A Tour of the Interface
AutoCast's main window is divided into three vertical columns, each with a distinct job. Once you know what lives where, the interface becomes second nature very quickly. Let's walk through it from left to right.
One thing you'll notice immediately: there's no title bar. No close button, minimize button, or zoom button in the corner. The window is chromeless by design, giving it a clean, appliance-like feel. You can reposition it by clicking and dragging anywhere that isn't a button or control. Press M to toggle between full-screen and your previous window size.
The Left Column — Decks and Program Log
The left column is the heart of what's happening right now. The top portion shows your player decks; below them is the program log.
The Player Decks
Three decks are stacked vertically — Deck A at top, Deck B in the middle, Deck C at the bottom. Think of them the way you'd think of turntables or cart machines in a traditional board setup: one is playing, one is cued up, and one is queued after that.
| Deck | Role |
|---|---|
| Deck A | The currently playing item. Shows artist, title, a progress bar, and elapsed/remaining time. |
| Deck B | The next item to play. Shows the predicted start time in red. |
| Deck C | The item queued after Deck B. Also shows a predicted start time. |
Each deck has a play button on the right side. Clicking it manually triggers that item. On Decks B and C, a long press (hold for one second) initiates an immediate crossfade into that item, overriding the normal timing — handy when you need to jump ahead for any reason.
You can also adjust volume on any deck by clicking and dragging vertically on the deck body — drag up to increase, drag down to decrease. The progress bar height reflects the current volume. This lets you ride a deck's level without affecting anything else.
Right-clicking any deck opens a context menu with additional options, including ending a live event early, viewing details, or manually controlling playback.
A colored accent strip on the left edge of each deck indicates what type of content is playing — music, a live input, a stream, a switcher event, and so on. The colors match the color-coding system used in the program log.
The Program Log
Below the decks, the program log shows everything scheduled for the current broadcast period — songs, commands, commercials, voice tracks, and more — in the order they'll play. Four columns give you the key information at a glance:
| Column | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Time | The predicted start time for each item, updated continuously as the broadcast progresses. Shows "--:--" if the time can't be predicted (for example, after an open-ended live break). |
| Artist | The artist name, or the command name for automation commands. |
| Title | The song title or command parameters. |
| Duration | How long the item runs. |
The currently active item is highlighted. Items that have been skipped by timing commands are shown dimmed (if you have "Show Skipped Events" turned on in Settings). The log scrolls automatically to keep the active item in view.
You can drag items in the program log to reorder them on the fly, or drag results in from the Search Pad to insert a song at any position.
A right-click anywhere in the program log opens a context menu with options to insert items, remove items, or get information about the selected event.
The program log is color-coded by content type — music is one color, commercials another, promos another, and so on. The colors come from your Station Folder structure and can be customized. After a few hours at the console, you'll be reading the log at a glance without looking at the text.
The Center Column — Controls, Meters, and Button Pad
The center column is divided into two zones: the top section has your transport controls, VU meters, and weather display; the bottom section is the Button Pad.
Transport Controls
Six large buttons are arranged in two columns of three, sized to align with the three decks on the left. Left column:
| Button | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Start | Begins playback from the current position in the program log. AutoCast starts playing the next queued item. |
| Go Live | Opens the live microphone or board input immediately, ducking the program audio. Your mic is hot as soon as you click it. |
| Preview | Auditions the next queued item on your preview output device — the one that goes to headphones or a monitor, not to air. Lets you hear what's coming without the audience hearing it. |
Right column:
| Button | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Auto | Toggles full automation mode. When Auto is active, a green indicator dot appears and AutoCast advances through the program log on its own, playing each item in sequence. Turn Auto off to pause automation without stopping playback. |
| Help | Loads context-sensitive help into the Message Pad for whatever you last interacted with. Quick answers without leaving the interface. |
| Settings | Opens the Settings window. You can also use ⌘, (Command-comma), the standard Mac shortcut. |
VU Meters
Two narrow vertical VU meters sit between the two button columns. The left meter shows the main program output level — what's going to air. The right meter shows the live input level — your mic or board feed. Both update ten times per second, giving you a real-time read on levels without needing separate metering hardware.
The WeatherPad
To the right of the transport buttons, the WeatherPad displays the current time (large, updating every second), a weather conditions icon, the current temperature, and a sky condition description like "Partly Cloudy" or "Windy." AutoCast pulls this data from the National Weather Service API based on your station's ZIP code, configured in Settings.
Click the weather icon to expand a full multi-day forecast in the Message Pad — handy when you want to mention tomorrow's weather on-air without leaving the automation software.
The Button Pad
The lower half of the center column is your Button Pad — a scrollable grid of custom action buttons that you define. Hot sounds, liner cards, stream URLs, scripts, hardware commands — anything you might want to trigger with one click. The Button Pad is covered in full detail in The Button Pad.
A small magnifying glass icon at the lower-right corner of the Button Pad opens a search bar that filters your buttons in real time. Type a few letters and your button grid narrows to show only matching items — extremely useful when you have a lot of buttons.
The Right Column — Logo, Message Pad, and Search Pad
The right column has three stacked panels, each serving a distinct purpose.
The Logo / Art Panel
The top panel displays your station logo or album art. It also doubles as the AutoVision player — when you access training and tutorial videos from TuneTracker Systems through an AutoVision button, they play right here without interrupting your on-air audio (they route to your preview output device instead).
You can drag and drop any image file — JPG, PNG, TIFF, HEIC — onto this panel to set a custom wallpaper for the entire AutoCast window. Right-click the panel to restore the original station logo, or to access context help.
The Message Pad
The Message Pad is AutoCast's communication center — a dark, scrolling text area where the software talks to you. It displays:
- The welcome message at launch
- System notifications — missing files, low disk space warnings, silence sensor alerts, reboot recovery notices
- Context help when you press the Help button
- Content loaded by
# ShowTextautomation commands — show notes, liner card text, weather summaries - Clickable links that navigate directly to settings, load specific files, or play tutorial videos
Right-clicking the Message Pad gives you options to view today's output log (what actually aired) or open the currently displayed file in your default text editor.
The Search Pad
At the bottom of the right column, the Search Pad lets you search your music library in real time. Start typing — results appear instantly after three characters. Each result shows artist, title, and duration.
From the Search Pad, you can:
- Click a result to select it
- Double-click to preview it on your preview output
- Drag it into the program log to insert it at any position
- Right-click for options including "Make Next-to-Play" (inserts it immediately after the current song) and "Get Song Info"
- Long-press (hold for one second) to start a preview — the item's border blinks orange to confirm
The Search Pad supports Boolean operators for more targeted searches: type Eagles NOT Hotel to find Eagles songs that aren't Hotel California, or Springsteen AND Born to narrow things down. Operators must be uppercase and surrounded by spaces.
The Background
AutoCast can automatically change its background image based on the time of day, season, and current weather conditions. A sunny summer afternoon looks different from a winter night — if you've set up time-of-day wallpaper images in your Station Folder, AutoCast transitions between them automatically.
You can also just drag any image you like onto the main window to set a custom background immediately. It's your console — make it look however you want.
Keyboard Shortcuts
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| M | Toggle full-screen / windowed mode |
| O | Display today's output log in the Message Pad |
| ⌘, | Open Settings |
Next up: Your First Broadcast →