Tools Pack: Audio Loop Thru and Stream Player utilities (December 2021 onwards)

Description

The Broadcast Radio Tools pack contains several handy utilities including:

• Audio Loop Thru - This is a very simple tool that takes any audio presented to a Line-In on a specified soundcard and "plays" it out through a specified output with relatively low latency.
• Stream Player - Connects to an internet stream and plays out of the specified output.

Note: These tools are free to use, and you can run as many copies in as many locations as you like, but are provided without warranty, so support is not available by the Technical Support Team.

The Broadcast Radio Tools pack can be downloaded from:

https://install.appcenter.ms/orgs/broadcastradio/apps/brtools/distribution_groups/public 

Installation is very simple and is a case of downloading the zip file and running the installer that is inside it. Once installed, you may want to import the example Media Command files onto your Media Wall to see how to remote control the applications.

Audio Loop Thru

It's designed for stations that want to do things like take an outside source automatically - like an IRN audio feed - but don't want to have to do all the work of wiring up a logic card to a mixing desk or to an audio switcher box.

It can be remote-controlled using simple commands from Myriad v5 the download comes with some example commands so you can get started with it easily.

Stream Player

The Stream Player is designed to connect to an internet stream and play the audio out through a local soundcard. It will automatically reconnect to the stream if the network connection is lost. 

It can be remote-controlled using simple commands from Myriad v5 the download comes with some example commands so you can get started with it easily.

Note: The Stream Player should be considered as the replacement for the old WMP Player.

Getting Started

To get started, launch Myriad Playout, and from the File menu choose Install Media Pack, then Import Media Pack:

Then from the dialog, navigate to the C:\BroadcastRadioTools folder and select either the BRAudioLoopThru5Commands.zip file or the BRStreamPlayer5Commands.zip file, and click Open

You will then see that a series of Command Media Items have been imported onto your MediaWall:

Each of these Media items does a different thing, and the titles are largely self explanatory, however if you want to see how they work, just click on the Edit button shown in red above.

For example, the "Audio Loop Loop Thru - Launch Application" contains the following command to run the actual "BRAudioLoopThru5.exe" application:

External.Open("C:\BroadcastRadioTools\BRAudioLoopThru5\BRAudioLoopThru5.exe","")

The "Audio Loop Thru - Mute" item sends a message to an already running Audio Loop Thru to mute the incoming audio:

Remote.HttpGet("http://localhost:9180/BrAudioLoopThru/v5/api/Audio/Mute")

Double clicking on the "Launch Audio Loop Thru Application" will start the utility:

Note: If you see a message in Myriad Playout that External.Open commands are not enabled, you need to enable these by going into Database Settings and on the General tab and under Commands options turn the option on, then click OK:

Configuring settings for the applications

Then click on the Settings cog (shown in red above) to bring up the Settings window where you can configure various options, including which devices to use:

Help information is also available on the Settings cog menu that examples the various command line options as well as links to the HTTP REST Api that Myriad uses to remote control the utilities.