Squeeeeze

David Boulton • July 17, 2018

Oh no!! Here we go with another post about maintenance!

A green apple is sitting on top of a vise made in england

Yes - sorry, I know we keep banging on about maintenance, and how you should schedule a time each month to do it, to keep everything in "tip, top" shape!

But hang on, isn't that just common sense?

When you buy a car, you don't just run it forever, without replacement tyres, an oil change, new wiper blades? Do you?????

A red car is parked in a garage surrounded by trees.

So the title of the BLOG is wrong, Squeeeeze was used for comedy effect. Really the BLOG should be called "Shrink" (but I couldn't find a suitable picture for that!).

Myriad v4 and Myriad 5 Playout use Microsoft (TM) SQL as their database engine. [Nerdy note: The database engine, is where lots of important information is stored and accessed really quickly. When you look at the "Log", we are asking the SQL for lots of information, displaying it on screen, and then telling SQL when you move / delete / play / etc an item.

I was looking at a customers' system the other day, helping them with some issues, and as an aside note they mentioned that things were "running a bit slow". Now this could have many, many causes! The one I go to, before anything else is the size of the SQL Database.
When you are running day in, day out, there are massive amounts of information stored to the SQL database, and this can grow in size. If left then the SQL Engine has to do a lot of hard work reading information from this large file (keeping some in memory), but this will have an effect on the speed it can deliver the information (and receive it) from Myriad / Autotrack / Myriad News.

So, let's get maintaining (ing, ing, ing).

The first thing you can do (and you don't have to be that technical) is read one of the first message boxes you see when you launch Autotrack:

Message box

Every time you schedule the Log, we are adding information into the SQL database. The history, is plain and simply where this item / artist was scheduled to be played. So, when you run the reports to see why a particular song seems to be coming around quite often, it uses this history.

That station I was telling you about, had ignored this message every time they opened and used Autotrack. This meant that they had 4 years' worth of histories for each item!

FANTASTIC, yes you can see over that period how many times it was scheduled, work out its rotations, see how the database has developed, etc.

BUT, as soon as you open a song or link card, it has to read that 4 year period - and display it on the history tab. In that stations case, 208 of these weekly grids need to be read from the database, and then drawn onto the song card, just in case you look at the history.

History grid

So, if we go back and read the first message box again........

  • Do you want scheduling histories and logs up to and including {Insert date} removed?
    If you say "YES", then the history grid will have less information to calculate the Play Count and Average Interval - these might be important to you, but do you really need 4 years' worth?
  • Note: You can have this done automatically by turning this prompt off in the Settings window.
    So no more annoying message box, it'll just keep performing this for you.

A screen shot of a program called myriad autotrack database settings

As you can see, if you tick the box, you'll get the message! If you don't, you won't!
You can also decide how long to keep those histories for, so if you have a particular need to look further back for your statisticalanalysis, you can!

Ok, good.....we're finished.....right?

Well, no, sorry.

As well as the "Autotrack Histories", the SQL Database also looks after the "Log", the "User Security History", amongst other items.

A screenshot of a microsoft sql server manager

You can "Shrink" the main SQL databases, that the Broadcast Radio products use. This is a safe process, but as mentioned before, you should perform a backup before you start this. You can also perform this while the station is on air! Something that you could never do with the old "Access Database" used by earlier generation products!

To do this you will need to download and install Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (which you can do using the link in the 3rd party section on this page). Once you have it installed, simply connect to the SQL instance and you can 'shrink' the database using the tools as pictured above. 

TIP: You can also backup and restore your database from this tool!


If you are not comfortable with this aspect of your maintenance routine, please consult with your engineer, or Broadcast Radio directly.

Everyone feels good after a nice squeeze :-)

By Liam Burke May 12, 2026
Cloud Playout Phase 1 – Winding Down We initially launched Myriad Cloud Playout, now referred to as Phase 1, in the Autumn of 2020 to provide a solution for stations launching in the throes of a worldwide pandemic that rendered a more traditional approach to launching a radio station impractical. At the time we outlined a multi-phased approach to developing the technology in a way that would provide an immediate solution whist paving the way for wider adoption and deployment at scale. Phase 1 (Cloud Playout)– Desktop playout running on hardware hosted at Broadcast Radio HQ. Initially this involved Myriad Playout running on physical or virtual hardware with full remote access via RealVNC and voice tracking & live control via Myriad Anywhere. All other function (Myriad Schedule etc) was done via remote access. Phase 2 (Myriad Cloud Dedicated) – Desktop playout running on datacentre based VM’s offering higher levels of power and connectivity resilience. This was coupled with an extension of Myriad Anywhere to provide true web-based functionality for all major elements of Myriad including Schedule, Admin, User Management etc. Direct remote access is still included via RealVNC to allow for administration of 3rd party applications, Myriad Splits and BR Encoder. Phase 3 (Myriad Cloud Native) – Complete cloud solution running natively on MS Azure without the need for Windows 10/11 host VM. Control over all functionalities including encoding, audio processing and all Myriad functions provided via web interface. Includes native integration with streaming and web players etc. As there is no host Windows PC/VM, there is no direct remote access and no provision to run 3rd party applications. As part of out ongoing commitment to provide the best technical and cost-effective solutions for our customers, we will be deprecating Phase 1 services over the coming months with the option for customers to choose whether to switch to Myriad Cloud Dedicated or Myriad Cloud Native. Which should you pick? We have already identified which Phase 1 customers will likely need to switch Myriad Cloud Dedicated and which have the option to switch to Myriad Cloud Native instead, although the ultimate choice will be with you the customer. Broadly speaking the main factors to consider are: You should consider moving to Myriad Cloud Dedicated if: You are using Myriad Split Playout If you are using specialist 3rd party applications (audio processor, encoder, logging etc) If you are using Myriad Logging on the same PC/VM You want to retain direct remote access for other reasons You should consider moving to Myriad Cloud Native if: You want to avoid issues caused by Windows Updates or hardware driver issues. You want to be able to manage all aspects of your station (including encoding, streaming, archive etc) from a single web portal. Want to be able to add and remove stations and share content between stations managed via your portal. Get seamless integration with web player and optional website CMS / mobile apps. Want to benefit from the reliability and scalability of MS Azure. There are benefits to both platforms and we fully understand that whilst we can make a recommendation, it is down to the customers choice which is the best route for them. In either case, we will handle the migration for you so that all your content is replicated to the new platform and the transition is as seamless as possible. Phase 1 customers will receive emails in the coming days outlining the options and inviting them to contact us for more information and to confirm their decision. Phase 1 accounts for a tiny percentage of our overall Myriad Cloud (dedicated and native) customers so the vast majority of Myriad Cloud users will not be affected. If you have not received an email in the next ten days then you are already on Phase 2 or Phase 3 and the ramp down of Phase 3 will not impact you at all. As ever, if you have any questions, please contact the Broadcast Radio team for more information.
Media player interface showing a list of tracks with
By Billy Billany March 17, 2026
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