We've very excited to announce that Myriad Playout v6.3.5 has now been upgraded to FULL RELEASE so is therefore fully supported.
This is a MASSIVE update and we've been working on it for months, and it's been in public beta testing since the very end of last year and we're now extremely pleased to say it's ready and we really hope you're going to love all the goodies it brings just in time for the festive break!
Please see the bottom of this article for links to the download the new update.
Important change to Station Enabler Codes:
As previously announced, you now need at least 1 Station Enabler codes assigned to a station in your database if you want to use the new AI Voice Links, Myriad AutoImporter or Myriad OCP Standard. The vast majority of stations already have Enabler codes, but if you don't have one please just drop a line to support@broadcastradio.com with the exact station name that you want the code to be issued for. These are issued free of charge to ALL existing stations, and you don't have to purchase or subscribe to any additional features.
New Features:
There are dozens of new features within Myriad and its associated programs, but here's just a few of the major items:
AI Voice Links: Myriad has a brand new "AI Voice Links" feature that can used to automatically generate voice links to keep your listeners updated even when a station is unattended. These start from simple station name and time checks, but can also be expanded to include Weather and simple song information. They can even use Songfacts.com information if available. You can also use Open AI (aka Chat GPT) to rewrite either manually created or auto generated scripts to give those links a more natural feel. This new feature is ideal for live shows to give a second "voice" to an show, for example reading out the weather rather than it always being the presenter, but of course can also be used in fully automated stations to broadcast more dynamic content.
You can use the built in Windows voices for free, or you can use voices from ElevenLabs, Microsoft Azure, or Google - you'll just need to signup for a subscription direct with them.
You can use Open AI (aka ChatGPT) or Azure OpenAI (recommended) if you want to use GPT script rewriting.
There are several new Commands that allow you to pre-create Voice links in advance, but can also be used to only re-create a Voice Link if the script has changed - ideal for content like weather reports where the weather provider might only update the script every 4 hours or so, but you want to make sure you always have the latest version every hour.
There are also several new Help articles that explain how to use the new AI features:
Futuri AudioAI support: We have worked hard with Futuri and are pleased to say that Myriad can also now use Futuri AudioAI AI voice links, as well as our own native built-in AI voice link system. You can even combine both services on the same Station.
Command Language: The Myriad command language has had a MASSIVE update and now has true variables, Do Loops, IF and even function support. The language is very similar to JavaScript so is a very familiar style to regular script writers and developers. None of the commands themselves have changed, just the language that you can use around it - for example, storing the result of a command in a variable to use further down the script. This new language can be used in both Media Items and directly assigned to a Hardware Line.
Media Items/editor
Command Editor: The command editor has had a huge overhaul to use the new Command language. This includes full colour support to show commands vs code as well as IntelliSense to show you what options are available command or method you are using. The list of commands and templates has also been streamlined and you can now search the available options.
Stream media items now have new options for how many times to retry if the stream drops and you can also now set an Extro to give more control over the end of the item - for example, if you set the Stream item as a "Song" and set the end type to "Fades" then Myriad can fade it out smoothly at the end of the stream instead of a hard segue into the next item.
Now Playing information: You can now import "Now Playing" (aka CUE) information from CUE files directly into existing Media Items, and we've added support for cuegenerator.net
When editing Media items, there is now Auto-complete on both the Title and Artist fields which helps to reduce entry errors and the amount you have to type.
Managing Artists/Titles: There is a new "Title Case" button available for both Artists and Item Titles that allows you to easily update multiple items to change the case. For example, if you have a large number of songs that have had the Title and/or Artist all entered IN ALL UPPER CASE then you can select these and click the button to have them Corrected To Title Case. You should obviously avoid doing this for Artists like ELO!
Notes: It's now easier to add new notes with a new cleaner "Add note" user interface, and we've simplified note types by combining both of the older social media notes into a single type and DAB and RDS notes are also both now combined into single "Digital Radio" type.
There is a new option in Database Settings to sort Categories and Attributes alphabetically.
Smart Info:
Improvements to the way songs, artists and years are resolved means faster updates for new and existing items.
The short weather summary has been improved to give clearer information as well having a new British option to show temperatures in centigrade and speeds in mph.
Traffic: Smart Info can now correctly display Welsh traffic information.
Myriad Schedule/Log Import/Reports
The Schedule Hour Summary report now also includes a breakdown and summary of how many Voice Links and AI Voice links are in each hour, as well as the total minutage of them. It also now includes a rough estimate of the amount of "live" links in an hour by looking at how long a Log item was "stopped" on a red dot before the next item was started.
You can now enter a station call sign (e.g. "WGBR") which is then used in reports such as the CRTC copyright report.
Myriad can now import Main and Traffic scheduled logs directly from FTP servers if needed. Advert "REC" files are then written back to the FTP location once an hour.
Main Display There is a new option to show "Large tabs" making it easier to select tabs on touch screen and smaller display devices.
User Management:
The Edit User window has been radically updated to make it MUCH easier to add and edit new users. Previously you had to set information on 3 separate tabs, but now this is all done in a single display. The other information (such as address and telephone numbers) are all still available if needed, they are just moved to a new tab.
There are several new security permissions including controlling which users can edit Stream items and Command items.
There are several new User History items for when users have edited Clocks, Rules or Clock Assignments, as well as whenever AI Scripts have been created. These events also store the script of the AI link that was created for audit purposes.
Myriad AutoImporter:
AutoImporter has a new "Add Importer" wizard making it much easier to setup new importer groups.
AutoImporter now has native support for downloading direct from Dropbox, so you no longer need to install the desktop client. You can also use different accounts for each Importer Group.
Microsoft OneDrive support: You can now configure an AutoImporter group to import directly from OneDrive so you no longer need to install/configure the OneDrive application on the computer that is running AutoImporter.
Myriad OCP:
OCP has new OCP built in templates for AIM Rapid and Aim Radio API. It also now has a built in template for Cirrus streaming.
You can now specify the text format for the FTP and File outputs, so countries that need UTF8 or Unicode can now specify this instead of Ascii etc. to allow for a wider variety of character set
Bug fixes
There are also a small number of bug fixes in the new release and these include:
MediaGrid View: Changing station would not update MediaWall category information
Media Library/Report would not show Song/Link/Ad/News category options in the dropdowns for some users.
Log Playback: Starting the log playing could take a very long time on some stations that are keeping a long Scheduled Log history or where the database is hosted on a very slow server.
Log Smart Transfer: Changing a log item while a SmartTransfer is in progress would sometimes result in the progress bar no longer updating - for example, changing the Chain type of the current log item.
Log Smart Transfer: When the log was running in AutoFade mode, if a song had fade instructions on it, these would be lost when transferring the log to another computer, so although the next song would start playing on the new computer, the outgoing song would be left to play in full on the previous computer.
Clock Editing: Could not set Start and Year into Clocks
Opus Support: Rapidly seeking within an opus format file could cause Myriad to exit.
Security: Some users could not login in "One Time Pin" was enabled.
AutoImporter:
File Import: If multiple files were found to have changed within a specified folder, they were wrongly being imported in reverse order.
Remote Edit Server:
Myriad News: You could not successfully delete a story if it had a Media item attached to it and had the option to delete media when deleting a story turned on.
Mass Changer: Fixed a problem with Mass Changing the scheduling details for an Advert in a different station would wrongly apply the new scheduling settings and could affect the currently open Station as well.
Myriad Backup:
Onedrive tokens would sometimes expire and not automatically renewed/extended.
Downloading the update
To download this new release, just go to the Help menu and click "Check for Updates" or to downoad manually go to the link below and click on the button "Download Myriad Playout v6.3.1..." and you will see options for each available download. You should also review the Info next to each download as this lists all of the key changes for each application.
Updates are available for Myriad Playout, Myriad Schedule and Myriad Playout Remote.
There are also matching updates for the Myriad Support Applications, you only need to use the Check For Updates button from within one of the applications to update all of them (Remote Edit Server, OCP, AutoImporter and, Myriad Backup).
There is also an update for Myriad AutoTrack SE v4.6.3 which you will need to manually download from the link below
