TUNETRACKER SYSTEM IN ACTION - TuneTracker
# Overlay (Command Center Only)
Overlay lets you play an audio file at a specified time, "over the top" of other programming you're running. This is useful for situations where you're broadcasting a meeting, concert, lecture, or other block programming that runs past the top of the hour, necessitating the playing of a station-ID over the top. The list of overlays for a given day's programming is placed at the beginning of your program log.
In our example scenario below, we'll say that there's a Tuesday night city council meeting broadcast live on your AM station while your evening staffer is busy engineering a ballgame on your FM station. The council meeting starts at 7 and always runs at least an hour-and-a-half, meaning it must be superseded at some point by a station-ID. Since the only evening staffer is busy down the hall, it is convenient to let Command Center automatically take its station-ID breaks on your AM station.
- Example:
# Overlay 20:00:00 Comment StationID
# Hour 0 (start of day)
Note that the Overlay is placed right at the beginning of the day, just after the "# Hour 0" line. The example above indicates that at exactly 8 p.m. (20:00:00), Command Center should look up a track with the Comment, "StationID" and play it over the top of whatever is currently on the air.
To set up for the overlay, just assure that one or more station-ID files have their Comment attribute marked with "StationID." Command Center will take care of the rest. If one file is marked with the Comment, "StationID," then the same file will be played each time. If more than one file is marked with the Comment "StationID," Command Center will rotate through them evenly, "cart-style."
Overlay works with any other audio event. You can use Overlay over another audio file, a live event, a switcher event, even over a relayed Internet stream.
You can schedule as many Overlay events as you like. Just put them all in a list at the top of your master log or program log. Each Overlay event can use a different type of file, and can be played at very specific times, as shown below:
- Example:
# Hour 0 (start of day)
# Overlay 05:31:30 Comment ContestSoundEffect
# Overlay 12:00:00 Comment TimeTone
# Overlay 19:59:50 Comment StationID
To assure the Overlay event isn't drowned out by the event it is playing over, there's a ducking feature that turns down the volume on the main audio event. By default it is set to 25% volume during the Overlay event. You can alter the amount of ducking in System Preferences by increasing or decreasing the percentage in the provided textbox. Careful! Be certain you change the correct textbox, and that you are not changing the "Voice-track transitions" ducking preference, which serves a different purpose. Acceptable ducking levels can be set as low as .1, but no lower. Values below .1 will result in no overlay event occurring.
Table of Contents