New features and changes in the Myriad v6 platform vs the Myriad v5 platform

Introduction

The purpose of this article is to briefly cover some of the many new features and changes that are part of the Myriad v6 family, particularly when compared with the previous Myriad v5 version.

Although some of the changes are more obvious - such as the new dark theme - others are less obvious so this article details and explains the major changes.

It does not contain every minor change such as slight changes in wording or layout of windows or settings controls - as there are thousands of those! - and instead focusses on high level changes and new features.

Critical Changes:

For most users the migration from Myriad Playout v5 to v6 should be relatively seamless, however there are several features that are less often used that have changed significantly or been removed, and you must check to see if these will behave differently in your scenario. These are marked below with the prefix "Important" and include:

• Myriad v6 products can only interconnect with other Myriad v6 products
• Some older audio file formats are no longer supported
• Log Playback AutoFade setting removed: "If there are NO fadeable items before an Absolute Time... "
• Turning off MediaWall soft normalisation if you need to coexist with Myriad v5
• All Stations now require Station Enabler codes to be accessed via Myriad Anywhere
• You need to uninstall the Myriad RES v5 Tunnel Service and replace it with the Myriad RES 6 Tunnel Service
• Some Command Line Utility parameters have changed
• Myriad SE products (e.g. AutoTrack, OCP, Network etc.) should not be used with Myriad Playout v6
• Hardware Service must be at least v5.18 or higher
• REST API changes

Myriad Playout v6 Family

Appearance and basics:

• By default Myriad runs using a new "dark" theme, however you can switch back to a "Light" theme which has a similar look to Myriad v5. This is a per-user option and can be found on the Customise window available from the View menu.
• Myriad v6 has a new modern look and feel with almost every window having had significant changes - for example, all ribbons now have a more modern appearance with clearer graphics.
• Myriad v6 uses the same license codes as Myriad v5, so if you are installing Myriad v6 onto a computer that is already licensed to run Myriad v5 then you will not need to re-license.
• Important: All of the Myriad applications have new "executable" names and are installed into different paths, so if you are using any customs scripts to launch Myriad, or to run the Command Line Utility you will need to update those scripts.
• Important: Myriad v6 products cannot communicate with Myriad v5 products and vice versa. For example, Myriad Playout v6 can only connect to Myriad OCP v6, not to OCP v5, and Myriad Playout Remote v6 can only connect to Myriad Playout v6, not to Playout v5. 

Minimum Operating System specifications:

• Running on Windows desktop: Requires Windows 10 or higher.
• Running on Windows Server: Windows Server 2016 or higher.
• Requires .Net Framework v4.8 - this may require installation on Windows Server 2016.

MediaWall:

• Myriad can now natively play internet streams using it's new "Stream" media items. These behave exactly the same was as other media items, so for example, dragging a stream media item into player 3 will play that stream out of your third fader on your mixing desk/console.
• By default, Myriad now uses "Soft normalisation" - so instead of permanently re-processing your audio when you import it to normalise the audio, instead Myriad calculates the "Custom gain" needed, and then automatically applies this each time the audio is played - much the same as the "trim" pot at the top of a fader on a mixing desk. This keeps the audio quality as high as possible by not re-processing the file needlessly, speeds up the import process,  and also means you can rapidly change the levels of your content if you need to.
  • Important: If you will be temporarily running Myriad v5 from the same database you should disable this feature by going into Database Settings>MediaWall>Advanced Options and turning on "Re-Write files during import to permanently apply normalisation... "
• If you have the option to move deleted media items into the 'Recycled' folder then you can now easily Restore accidentally deleted items from the inside the Media Editor.
• You can now set a custom recycle period per media range, and there is a new Housekeeping button in Database Settings that will force expired items to be deleted immediately.
• All audio level settings are now shown in decibels instead of percentages.
• Opus support:
  • Although Opus is now available as a supported audio format for the MediaWall, given the extremely low cost of modern hard drives, we strongly recommend you use Windows PCM wav for your primary audio format.
  • Important note: If you do decide to use Opus as your Media Wall format, then you will find that opening media items for full editing takes longer as the audio has to be decompressed to a temporary file prior to editing, then re-compressed afterwards back into opus. On some computers this can take a few moments due to the requirements of the opus decoding and encoding algorithms. Also, "scrub" seeking around inside a media item is not yet available.
• The entire audio import process has been totally revised and rewritten allowing for a much wider variety of audio file formats to be imported - for example up to 96khz, 32bit WAV files - as well as a dramatic improvement in reliability and stability when importing certain problematic mp3 formats. 
• You can also now natively import Flac files into Myriad.
• Important: Removal and deprecation of older audio file formats - you can no longer export to ogg, mp2 and WMA, and IMA ADPCM is no longer supported for recording, so you should not use it as your MediaWall Format

Scheduling:

• There are new "Show Title" and "Presenters" fields on the Clock Editor window. These are sent through to OCP when a Log hour is played and allow you to easily use the same Show Title across multiple clocks, even when the Clocks have different titles - for example Breakfast1, Breakfast2 etc.
• Schedule Plus users can now use multiple Clock Assignment Sets, each with a different date range - for example you might have a different Assignment Set over the festive period.

Log Playback:

• There is a new per-workstation Application Setting to force the log to only run in AutoFade mode. This  is ideal for automation workstations that must always run in AutoFade mode to ignore any "Stop" chain markers that have been set in the Scheduled Log.
• Important: The Station Settings>AutoFade setting "If there are NO fadeable items before an Absolute Time... " has been removed. The last item before an Absolute Time is therefore now allowed to be faded in this scenario. If you want to prevent items from being faded you should use the Soft Time marker instead as this is the correct way to achieve this.
• Smart Transfer now shows a live preview of the state of the running log on the other computer before you initiate the transfer. Once the SmartTransfer process is underway, it also now shows you the progress of the currently playing remote item so you know when the transfer will take place.

Media Engine:

• Myriad Playout uses the latest v6 generation of our SMX Media Engine. As well as supporting live internet stream playback, this latest version also has significant speed and performance improvements.
• The Media Engine now uses the unique "device identifiers" for each sound device assigned by Windows to help detect the correct audio devices to use after a Windows Update which would previously have changed the audio device order. It also means that you can now safely change the Windows Default Device as well without it causing issues.
• Myriad can also now be set to use the "Default Playback device" so that whenever you plug or unplug a temporary audio device Myriad will automatically use the windows default device.
• When configured in "Remote Media Engine Mode", Myriad v6 uses a new communications protocol  ("GRPC") which is significantly faster than in previous versions allowing for much more responsive control of Media players.

AutoImporter:

• The Media AutoImporter v5 has been renamed to the Myriad AutoImporter v6.

Myriad OCP:

• OCP has a new built in "Broadcast.Radio" output making it much easier to setup and manage your now playing information connection to the Broadcast.Radio platform.
  • If you have set your Station's Broadcast.Radio API Key in Station Settings, then this is used by default when creating the new Broadcast.Radio output, but can be replaced with any valid API key as required.
  • The original Broadcast.Radio output that shipped with OCP v5 is also still available for advanced users.  
• There are new tags for Show Title and Presenters - see Scheduling above.

Myriad Anywhere:

• Myriad Anywhere v6 has been updated to a new modern look and feel and is available in both Anywhere Cloud and Self-Hosted editions.
• Myriad Anywhere Cloud will automatically redirect users to Myriad Anywhere Cloud v6 when it detects that you are running Myriad Remote Edit Server v6.
• Media Library improvements:
  • The Media Library View now has a full Advanced mode search.
  • Anywhere Pro/Anywhere schedule users can now have access to a full Media Mass Changer, available from the Media Library views.
• New Station Administration features (Myriad Anywhere Pro only):
  • You can now edit Database Settings.
  • You can now edit the Station Settings for each station.
  • You can add/edit/delete all Categories and Attributes (e.g. Categories, Types, Genders and Eras).
  • You can add/edit/delete your AutoImporter groups.
  • You can manage all of your OCP Settings including adding/editing/deleting Outputs.
  • You can see all of your users currently connected via your Remote Edit Server and manage their connections.
• Important: All Stations now require Station Enabler codes to be used via Myriad Anywhere whether that is Anywhere Cloud or Anywhere Self-Hosted even just for Myriad Anywhere Standard licenses. Your code may already have been upgraded by us as part of our Myriad v6 rollout, but if you need more information or an updated enabler code, please contact [email protected] 
• Important: If you are using Myriad Anywhere Cloud, then you will need to use the menu option in Myriad Remote Edit Server v5 to uninstall the Myriad Anywhere v5 Tunnel Service, then use the menu option in Myriad Remote Edit Server v6 to install it's version of the Myriad Anywhere v6 Tunnel Service.

Myriad Replication:

Myriad v6 has a new feature that allows you to easily replicate almost all content from your Myriad Database from one site to another, or to the Myriad Cloud. This feature is enabled by entering the address and user credentials for the the other site's Remote Edit Server into the Database Settings window, and then you access the Replicate menu option from the Station menu.

To replicate with a Remote Edit Server directly you will need to open the ports for your RES on your firewall, alternatively, you can securely synchronise with your on-premise station via the Myriad Anywhere Cloud. Because of the data requirements, this requires an additional subscription, please contact [email protected] for more details on pricing and availability. 

You can also automatically replicate items using the command line utility, see the Command Line Utility documentation for more information.

Myriad Backup:

There is a new "Myriad Backup" application installed with the Support Applications bundle. This application allows you to easily maintain a complete offsite backup copy of your MediaWall in either Dropbox or OneDrive that is automatically updated every time a media item changes in the selected media range. Note that you will need an active product subscription to either Dropbox or OneDrive to use this feature.

Command Line Utility:

• There is a new Replication action that allows you to automatically replicate your content to a remote station or Myriad Cloud.
  
  Note: You should not try to use this facility while Myriad v5 is coexisting with Myriad v6 with the same database as it will lead to unpredictable results.
  
  You choose what content to replicate based on the command line options you use including:
  • Database Settings
  • Station Settings
  • List of stations
  • Categories and Attributes
  • MediaWall - either all items or selected ranges
  • Scheduling - includes all Clocks, Clock Assignment Sets and Station Rules
  • Scheduled Log
• Important: The name of some of the command line parameters has changed:
  • The "/Station" parameter, has now changed to /StationId
  • Media /Start and /End parameters have changed to /StartMedia and /EndMedia

Myriad v5 SE Products:

Important: You should avoid using the current Myriad (v4.5) SE products if you are coexisting a database with Myriad Playout v5 and Myriad Playout v6. This is because they are not aware of the soft normalisation and replication settings, so any media items added or edited using Myriad SE may not behave correctly in Myriad Playout v6 and vice versa.

Myriad AutoTrack v4.6 SE is now available from the Myriad Playout v6 download page and is a direct replacement for AutoTrack v4.5 SE

As previously announced, Myriad Advert Manager SE, OCP SE and Myriad Network SE are all end of life and these will not be available with the Myriad v6 platform.

Hardware Service

• Important: Myriad Playout v6 requires Hardware Service v5.18.1 or higher which can be downloaded from https://www.broadcastradio.com/myriad-6-playout-support#Related 

REST API

• The REST API base URL change for Myriad Playout has changed. Please see the Help menu in Myriad Playout for more details. This also includes many new REST api methods, as well as some of the parameters and return values changing. You can find out some more high level information about the REST API at /en/support/solutions/articles/101000534914 
• OCP has a new REST API, more details can be found on the Help menu.
• Remote Edit Server has a new REST API, more details can be found on the Help menu.