TuneTracker™ QuickTip

"Using a Switcher with TimeTracker for Background Recordings" (AutoCast 3.3 and above)

One of the great things about using one of our switcher-equipped ChannelCaster systems is its versatility. The included Broadcast tools switcher is capable of receiving relay closures, sending relay closures, putting various audio sources on the air, and also routing audio sources that *aren't* on the air. It's that latter capability we're covering in this QuickTip.

Let's say your station subscribes to a news network and a sports network. Sometimes you want one or the other of the networks to be broadcast live. But at other times, you need to record feeds off-air from one network or the other, using our optional TimeTracker program. Here's what you do:

1. Wire up a spare output from your switcher (we'll make it output 2 in this example) to the line-in of your TuneTracker computer.
2. Set up TimeTracker to do the recordings at the times you wish for them to occur, to the paths and filenames you desire.
3. At an apropriate place in your program log, in advance of the recording time, add a # Route-On command that will cause the network of your choice to be routed to output 2. Example:
   
   # Route-On Input 3 to Output 2

The # Route-On command "permanently" holds that audio routing until you use a # Route-Off command to switch it off...which is something you'll definitely want to do if you intend to record from a different network later. Otherwise you can wind up with overlapping audio, since more than one audio input can be routed to the same output using Route-On commands. So add two lines to your log; one to turn off the previous network's feed to Output 2, and the second to turn a different one on.

# Route-Off Input 3 to Output 2
# Route-On Input 5 to Output 2

Obvioiusly, you're limited only by the number of inputs your router has, so this same approach can potentially be used to record from many different audio sources if you have a larger switcher package from us such as the ChannelCaster 16.

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