Intro of the song (that it’s the time between the start and the beginning of the vocal)
Duration – this is the track length
HITLIST - Number of forced transmissions in a day
Expiration – Expiration date of the previous HITLIST field
REFRAIN – length of REFRAIN range
MUSICLINE – requests count (with MUSICLINE service)
The colors representation of the songs have the following meaning:
BLUE: FOREIGNER SONG
GREEN: NATIONAL SONG
GREY: ANY LANGUAGE
BLACK: Dissuaded choice (to prevent repetition artist or title)

Double click on a song to add it to the playlist.

To add multiple songs, just select it (CTRL+left click) then click QUEUE TO PLAYLIST

Richt click a song to get a menu that will allow to pre listen or
modify the properties or to remove a song from the database
and eventually to also cancel it from the hard disk.

To add new songs to the list, use menu Songs / Add songs.
You can Add Songs from a folder or Add Songs from files selecting
one or multiple files.
In both cases MB STUDIO will not load a song if is already present in the
list.
You can also rip an audio track using Add Songs from CD Audio
It’s a good idea to Save DataBase once you added new songs or changed
songs properties.
In emergency case, you can revert to the latest saved databases using
Restore DataBase

Right click any song and select Prelisten or Properties to set Artist,
Title, Language, Genre, Year, Comment, Rate, Set In, Intro,
Refrain In and Out, Out song….and many more……
You’re free to create your custom genres, just click into genre box
and enter the new genre with the keyboard, the next time it will
appears already listed…..

The more accurate will be your inputs, the more versatile will be
your playlists.

Notes: we advice you to keep all your song files stored in one
folder or in few folders; you must consider that MB STUDIO
cannot manage more than 128 folders, so if you your files are
stored in a folder for each artist, you will not be able to use it with
MB STUDIO.
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ADD MUSIC GENRE

Add a random selected song to the

playlist specifying one or more
parameters that will condition the
choice of the song.
Pay attention to the number of
available songs, an insufficient number
it would cause annoying songs
repetition

ADD FILE

Add a file from hard disk or local network . You can specify different type
of play like Standard, Overlaps, Vo ice Track. For further details see the
section mix.

ADD RANDOM FILE

This window allows to add a
random file to the playlist; it is
possible to choose any genre
or a specific genre .
Click “Edit Random Files” to
add/modify/delete the files list

Use this list to add jingles, station breaks, promo, etc. Do not ad sonsg to this list unless you
know what are you doing.

ADD ANNOUNCEMENT
Add an automatic announcement to the playlist.
The time announcement require a set of prerecorded files
announcing hours and minutes.
When the “Time Announcement” is on air MB STUDIO:
1) first it looks for a file called hoursminutes.mp3.
2) if not found it looks for hours.mp3 and minutes.mp3
Example at 10:15 it looks for Hours1015.mp3 then it looks for hours10.mp3 and minutes15.mp3
So, generally, you have to prepare a set of files called from hours00.mp3 to hours23.mp3 and
from minutes00.mp3 to minutes59.mp3. To have a specific announce at a specific time just record
the announce and save it as hoursxxyy.mp3 wehere xxyy is the needed time. Ex: to make a
special announcement for midnight save it as hours0000.mp3.
The Date Announcement require a set of prerecorded files announcing the weekday
(Monday.mp3, Tuesday.mp3, etc), the day number (1.mp3, 2.mp3, 3.mp3, etc), the month
name (january.mp3, february.mp3, etc), the year (2004.mp3, 2005.mp3, etc).
All the files can be saved as .wav or .mp3 or .ogg or .wma
All the folders containing the files must be listed in the MB STUDIO / Configuration /Folder otherwise
the announcements will fail
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ADD EVENT
Through this window it’s possible to add the following objects:
EXT1 - EXT2 - EXT3 - EXT4
Add audio from a line in of the audio card , ex: "Line In", "Microphone", "Aux", etc.
This command is used to play audio coming from a satellite tuner or from a radio tuner or from
another studio. Before using these commands, it is necessary to configure the correct card audio
and the relative inputs in the configuration of MB Studio in the section "External Sources."

REFRAIN
This object will play the refrain of first song of playlist. It’s frequently used before a break, to
play the refrain of the song that is queued after the break.

DELAY
This object will pause MB Studio for a certain time specified in the field "Expected duration";
using 00:00:00 MB Studio will stay in “Delay” mode indefinitely.
The “delay” mode will exit clicking NEXT or STOP, or receiving a Bit from the game port, or
receiving a SMS Remote Control or when it reaches the time of a break with “force” option
enabled. This command is commonly used to stop the automation and waiting for one of the
above events.

SEQ
You can manually set the insertion point of a break into a playlist. During the normal
operation, MB Studio automatically manages the moment and the position of the playlist in which
a break is inserted, nevertheless if you prefer, you can disa ble this automatic system and
manually place the break in the playlist; in the selector "Seq" you have to choose the desired
break and then click OK. Do not forget to disable the automatic insertion of breaks; you can do it
through the agenda or from the properties of an item .

DUMMY
This is a "virtual" event, when it is broadcasted nothing happen, the software will skip it but you
can use it in some cases where you need to set som e property without the association to an audio
file

ADD URL
Specifying an internet address you can play
a live audio stream from the net (ex:
you can rebroadcast a web radio on your
station, or make live connections with an
external stream ).

The option “Execute as” play live audio streams in the format WMA or MP3/Shoutcast Stream.
If you use this command to play a live stream coming from our MB RECORDER application, you
must select the WMA format.
In the field Title you can enter a title that help you recognize more easily the site or the channel
that you want to connect.
This command doesn't serve to download Internet files, for such function you have to use the
Download manager.
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ADD CD AUDIO
Read an audio track by a CD Audio
insert in a cd drive.
Select the CD drive unit and the track
number to play. You can prelisten the
track (through the monitor card if correctly configured in MB STUDIO configuration).
Do not use this command to save audio track to disk; for that operation go to the songs list and
select menu Songs / Add Songs from CD AUDIO .

ADD SPEECH
Speak a sentence or a
text file with a
synthetic voice in the
computer. Checking the
box "Sentence to speak "
it is possible to enter a
sentence or to select a
previous sentence ; checking the box "File to speak " click on the disk icon to select a text file. In
the Voice Name you must select a synthetic voice and the cursor Speed determines the read
speed; the disk icon save the voice in a .wav file, while the icon of the loudspeaker prelisten the
voice; click OK the add the voice to playlist.

ADD MINILIST
A MINILIST is similar to a playlist: a list of
items to play, but it doesn't have a scheduled
time or calendar. Imagine it as single item
that include several sub-items. Once saved, a
MINILIST can be inserted every where: in a
break, in the on air playlist, or in another
playlist.

To create a minilist to use the menu

Playlist/Playlist editor
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PLAYLIST EDITOR
Select menu Playlist / Editor to create a new playlist or minilist or to modify or delete any of them
A playlist is a list of max 300 items that MB Studio will play at scheduled times and days that you
decide. It’s good to have at least one playlist otherwise MB STUDIO will play fully random music.
You can create many playlists, with different contents. When MB Studio is in AUTOMATIC MODE,
the system will look the playlist folder for a PlayList scheduled to current date and time .
Playlist items could be music genres, specific song titles, audio filese, random files, internet
streams, eve nts, automatic time or date announcements, speech announcements, etc.
The breaks scheduled through MB SPOT have nothing to do with the playlists and will be
transmitted independently; then in the playlists you only have to worry about planning music,
jingles and shows.
If needed, at anytime you can disable tha automatic insertion of breaks into your playlist, by
enabling the flag “disable breaks” in any of the playlist items; you can also manually insert a break
into a playlist using menu “Insert Event” and selecting the event SEQ and selecting the desired
break. Remember to enable again the automatic insertion of breaks on the properties of last playlist
item.
So, now…compile the list according to your own demands.

Starting Time
This is the schedule d time in which MB Studio will load the playlist.
It is not said that MB Studio will start play it at that time, in fact usually MB Studio attends that
the current on air item ends, so consider that your scheduled time could be delayed by few
minutes.
As you will see later, if you require that the playlist start exactly at the scheduled time , you must
activate the option "Cut current play at startup”"

Note: MB Studio only loads playlists when is running in AUTOMATIC mode.

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Week / Calendar
Here you can select days of the week MB Studio has to load this playlist.
If you click Calendar you can set a specific date.

Title
Enter here the playlist title.

Comment
Enter here a free comment.

New Playlist or Minilist

Pressing this button, the actual list will reset to an empty list and you can start compiling a new
list.

Change from genre to song title

If there are genres in the actual list, (added with "Add music Genres"), click this button to
imemdiately process the playlist and turn the genres into corresponding titles.
ATTENTION: if you now save the list, you’ll always play those titles; do not use then this function
if you are not certain of what is doing. This is only useful to experienced consumers that need to
produce dayly playlists previewing titles that will be broadcasted.

Saves as Minilist / Playlist

It will save the current list as minilist or playlist.

Keep original playlist

Sometimes you would need to duplicate a playlist scheduling a new copy at a different time or
day. To do this, just load the original playlist, make all the changes you need than enable this flag
and save as playlist. A new playlist will be created and the original will stay unchanged.

OPTIONS
Repeat
At the end, the playlist will reload and restart.
Usually the musical playlists should have this flag active. You can insert just few music genres and
let the playlist to cycle all the hours you need,
The flag should be instead disabled if the playlist concerns a talked shows or specific song titles
unless you don’t neeed to cycle it too.

Cut current play at startup

if you require that the playlist start exactly at the scheduled time , you must activate this option

Wait for previous playlist to completed

It always attends that the preceding PlayList is completely finished. Dependng on the previous
playlist length, your starting time could be remarkably delayed.

Shuffle song titles

This flag has only effect if your playlist contain song titles and you need to play them in a random
sequence .
Do not use this flag if you have created a PlayList of music genres.
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LIVE PLAYLIST
Live playlist is a special play list that contains a list of items to use for live assist.
You can create as many lists as you want, each list could be customized for any user.
To play an item click one of the buttons under the “Click to PLAY” column or press the
corresponding function key.

Depending on the following options, an item could immediately play, overlap, or insert in the on
air playlist.
* Play now – the item that is currently on air will fade out and this item will play immediately
* Overlap – this item will play overlapping the on air item
Push - this item will play until you hold the left mouse key
Multiplay - every click to the item will start a new play, otherwise the new play will
stop the previous.
* Send to N.1 - the selected item will be inserted at the top on the on air playlist, so it will play
as soon as the current on air item finishes.

* Send with mouse – you can insert the item into on air playlist clicking in the desired position.
* Do not allow playlist changes – When enabled, the current list cannot be modified.

Title - Select an item of the list and enter a title to help item identification.

Comment - A free comment.

Load - It loads the selected live playlist

Empty - The whole actual playlist will be erased from memory

Save - Save the current live playlist to disk .

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RANDOM FILES
MB Studio is able to manage a list of random files that can be recalled in a random order avoiding
boring repetitions; here you can add files or minilist assigning a genre, so that is possible to
recall a random file of a given genre from a playlist.

Some files could for instance be inserted with genre “Morning”, others with genre “Afternoon” and
others with genre “Evening”

To load a random file to

this list click Add
To remove one or more
random files from this
list, select them and
click Remove
To assign or modify the
genre to one or more
random files, select
them and then click
Genre
To verify that all the
files are present on the
disk, click Check
After any change, click
Save

To insert a random file into a playlist or a break, just use menu Add Random File
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BREAKS
Display the current breaks list.
This list is created by MB SPOT.
The list include break time, title,
duration and forcing time .
The check indicates that break has
been “played”; it is possible to
manually change the state of the
break with the mouse.

To manually insert a break to the on

air playlist, select it from the list, and
then click PLAY.

Depending on the following options, a

break could immediately play, or
insert in the on air playlist.
* Play now – the item that is
currently on air will fade out and this
break will play immediately
* Send to N.1 - the selected break
will be inserted at the top on the on air playlist, so it will play as soon as the current on air item
finishes.

* Send with mouse – you can insert the break into on air playlist clicking in the desired position.
If MB Studio is on STOP or PLAY or PLAY ALL mode and you reach the time for a break to be
spotted on air, the window automatically display flashing a notice "Break Ready"; the user can
now click the flashing button.

If MB Studio is on AUTOPLAY or AUTOMATIC mode, the break is automatically added to on air

playlist.
To disable automatic insertion of breaks select the menu "Edit / Disable breaks"
When the automatic insertion is disabled, you can use “Add Event SEQ ” in your playlists .

The Breaks Update button re load the breaks list from disk . This operation is automatically
performet at midnight, nevertheless if you have just made some changes with MB SPOT you can
apply changes immediate ly, click ing this button.

The Check button verify that all the files scheduled in the breaks are really present in one of the
folders configured in MB Studio/Configuration/Folders

The PRINT button sends the breaks list to the printer.

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MB STUDIO CONFIGURATION
AUDIO
Master: set here your main audio card that is used to go on
air.
Monitor: set here a second card for prelisten
Speakers: if the master audio card support multiple outputs
you can decide to play audio on the first output (Front), or
second exit (rear) or both (all)
Compression: MB Studio can maintain a constant output
modulation; the compression ratio can vary from Soft to Hard.
Audio buffer: the main audio buffer length, the default value
is 500ms. You need to change this value only if you experience
audio noises or skips.
Automatic Gain Control: help to maintain a constant modulation.
Enhance commercials volume: It exalts the volume of the comme rcials: when this function is
active, the items with property/statistic “Commercial” play to full volume and the whole other
items play with a lower volume; it is useful for shops, stores, everywhere the music has to have a
lower volume compared to comme rcials. The radio stations should never activate this
function.

CROSSFADE
PRE START When MB STUDIO play 2 consecutive audio files
with Standard properties, it play without overposing the end of
first file to the begin of the second. Due to your computer
latency, you could hear a little gap between the files. Gap
duration depends on your hadware configuration, it could be
greater on a PII 300 Mhz, it will be lower on a PIV 2 Ghz. So you
have to set the PRE START slider in order to avoid any gap between 2 audio files (having
STANDARD play mode properties); note that if you exceed the PRE START value, you'll have an
overpose effect between the files; you can use the time announcement as a good test to set the
correct PRE START value; if minutes announcement overpose the hours announcement you must
decrease the PRE START value; if you hear a noticeable gap between hours and minutes
announcement, then you must increase PRE START value.
Usually this value range from 0.2 to 0.4....
Note that this slider don't affect voice track, backgrounds or general overlaps.

OVERLAP AT END
If you set the properties of an audio file to OVERLAP AT END, once the playing file reach the STOP
position (that you can set in the PRELISTEN window), the following item will start play ove rposing
this file. If you have not set a STOP position, you can set a default STOP position for all files (that
have OVERLAP AT END in the playproperties).
Ex: if you set this slider to 1 second, and you play a file of 10 seconds duration, when the file
re ach 9 seconds, MB STUDIO will start the following item.
This value don't affect audio files where you set custom STOP position.
Usually you can set this slider to 0.8 ... 1.2

Silence Detect. You can set the global silence detection value: 0=disabled, 10=medium value,
20=high detection. This apply to all audio files that MB STUDIO will play.
If you prefer to keep silence detection on, excluding some item, just set the item properties to
"No Mix". The item will play ignoring the global silence detection value.
This control doesn't have some effect on the external sources.
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Distance among same Artist or Title

Each song is internally marked as "played" once is on air.
A song will not repeat itself until it's possible.
So, when scheduling music with "Add genre", MB STUDIO will
try the best effort to search a song that is still to play, but there
are some rules to respect: the most important is the "Distance
among same Artist or Title" (in the configuration panel). This
rule act to keep a distance from songs of the same artist...so if
now John Lennon is on air and your artists cache is set to 20, it
means that you won't listen John Lennon again, before 20 songs from other artists has been
broadcasted. Although John Lennon could be on air 20 songs later, it will not be the same song,
cause MB STUDIO will look for a John Lennon song that is still not played.
Anyway if you suspect of illegal songs repetition, send us the debug indicating the suspected song
and brodacsted times and we will tell you where is the problem.
Frequently, people try to schedule a genre with only few songs and this will cause that songs to
be annoying on air....

LIMIT SONGS DURATION TO

Once a song reach this length (minutes:seconds) it will fade out. 0=Unlimited length
You can automatically enable/disable/modify this value on certain days or times using Agenda.

DEFAULT VOICE TRACK VOLUME

During voice track, it is desirable to low the music level to a volume that is adjustable with this
cursor and it goes from 0 (no attenuation) to 5 (maximal attenuation).
This is a global value, so when you insert a voice track into a playlist it will automatically keep this
value. However you can assign a specific value to every voice track item, entering the item
properties and changing the “Volume Decrease ”

ALLOW RANDOM REFRAIN

MB Studio feature the event REFRAIN that allows to play the refrain of a song; normally you have
to set REFRAIN START and REFRAIN STOP to each song.
If this option is enabled, when a song don’t have a valid REFRAIN START and STOP, M B Studio will
choose arbitrarily a part of song and it will use it as refrain.

CRYPTOBOX SERVER
when purchasing multiple licenses, all your licenses are stored in
a unique Crypto Box USB dongle. The dongle will serve licenses
to other computers in the LAN. When you run MB STUDIO in a second computer, you must enter
here the IP address or Name of the computer where the Cyrpto Box USB is plugged; in this way,
if you have purchased more than one license, you can use the license of MB Studio on more
compute rs.

SPLIT
Installing more copies of MB Studio in different computers
networked between them, it is possible to “split” commercials or
news-bulletins for different broadcast areas. The main computer
has to be set as Master while all the secondary compute rs must
be set as Slave.
The box "Split Master IP" must be set in the slave computers only and it points out the address IP
or the name of the master computer.

The box "Remote Flag IP" is not related to split function, it is used when you need to send an
impulse of commutation to a remote PC running MB Studio; eneter here the IP address of
destination computer.
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A possible use is to send a “NEXT” command to a remote MB STUDIO; you must set “send
NEXT” falg in the pproperties of an item

EXTERNAL SOURCES
This panel manage up to 4 audio channels EXT1... EXT4. These
channels correspond to the inputs of your audio card and they
serve to play satellite programs, live shows, or live speak using
a microphone.
You need to select the card audio to use; note that you must
use the same audio card selected in Audio Master. The
names of the card inputs will appear (example Line in); assign
the desired inputs from EXT1 to EXT4 and adjust the needed
volume .

The cursor "Disable gap control" allow to set a silence detection.

FOLDERS
This is the list of all the folders where you store
audio files to play with MB STUDIO . You can add
up to 128 folders, that can be local or in a
network .
When MB Studio must play a file, it will search it
on the folders listed here .
If the file is not found in any folder, an error
message will inform you about the problem; in
this case you have to carefully check that the
folder where the file is stored, be listed here.
Due to this real time file search, we advice you
to not use too musch folders. The more you
populate the list the more MB STUDIO could
slow down in some operations.
So, please check the list and remove any
useless folder. The “OPTIMIZE” button will remove not existing folders from the list.

MB STUDIO WORKING FOLDER

In this box you have to select the folder that contain the
databases. Usually this is the folder where MB STUDIO is installed
and running.
But if you’re using MB STUDIO in a second computer and you want to manage databases of the
main computer, you must select the network folder of the main MB STUDIO installation.

Example:
we have installed MB Studio on the host computer named STUDIO1 and on a second computer
client named MIKE and a third computer named PAUL.

The working folder of the main computer could be C :\MBStudio\ (that is the folder MB STUDIO is
installed)
The working folder on MIKE and PAUL computers must be \\STUDIO1\C \MBstudio\

Pay attention to keep option “On Air computer” enabled on the main computer only and disabled
on all other computers.

When you need to use MB STUDIO from multiple computers in your local network, just install it on
each computer using MBStudioInstall.exe package.
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To change the working folder just left click the box.

After you changed this setting, we recommend to quit and restart MB STUDIO without save any
data.

OPTIONS
Run with Windows
When this flag is active, MB Studio will automatically run as soon
as Windows is loaded.

Polling Game Port

If you have connected an interface to the game port of the
computer, this flag must be enabled so that MB Studio can
detect the incoming relay contacts, also called bits (bit 1, bit 2,
bit 3, bit 4).
If you unplug the cable from the game port this option will disable automatically to avoid system
slow down.

On Air Computer
If you’re using MB Studio on a computer that is the main computer, enable this flag.
Disable it when using MB STUDIO on a secondary computer for management.

12 hours clock
Display clocks in the format 0-12 rather than 0-24

Session n.
W hen running multiple instances on the same computer, every instance must use a different
number. The first instance usually has value 0. to run multiple instances, you must do multiple
installations of MB STUDIO on different folders.

BEFORE/BETWEEN/AFTER BREAK
Radio stations usually needs to precede a break of commercials
by a jingle or an announcement, besides they insert a jingle or
effect among every commercial and the break ends with a jingle
or announcement.
In these 3 boxes you can set an item to play before the break , among every commercial, and at
the end of the break ; left click the box to add an item or right click to remove it.

This setting is not enough. It also needs to specify in what break MB Studio will play these fileses.
In fact there are breaks containing comemrcials, but breaks that contain other kind of items
(news-bulletins, horoscope, shows, etc). Since we want to play these files inside commercial
breaks only, you must enable or disable this function on each break ; you open MB SPO T, you
open a break that contains commercials and you enable the option "Before/Between/After”, as in
this example:
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We now see a different situation, we suppose that we don't want to always play the same file
on top of commercials,
instead we want MB
Studio plays a random
file from a list.
You must open menu
Edit/Random Files, add
all the files that you want
to use at the top of the
comme rcial breaks
specifing the genre "Top
Commercials" (it is only
an example, you can use
the genre that you want).

Then you have to return to menu MBStudio/Configuration and set this genre of random files:

You can do the same with "Among" and with "After"

BEFORE/AFTER MUSICLINE
You can set items that will play before and/or after a song
requested via musicline system

SPEECH VOICES
In this box it is possible to assign a default
synthetic voice for every language
supported by MB Studio.
These synthetic voices will be used for the
automatic announcement of the songs
(note that the songs must have a proper
language set in the song properties).
If you install new voices when MB STUDIO
is running, restart MB STUDIO to allow
new voice detection.

SMS
MB STUDIO support SMS Management through
the program SMS Gateway downloadable at
http://www.winsms.com/ or direct hardware
control with the DIGICOM POCKET GSM
modem, visit www.digicom.it

Install the program in your computer, then

copy the executable SMSGateway.exe into
MBStudio folder.

Select menu MBstudio/Configuration and

activate the needed features

Enable Reception - enable incoming

message detection
 20
Enable send - enable outgoing messages to be sent (You can also schedule start/stop time of
this service using menu Edit Agenda - Add - Internal Command)
Enable MusicLine - enable the music requests service (You can also schedule start/stop time of
this service using menu Edit Agenda - Add - Internal Command)
Send confirmation time - when enabled, MB STUDIO will reply to any music request with
informations about the scheduled broadcast time
Send motivation of failure - when enabled, MB STUDIO will reply to any music request with
informations about the reason of deny
Send song title - when an incoming message include the word "title", MB STUDIO reply sending
the title of the last broadcasted songs.
Requests from same number limited to.... this is the max number of music requests coming
from the same number in a MUSICLINE session. 0=unlimited.
We advice you to set a limit otherwise someone could mass message the system and he'll waste
all your phone credit.
Add to outgoing SMS A 64 characters string that will top any outgoing message. A sponsor or
your station slogan will be fine here.

Selecting menu Edit/SMS Manager, it display the SMS messages library. The latest 1000
incoming messages are visible,. Availbale fields are: date and time, phone number and text
message; you can assign a name to each number (click a number in the list and type the name in
the text box "name" then click save).
You can sort the list by date/time, number, message.

You can send a message in the section "Send SMS"; just click a message and click Reply or enter
number in the number text box; enter the message and click SEND. If you need to lock the SMS
output to avoid abuse from your users, you can disable the option "Enable send" from MB
Studio/Configuration.

there are 2 others option in the Name frame:

Unlimited MusicLine requests - selected user by -passes the "Requests from same number
limited to..." on the MBStudio configuration
Ignore MusicLine requests from this number ban selected number from musicline service

The message list allow multiselection, so you can delete or print or reply mutiple messages at the
same time.

If you need to send a message to multiple numbers, select the numbers in the list then click
Reply, type the message and click SEND

Once SMS Gateway is running, you'll remark a typical icon in the status bar:

Double click it and it will show the SMS Gateway window.

Select menu Settings/communications and set the following fields:

Here you have to set the serial port number (usually 1 or 2) and the serial speed (according to
your mobile phone)
 21

Set here your phone model or similar. If you can't find any model of your phone company, try
NOKIA 7110.

Set this options as showed

Enter here the PIN code of your SIM card (if needed)

Click OK to Communication Settings and select menu Settings/Message Options and set this
option:

You're now ready to work with SMS.

WARNING:
Not all mobile phone are compatible with SMS Gateway application.
For professional non stop service we recommend to use a specific GSM MODEM. We successfully
tested the DIGICOM POCKET GSM MODEM
http://www.digicom.it/digisit/schedpro.nsf/ENProdottiIDX/pocketgsm?OpenDocument
If you're unable to find this product or a similar product to your local sellers, contact us to purchse
the product directly from us.
 22

SMS MANAGER
All the upcoming messages are stroed ina database and you can manage it through this window.
Messages are saved with date, name, phone number and message; besides you can save a
number with a name (enter it in the name textbox and click save ); all the future messages
coming from that number will always be identified with the assigned name (as it happens on any
cellular phone).

The view can be sorted by date/time, name, phone number, message.

In the section SEND SMS is possible to enter a text and one or multiple phone numbers and
pressing Sends the message it will come to the out recipient. For your security, you can disable
the dispatch of the messages from the configuration of MB Studio.

In the section Name there are two other options:

“Unlimited MusicLine requests” remove the requests limit from this phone number. The default
requests limit can set in Configuration/SMS (remember to click save when changing this option)

“Ignore MusicLine requests from this number” will ignore any song request from this
number (remember to click save when changing this option)

If you need to send a message to all the numbers in list, click Select All and then on Reply,
enter the message and click Send
 23
DOWNLOAD

MB Studio features an automatic download manager

C ommonly it deals with audio files to rebroadcast on his own station (news-bulletins, programs,
promo, etc etc). It is for instance possible to stipulate an accord with a press agency that daily
supply to you news-bulletins and MB Studio can automatically download it according to a precise
schedule .

To schedule a download you need a permanent connection to Internet (DSL) and you must know:
1) exact url of the file to be downloaded (for instance www.cnnne ws.com/nmews.mp3)
2) login / password if necessary to access the service
3) times and dates where you have to download that file
4) it is also advisable to create a special folder in the computer where to dowload the files (for
instance C:\bulletins).
O nce the 4 steps above are done you can schedule a new download in MB Studio.

You go to the menu Edit/Download and click Add that will display this window:
you insert therefore the url, the possible login and password (leave them blank if unnecessary),
the path and name to save the file; you must set the week days and the time where to run the
download.

Once the file has been downloaded, nothing happen unless you have scheduled to play that file in
a minilist, playst or in a break Studio.
Therefore you open MB SPOT, you create a new break with a time of at least 2 minutes after the
programmed download; for instance if you make a download at 07:00 o'clock it is not advisable
to play it before 07:02; if the file is of big size and the net is slow the download will not complete
in time. We recommend you to set the property “No Mix” when you schedule a downloading file in
a playlist or break, so if MB Studio start playing th is file while it is still downloading, the play will
not break suddenly.

Till now we talked about a single and simple download, but frequently you will have to schedule
multiple downloads during the day. Before proceeding, you have to understand the method, your
supplier, name the files.
 24
A press agency that sypply 4 news-bulletins could for instance call them with a progressive
number: news1 news2 news3 news4 or using the edition time : news8h news12h news16h
news18h or using the date: n ews19102003 news20102003.
Therefore you have to understand what logic is used by the the supplier to name sequential files.

In the best case the supplier could maintain the same file name for all the editions, and then in
this case it is enough for you to duplicate the first download as many times as the editions
number to download; you only have to modify the download clock and obviously to create as
many breaks in MB SPOT or as many playlists.

If the supplier names the files with the current day of the week or with the current date or with
the current time , you have to resort to the wildcards.

Example: we have to download everyday the horoscope from a site that use the following
sequence name horoscope 19-10-2003.mp3 horoscope20-10-2003.mp3 horoscope 21-10-
2003.mp3 and so by everyday a different date; then you can schedule a single download in MB
Studio as this: www.horosocope.com /horoscope%dd%-%mm%-%yyyy%.m p3

The downloads with the wildcards, don't work with Internet Explorer and they work only besides
and exclusively in the day or in the schedule in which the supplier update the files on its site.
If trailers are updated on Mondays it is normal the download return error if you run it in the other
days.

Finally:
1) the downloads can be scheduled both on the on air pc or in a post production pc.
2) Pay attention that only one of your PC are enabled to download, and disable all other computer
enabling the option "Disable downloads on this computer"
3) Pay attention that the “Save as…” path is existing and correct, otherwise the download will fail.
4) If you don't have a permanent connection to Internet, MB Studio will try to manually connect to
Internet only if you set Internet Explorer, menu Tools / Internet Options - connections to always
use the deafualt connectionn (and obviously that a default remote connection exists).
Note: if you download a .exe file , MB Studio will automatically run it once dwonloaded, therefore
exploiting this characteristic is possible to automatically decompress some archives.
Complete wildcards list:
%dn% = weekday name in 2 characters (Ex: mo, tu, we, th, fr, sa, su)
%ddd% = weekday in 3 characters (Ex: mon, tue, wed, thu.....)
%dddd% = complete weekday name (Ex: monday, tuesday, .....)

%d% = monthday number 1-31(1 or 2 characters)

%dd% = monthday number 01-31(2 characters)
%m% = month number 1-12 (1 or 2 characters)
%mm% = m onth number 01-12 (2 characters)
%mmmm% = month name (january, february...)
%yy% = year (05)
%yyyy% = year (2005)
%hh% = hours 00-23
%nn% = minutes 00-59
%sy% = year of the first song of the on air list
 25
AGENDA
From menu Edit /
Agenda, you can
schedule some "events"
that MB Studio will
perform on given days
of the week. This
agenda is entirely
independent from
playlists or breaks, it
doesn't replace neither
the playlists neither MB
SPOT but it allows to
make some things that
are not possible with
the other procedures.

Click on ADD :

Message will display the text entered in the label. The message will flash on the red box of the
news line. It’s good to remember dj’ s or technicians to do something!

Audio file select an audio file, that will play, overlaping the on air item . If for instance there is a
song on air, this file would overlap to the song (the song would be lowered of volume however).
In practice this function is useful in the shops, to easily schedule some audio announcements, or
in the case of a radio station to random overlap the broadcasting program; example, the
Saturday evening you broadcast a long mp3 file, 3 hours, but, sometimes, you want overlap it
with a jingle station; then you will have to schedule the file in a break of MB SPOT or in a playlist
at 21 h and then you schedule some audio files in the agenda (for instance at 21:30,22,22:30
o'clock etc etc) in which will play the jingle.

SHELL command will be usefull for expert users to exactly run a command as the same you can
do from Start/Run in Windows; a common task should be to run a particular application on some
times and days; this function is similar to Windows Schedule Tasks.

Internal command of MB Studio, choosing from a list of available commands.

SMS Signature Sending as SMS message, you can precede the body message from a short text,
even a sponsor or more rotation sponsors according to the hours or of the days....
 26
MB SPOT
MB SPOT is the break scheduler thanks to which is possible to schedule commercials , news -bulletins,
external sources , live or satellite feeds at given days and times .

Here are the first steps to be done, with particular reference to whom has just purchased the software.

First steps with MB SPOT:

1) first, we need to create all dayly break times; for instance, if a station needs to broadcast a break
every 15 minutes, it’s necessary to create all the empty breaks since 00:15 to 23:45 o'clock

2) click “New break”

3) the break window will display with all the details of the sequence; on the right set the scheduled time for
the break changing it from 00:00:00 to 00:15:00, enable the flag “Before/Between/After Break” , enter
a title (for instance “Commercials”) and click OK.

4) Now it’s possible to clone this break for the whole rest of the
day (avoiding to have to repeat the previous step several times).

5 ) select the break on the list, and click on "Copy Break", the
copy window will display.
Enable the flag on "Repeat copy every: " and set the adjacent
clock to 00:15:00 (this is the time interval between breaks)
then s e t "Repeat the copy until: " to 23:45:00 and finally click
Copy.

Now, all break times are created; at any time you can create
new break times or modify or delete one of them.

RECORDING NEW COMMERCIALS

You can plug a microphone or your analogical mixer to the audio card input and record commercials, news,
or any kind of audio file.
A builtin recorder is accessible by clicking on RECORDER

The box File allows you to select a new file to record or an already existing file (Click the disk icon)
The Profile allows you to specify record quality
The Type allows you to select among WAV, MP3, OGG, WMA
Input set the audio card input you want to record

When you have recorded a new commercial or a news- bulletin, you can close the recorder.

ADDING NEW COMMERCIALS

To schedule a commercial you must first add it to the customers list

 27

left click Add and select the new commercial

2) I f you like you c an enter some fields (genre, address, notes )

3) Now you can choose to manually schedule this commercial by clicking Add Times or let MB SPOT to
automatically schedule it by clicking on Generate Times

if you click ADD TIMES

4) browse the breaks list and click on a break time that suite your needs and add the commercial

5) the commercial will be inserted in the break list, now right click it and choose Calendar
 28
6) set the start and stop date and the wekdays in which this commercial must go on air then APPLY
settings

7) click OK

8) repeat steps 4 to 7 for other times in which you need to broadcast this commercial.

If you click GENERATE TIMES

4b) set the commercial items amount to schedule, set the breaks title where to schedule, set the
start and stop time to schedule in, set the calendar and/or properties

5b) click on Generate times icon. MB SPOT will suggest you some breaks....

if you're happy with it, click Accept icons, otherwise Close the window and go back and try with
Add Times

Notes:
Remember to save the breaks list before exit from MB SPOT, you can do it by selecting
menu Breaks list / Save as default

COMMERCIALS ROTATION
You can enable commercials rotation setting
rotation to each customer

1) Run MB SPOT, double click a customer in the

list, and you'll get the times list:

2) right click an item and select properties, here

you have to set "Randomize scheduler position"
and/or "Move to next break everyday"

Randomize scheduler position will randomly change the item

position into the current break. Exemple: today first, tomorrow
third, and so on....

Move to next break everyday will move the commercial to the

following break of the same title
Exemple: today at 07:15am, tomorrow at 07:45am, and so on....(Assuming that the breaks at
07:15am and 07:45am have the same title ex ("COMMERCIALS")

Once you activated one or both rotation flags, click to APPLY (keep "to all" enabled)