StationPlaylist Studio Information
Studio is an on-air broadcast playback software for the studio, providing useful features for assisting the DJ during live shows, and for unattended automation with our StationPlaylist Creator track scheduler.
Any DJ can use this software. An uncluttered screen and large control buttons makes this one of the easiest to use broadcasting applications available.
Studio takes the work out of managing multiple players. Studio manages and controls multiple players internally for such purposes as automatic voice track / song intro overlapping. Plus an advanced intelligent crossfader means that all tracks mix together perfectly with no human intervention.
Streaming your station on the Internet in multiple codecs is simple using Studio
Many of Studio's advanced automation features require playlists generated by StationPlaylist Creator, however, it can also read standard M3U playlists generated by other software, and can be used as a DJ jukebox without a scheduler. Tracks may be inserted or dragged & dropped from Windows Explorer and easily played.
Traffic/Billing log file import is supported via StationPlaylist Creator Pro.
Studio is primarily designed for audio, but it also supports playing videos and still images to the screen or separate monitor!
Studio comes in 2 editions. Studio Standard supports many of the features listed below for general automation playback and live assistance. It does not support many of the advanced features such as voice track overlapping, external device integration, or time-of-day announcements. It is generally suitable for small non-commercial use. Studio Standard works best with Creator Standard music and spot scheduling software.
Studio Pro supports all the features listed below such as logging of spots and commercials, fail safe redundancy, and voice track overlapping. Studio Pro works best with Creator Pro for a complete professional broadcasting solution.
The following table shows which features are supported by the 2 editions.
| Studio Features | Standard & Pro Editions are available | Std | Pro |
| Live Assist mode | Play tracks individually, or tick the checkbox beside the tracks to play consecutively before stopping for a live announcement. | YES | YES |
| Microphone control | The Mic button can either turn on a soundcard mixer device of your choice, or record from a sound input device. The current playing song is optionally faded automatically for live voice overs. | YES | YES |
| Manual Line Input control | The Line-in button can sample audio from any sound input device. This may be used for external audio such as tape decks, telephone integration or satellite feeds. | YES | YES |
| Single key keyboard controls | Play, Stop, Automation toggle, Mic toggle, and other controls have configurable single key shortcuts for simple operation. | YES | YES |
| Insert, delete & move tracks in the live playlist | Use the insert dialog, or drag &drop, to easily insert additional tracks into the Playlist Viewer. Instant search results on criteria such as artist, title, album,duration range, year range, genre, mood, and many more. | YES | YES |
| Track Preview | With a second soundcard installed, any track may be easily previewed by the DJ. | YES | YES |
| 48 slot cart machine for instant jingles | Up to 48 cart slots may be assigned to keyboard shortcuts/menu items for instant play of jingles or sound effects, etc. | YES | YES |
| 96 slot cart machine | Studio Pro supports an additional 48 cart slots. | NO | YES |
| Play Carts via push buttons | A separate form is available containing push buttons for all the cart slots. Suitable for high resolution or dual monitors, including touch screens. | NO | YES |
| 2 Users | The Standard edition supports 2 users/DJ's. Each user can have a different cart bank loaded with their own jingles. | YES | YES |
| Unlimited Users | The Pro edition supports an unlimited number of users/DJ's. Each user can have all 4 cart banks loaded with their own jingles, or share common cart banks. Individual time & temperature announcements for each user is possible at different times of the day. | NO | YES |
| Automation mode | A click of the Automate button and Studio will automatically load playlists and play continuously. If playlists should run out, or an hour is short for whatever reason, Studio can load random Top Up tracks from a specific folder to ensure play does not stop. | YES | YES |
| Run unattended indefinitely | Studio can automatically load StationPlaylist Creator to generate playlists, and run continuously without human intervention. Studio can be set to auto-start in automation mode after a power failure, and start playing at the track scheduled to be playing at the current time. | YES | YES |
| Advanced auto crossfading using one soundcard | Studio utilizes file scanning techniques to automatically establish the best cue, segue, and crossfade overlap positions based on the volume inside each track. Tracks mix perfectly from one to the next as if a DJ is doing it. Manual crossfade settings for individual tracks is also available. | YES | YES |
| Voice track / song ramp overlapping | Once the vocal start position of each song has been established, Studio Pro can automatically overlap pre-recorded voice tracks, song introductions and other generic dry tracks with the instrumental beginning of the following song (song ramp). This makes your station sound 100% live when unattended. A powerful yet easy to use feature. | NO | YES |
| Sound processing Compressor / Limiter | Studio includes a dual and multi-band compressor/limiter to alter the dynamics of the audio and provide a more constant volume. Also comes with a 250 band graphic equalizer. 3rd party Winamp DSP plugins are also supported. |
YES | YES |
| Internet streaming | Stream on the Internet in multiple audio codecs simultaneously, including MP3, AAC+ (HE-AAC), Windows Media, and Ogg Vorbis. Supports all Shoutcast compatible servers (eg. Peercast, Live365) plus Icecast, Streamer p2p, and Windows Media servers. | YES | YES |
| Stream Server Metadata Integration | Send artist, title and other information directly to your streaming server to update the metadata. Your stream listeners will see what's playing in their media player, plus any other information you wish to include. | YES | YES |
| Stream Listener Statistics | Displays and logs the current number of listeners for all streams, plus total listener hours for the day and month. Supports Shoutcast, Icecast2, and Windows Media servers. Note: Stats for Windows Media streams requires MPM installed at the server. |
YES | YES |
| Read existing file tags | Studio can read existing file tags to establish artist, title and other information, or it can use the filename where no tags are present. Supported tags are ID3v2 & v1, Ogg Vorbis, MP4/M4A, WMA, APE, and RIFF LIST/INFO chunk and the broadcast industry Cart Chunk for WAV files. | YES | YES |
| Custom file tags | Rather than using a cumbersome database which can easily become corrupted or lost, Studio utilizes a file tagging system to store information in each audio file, such as Artist, Title, Album, Year, Genre, Composer, Record Label, CD catalog number, CD cover URL, CD purchase URL, last 18 times played, and much more. | YES | YES |
| Include "Now Playing" details on your website | Generate a completely customizable HTML web page, XML, or text file containing the current song details, and up to 9 of the previous songs played. The file may be automatically uploaded to a remote web server via FTP.All of the file tag information above may be output and much more. | YES | YES |
| Earn money from CD sales | The "Now Playing" facility above supports automatic Amazon CD cover images and purchase links advertised on your website for the song currently playing, and previous songs played. | YES | YES |
| Additional metadata output | Send song playing metadata via a serial port, text file, TCP, or HTTP request for such purposes as updating RDS encoders, StationPlaylist Streamer, or server side scripting, etc. | YES | YES |
| Failsafe redundancy using Studio Monitor | Studio Monitor is a separate utility program which connects to Studio via TCP/IP. It's main function is to monitor the status of Studio and perform tasks based on any problems that may arise. Studio Monitor also provides very basic manual remote control of Studio such as start & stop play, toggle automation and the line-in port. This may be useful in a remote broadcast situation. Studio Monitor may be installed on the Studio PC itself, but is often installed on a separate PC on a LAN, or a remote PC connected to the internet. | YES | YES |
| External I/O device integration | Two-way serial RS-232 communication is supported, plus 2-way contact closures via the parallel (LPT) port. External devices such as consoles and satellite receivers may be used to control Studio -- start and stop play, toggle automation mode, toggle the line-in, play carts etc. Studio may control an external device such as a switch mixer. Switch an "On-Air" studio light on when the mic is on! | YES | YES |
| Break Note support | Break Notes are non-audio items scheduled in the playlist, used to either control various functions within Studio, or to display a message to the DJ, such as an advertisement to read live. | YES | YES |
| Automated satellite feeds | Audio input from 1 of 4 different sound devices may be "played" for a specific time period before moving on to the next track in the playlist. Useful for 1 or more satellite feeds. Includes silence detection for variable length feeds. Tone detection is available using a plugin sold separately. |
YES | YES |
| Station networking | Studio may be used at a network studio and at remote stations to play local advertisements between network programming. | YES | YES |
| Timed Events | Spots, Break Notes, and Hour Markers may be played/executed at a precise time, or optionally after the current song has finished. | YES | YES |
| Automated time-of-day announcement support | Pre-recorded time announcements may be played whenever a time announcement code appears in the playlist. A different set of files with different voices may be recorded for different times of the day, simulating a DJ shift. Time announcement files may be recorded yourself, or you may purchase a full set of 720 files in a male American voice. |
YES | YES |
| Automated temperature announcement support | Pre-recorded temperature announcements may be played. The temperature is read from either a weather station via the Internet, or a USB digital thermometer plugged into the computer. A different set of files with different voices may be recorded for different times of the day, simulating a DJ shift. Temperature announcement files may be recorded yourself, or you may purchase a set of files in a male American voice. |
YES | YES |
| Detailed logging of songs played | All songs played may be output to a spreadsheet compatible log file in a user-definable format. This may be used for song royalty or SoundExchange reporting. Optional details output include Artist, Title, Album, Composer, Record Label, ISRC, stream listener count, and much more. | YES | YES |
| Detailed logging of spots played | All spots (advertisements etc) played may be output to a separate log file and filtered in a spreadsheet for advertisement billing purposes. | YES | YES |
| Record audio to file | All audio produced by Studio, including microphone and line input to the soundcard, may be recorded to file for archival purposes, repeat broadcasts, or writing to CD, for example. | YES | YES |
| Password protection | A password may be applied to the settings/options to protect against accidental changes or curious DJ's. A master password may also be applied to prevent access to Studio while running unattended. |
YES | YES |
| Plays all major audio file formats | Supports MP2, MP3, MP4(AAC), M4A, OGG, WAV (PCM/MP2/MP3), WMA, FLAC, APE, and AIFF audio file formats, plus CD tracks directly from a CD. Note: DRM protected files are not supported. |
YES | YES |
| Plays several video formats | Supports playing video files to a window or fullscreen with support for multiple monitors.Plays MPEG/MPG (MPEG-2), AVI, WMV, ASF files. | YES | YES |
| Play Internet streams | Play audio internet streams or files for news feeds or relaying. | YES | YES |
| Plugins supported for Developers | Developers can extend Studio's capabilities and gain full control over Studio with DLL plugins. | YES | YES |
| 12 months free updates and email support | All new releases major and minor, containing new features and any bug fixes, will be provided free for 12 months from the date of purchase. We reply to all emails received and will promptly help with any problems, plus basic training if necessary. | YES | YES |
| High Accessibility | StationPlaylist strives to make our software as accessible as possible. Visually impaired users will find all functions accessible via the keyboard. Also, standard Windows controls are used for compatibility with screen readers. Studio also provides a font size adjustment increase visibility. |
YES | YES |
Minimum System Requirements
- Windows 95 or later (Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2008 or 2003 recommended).
- 900Mhz processor (1.2Ghz for streaming)
- 32MB RAM
- 6MB disk space
- 800x600 screen resolution or higher
- 1 full duplex soundcard (optional if streaming only)
- Optional additional soundcard for track previewing
- Optional additional monitor for on-screen instant cart buttons
Our Technical Consultants have experience in the Station Playlist products including Station Playlist Studio. Some staff members carry out broadcasting each week.
In addition, JAWS scripts have been created to enable a visually impaired broadcaster to gain maximum benefit from using Station Playlist Studio. Please activate this link to visit the JAWS scripts page, where you can download them, read the full documentation and learn how they can be beneficial.
Purchasing any of the Station Playlist products from our company will mean that you can gain advice and support regarding internet broadcasting which could include access to our remote internet support facility.
To purchase Studio Standard or Pro please activate the relevant link: