In anticipation of the release of SmartSign 3, we are looking back at the history of our screen studio signage system as well as a quick look at what the future holds. SmartSign 1 (well just SmartSign) was originally conceived as a simple ‘tally’ indicator to how real world events such as when microphones are active or a phone is ringing. At the time, we were working on the BR Hardware Service as part of the general Myriad 5 development cycle, and wanted a way to showcase the virtual hardware events the BR Hardware Service introduced. One of the aims was to make the system as cost effective as possible so work began on building an application that would run on Windows IOT on a Raspberry Pi. The Pi was ideal as it included physical hardware I/O built in meaning that SmartSign could use both physical and virtual GPIO and even convert physical inputs to virtual inputs for use in other BR software such as Myriad Logging or other SmartSigns.  We soon started to add other ‘tiles’ to the system to allow clocks, date / time, text, images, RSS feeds and more. SmartSign was released in 2016 and was an instant hit with our customers.

The latest feature from Broadcast Radio can really make your station stand out from the competition

Myriad v6 Public Beta testing has been going well... REALLY well!

This smart microphone may be ideal for Myriad Anywhere users.

Image Source: Pexels

We are often asked for recommendations for smaller, low cost mixers for stations that are launching on a tight budget or looking to add additional studio capacity as cost effectively as possible. Type 'stereo mixer' into Google and literally hundreds of options will come up but the vast majority of them are not really suitable for use with Myriad because they do not have enough stereo inputs, are designed for sound mixing or do not offer the basic facilities needed to present a radio show. But there are a few that could be considered as a possible alternative to a full broadcast mixer. The Behringer DX2000USB may be the ideal mixer for smaller stations, as long as they are willing to live the compromises it brings when used in a broadcast radio environment.

This post was originally posted on Arran's blog https://thisisarran.me/index.php/2020/12/04/the-technical-side-of-a-radio-station/ and is reproduced here by his kind permission. If you have a post you'd like share, please contact us and let us know!

With the World still struggling to adapt to the 'new normal' of working from home and minimising social contact, more and more stations are using Myriad Anywhere to enable presenters to record Remote Voice Tracks or even prevent live shows from their own home studios. Generally, all you need is a good microphone and a pair of headphones (we recommend a headset if possible) but we are hearing from a number of customers who are looking to create a home studio setup to allow them to get more creative and emulate their studio experience. So we thought we would take a quick look at a couple of home mixer options that work well with both Myriad Anywhere and fully installed Myriad Playout.

Sometimes you want to repeat complete Log hours in your schedule. Under normal circumstances, Myriad Schedule (or AutoTrack) will generate a new Log Hour for every hour of the week. But once you have edited and Voice Tracked an hour, it is sometimes good to be able to re-use that Log Hour elsewhere in your schedule or maybe even on another Station (if you are running more than one. This can be done using the Log.CopyHour Command.