The AI-generated cat pictures thread
12-21-2011, 01:04 PM
#6569
Ah, gotcha.
ENCO isn't a generic name, it's the name of the company that makes that automation system: http://www.enco.com/encoproducts.htm
They used to be a much bigger player in the market, although the last time I used their system it was still DOS-based and using a Novell server (this was in the early 2000s, mind you.)
For the past several years, we haven't seem much of their stuff in the field. This is mostly because the major corporate owners have all standardized on other systems nationwide. Clear Channel uses RCS/Nexgen (formerly Prophet), CBS uses Audiovault, etc.
That's actually the standard at all of the big corporate stations. 100% of the music library is in the automation system- no CDs or carts anywhere. This has been happening for about a decade now, ever since hard drive space became cheap enough that the music could be ripped directly into the computer and not compressed. These days, the individual stations never even touch a music CD- new cuts get pushed into the stations' local servers direct from a central production office via the corporate WAN. Times, they are a changin'.
It's funny, actually. The very first automation system I ever used (made by Schafer) stored all of the spots on four Betamax VCRs (not Betacam, mind you- regular ole' consumer grade Betamax) and had a computer with maybe a 120 meg hard drive in it. Before each break, the machines would all start shuttling around and then, one by one, play the relevant spots into the computer which recorded them onto the hard drive. When you hit the button at the console, the computer would play the break off of the hard drive, then immediately wipe it and the VCRs would start rolling again to locate the cuts for the next break in the log. God help the poor soul who scheduled two breaks too close together- if those VCRs weren't done rolling, you got nothing. For this reason, we still used carts to cover ballgames, as you could never predict how close the local breaks were going to come. (eg: out of a local, one batter, timeout, then a pitching change, etc.)
Aah, memories.
ENCO isn't a generic name, it's the name of the company that makes that automation system: http://www.enco.com/encoproducts.htm
They used to be a much bigger player in the market, although the last time I used their system it was still DOS-based and using a Novell server (this was in the early 2000s, mind you.)
For the past several years, we haven't seem much of their stuff in the field. This is mostly because the major corporate owners have all standardized on other systems nationwide. Clear Channel uses RCS/Nexgen (formerly Prophet), CBS uses Audiovault, etc.
That's actually the standard at all of the big corporate stations. 100% of the music library is in the automation system- no CDs or carts anywhere. This has been happening for about a decade now, ever since hard drive space became cheap enough that the music could be ripped directly into the computer and not compressed. These days, the individual stations never even touch a music CD- new cuts get pushed into the stations' local servers direct from a central production office via the corporate WAN. Times, they are a changin'.
It's funny, actually. The very first automation system I ever used (made by Schafer) stored all of the spots on four Betamax VCRs (not Betacam, mind you- regular ole' consumer grade Betamax) and had a computer with maybe a 120 meg hard drive in it. Before each break, the machines would all start shuttling around and then, one by one, play the relevant spots into the computer which recorded them onto the hard drive. When you hit the button at the console, the computer would play the break off of the hard drive, then immediately wipe it and the VCRs would start rolling again to locate the cuts for the next break in the log. God help the poor soul who scheduled two breaks too close together- if those VCRs weren't done rolling, you got nothing. For this reason, we still used carts to cover ballgames, as you could never predict how close the local breaks were going to come. (eg: out of a local, one batter, timeout, then a pitching change, etc.)
Aah, memories.
I would not be surprised to find that the ENCO stuff is still DOS based given the issues that occasionally pop up, and that the station engineer is pretty much the only guy who knows how to keep everything rolling along smoothly. And the beta tapes system...holy crap. Our stuff is all digitized but on separate servers, which sounds like it's not much of an improvement over the shuffling racket of the magnetic tapes of old.
We're small, barely funded, and make do with a lot of old ****. I'll try to get you a pic of the room where all the guts are...it's a nightmare in there.
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12-21-2011, 05:50 PM
#6579
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And now for something completely different.
Last edited by sixshooter; 12-21-2011 at 08:27 PM.
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