INTRO AND FEATURES - Overview and Uses Welcome to the TuneTracker System™ Congratulations on the purchase of the TuneTracker™ Radio Automation System. Between the Command Center and Basic versions of TuneTracker, this system will allow you to create any kind of commercial or non-commercial radio station you can dream up, and broadcast it over AM, FM, LPFM, Internet, intranet, on-hold, drive-thru/drive-by radio, hospital radio, hobby stations, shortwave, and many other venues. It can be used for music-intensive as well as talk-intensive formats, or any mixture. It provides an easy-to-use interface for doing live and live-assist programming such as DJ shows, newscasts, council meeting broadcasts, concerts, and sermons. The BeOS Advantage When it comes to performance, there is no comparing the TuneTracker System™ with Windows-based radio systems, because this one runs under the Be Operating System. Not only will it run faster, smoother, and more reliably than anything that could be designed under Windows, but it will co-exist happily with other tasks being performed on the same machine. By taking advantage of the inherent strengths and built-in capabilities of the BeOS, we are able to keep our applications extremely compact and lightning-quick. BeOS is designed to behave much like a giant database. Think of every file as a "database record," complete with fields of information called "attributes" that make the files findable in an eyeblink, regardless of where they are hiding on your hard drive. Once you understand how to add this searchable information to your files (it's easy), you'll be able to rapidly set up your radio station. HATE MANUALS??   Take the Fast Track! Let's start out by saying that we understand how people feel about reading manuals, and if you are one of the majority out there who'd rather have their teeth drilled than read documentation, we've developed a great, inexpensive alternative. FastTracker Video Learning Series DVDs Fully narrated and professionally produced, our FastTracker DVDs explain things clearly and in plain language. Just pop a FastTracker disc into any DVD player or computer equipped with DVD-ROM, and start watching. You'll be a TuneTracker System guru in no time. FastTracker DVDs make wonderful sense, especially when you have some turnover in your staff...because you can use them over and over again to train newcomers on how to use the system in a quick, painless way. They'll not only grasp things more quickly and easily, but they'll have a higher level of confidence in their ability to use TuneTracker products, as well as a heightened enthusiasm in the products themselves. There are FastTracker Video Learning DVDs covering most of the major products available from TuneTracker Systems. To see the entire list visit http://www.tunetrackersystems.com/orderfasttracker.html. LOVE MANUALS??   Read on! For the manual readers among you, we've made a huge investment in time and effort to make this manual as clear, well-organized, comprehensive, and pleasant to read and use as we possibly can. Now let's get started! First, be aware that we keep the most up-to-date documentation online, so if you're reading this manual from a TuneTracker distribution and are unsure if it is there have been changes or updates, the online manual is a good place to check. As for the manual you have before you here, a great way to begin is to read-through the introductory paragraphs in our Table of Contents. You'll get an excellent overview from them which will help you build a picture in your mind of how our system works. We have structured our User's Guide to be useful to all levels of experience, from students to new radio staffers to seasoned pros. Be sure to check out the early sections of our index for a lot of interesting and useful information on the history of radio automation, planning your station, designing format clocks, etc. While the TuneTracker™ System is simple in both concept and use, there are a few things you need to understand in order to make good use of the system. After you have followed the quickstart guide and tried out the sample radio station we include in the installation, please take the time to carefully read through the documentation we have provided. In short order, you will see how the system works, and you'll be on your way to creating your own, highly-personalized, totally-amazing radio service. This manual does not attempt to take the place of the BeOS User's Manual, which in all of our newer installations is found by clicking the BeOS deskbar's start button in the lower left corner of your desktop and clicking on Documentation. We have, however, tried to also include helpful BeOS basics in this manual, when they are especially useful to TuneTracker users. Additional documentation can be found at our web site in the QuickTips section, where we keep an archive of all the weekly QuickTips we e-mail out to our users. If you are not presently receiving our weekly QuickTips and wish to do so, please feel free to e-mail us and ask to be added. Table of Contents