Overriding Scheduled Content For Ad-Hoc Live Shows Using BR Live's Mute Studio Feature

Imagine the scenario where you have a DJ who does a live show from a venue every Friday night, but they can never guarantee that the venues will have good enough wifi for a remote show. 

So you need to have a contingency for any Friday that the DJ cannot send his or her live show, but equally, it needs to be simple enough for the presenter to be able use easily to when they can.

The solution is to use the Mute Studio feature in BR Live to achieve the following:

• Schedule full content for the Friday night show in AutoFade mode.
• If the presenter is not able to connect, the scheduled content is played as normal.
• If the presenter is able to connect the following happens:
  • The login to Myriad Anywhere.
  • Connect via BR Live.
  • Use the Mute Studio  feature to force all the Media Players into mute mode.
  • Using BR Live to send their live DJ set directly to the station, effectively overriding the scheduled content which is still playing in the background, but muted.
  • At the end of their show, they Un Mute Studio  to restore audio from the Media Players meaning the scheduled log is now being broadcast again!

To achieve this, follow these steps:

1. Ensure you have full Clocks in place for any hours that you might want to use this feature. Remember, this is what will be played if the live / remote session does not happen.
   
   
2. Make sure the first item in the Clock is a Command Media Item that will set the metadata output via OCP to be a suitable show name, then disable further OCP updates for the duration of the Clock. This avoids your web players and mobile apps from displaying the incorrect information while the Log is playing muted and you have a live show connected. It does mean that if the presenter does not connect, you will only show the show name for the duration but that would also be the case for any remote live show!
   
   You can create a Command Media Item using the Commands below to set the OCP metadata, then prevent any further updates.

   OnAir.SetNowPlayingPlain(stationId,mediaId,"itemTitle","firstArtistName",itemType)
   OnAir.DisableNowPlaying(stationId)

   
   The actual Media Item would look like the example below.

   
   

   OnAir.SetNowPlayingPlain(-1,0,"Bounce Heaven","DJ Z-Dog",Song)
   OnAir.DisableNowPlaying(-1)

   
   

3. You also need to use a second Command Media Item to re-enable OCP metadata updates at the end of the Clock. Use the Command below to re-enable OCP updates.
   
   

OnAir.EnableNowPlaying(stationId)

1. Ensure the Presenter has sufficient Myriad Anywhere permissions to edit the Log for the hours you are interested in.
   
2. At the time of the live remote show, the presenter needs to Login to Myriad Anywhere.
   
   
3. Click on the Connect To Audio button on the main ribbon.
   
   
   
   
4. Select the Input Device that is connected to their audio equipment.
   
   
5. Click the Start button.
   
   
   
   
6. Ensure the Live Channel is selected and the 'Microphone Fader' is active.
   
   Caution- In this state, any audio will be broadcast on your station either ensure the audio source is not active, or do not activate the 'Mic Fader' until you are ready!
   
   
   
   
7. Click on the Mute Studio button on the BR Live Virtual Studio panel.
   
   
   
   
8. You will see a warning box asking you to confirm you want to Mute all Myriad players in the studio. You can tick the option to now show this warning in the future if you prefer.
   
   
   
   
9. Once you click on the Yes  option, the Myriad Media Players in your studio (or on your Myriad Cloud system) will be muted until un-mute them.
   
   
   The Media Players display an icon to show they are in a muted state.
   
   
   The muted icon is displayed on Media Players in both Myriad Anywhere and Myriad Playout.
   
   
10. At the end of the live remote show, the presenter needs to click on the Un-Mute Studio button to restore audio from the Media Players.
    
    
    This will fade up all the Media Players, restoring audio from Myriad Playout or Myriad Cloud.
    
    Remember to also turn off the 'Mic fader' to stop your local audio being mixed into the broadcast.
    
    

TIP - The above process does rely on the presenter to Un-Mute the studio at the end of their broadcast. If you are concerned they may forget, you can always add a Command to the start of the following how to for an Un-Mute Studio option. If the Media Player are not muted then nothing will happen but if the presenter has forgotten to un-mute the player, this will ensure the next show is played correctly.

Use the following Command script to setup an Un-Mute All Players Media Item for placing at the beginning of the Clock for the next show in the schedule.

Players.UnMuteAllPlayers(stationId,fadeDurationMsec)

Additional Receive Buffer Delay

If you are using BR Live to send full, real-time audio from a remote location, to your studio, it may be worth looking at increasing the Audio Receive Buffer Delay on BR Live Studio in your studio. This setting increases BR Live audio stability at the expense of a long latency. This is not ideal when using BR Live for remote voice only but if you are send full audio then it will be worth setting an increased delay to find the best balance of latency and audio stability.

See - BR Live Troubleshooting - Data Saver Mode & Additional Receive Buffer Delay (Audio Delay)