ZON@T IN-STORE RADIO SYSTEM - music.almotech.commusic.almotech.com/RemoteMusicManager/pdf/userguide.pdf · become active. This is a powerful tool, providing a fully customizable in-store

ZON@T IN-STORE RADIO SYSTEM

MUSICMANAGER

USER GUIDE

© ALMOTECH 2012 Page 2 ZON@T MUSICMANAGER – USER GUIDE

Contents

1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 5

2. MusicManager .................................................................................................................. 6

2.1 Login ........................................................................................................................................ 6

2.2 Home ....................................................................................................................................... 6

2.3 Playlists .................................................................................................................................... 7

2.3.1 Add a Playlist ................................................................................................................... 8

2.3.2 Add Tracks to a Playlist .................................................................................................... 8

2.3.2 Removing Tracks from a Playlist .................................................................................... 10

2.3.3 Add/Remove Tracks from a System Playlist .................................................................. 10

2.3.4 Delete Playlist ................................................................................................................ 11

2.4 Scheduler ............................................................................................................................... 11

2.4.1 Create a Schedule .......................................................................................................... 12

2.4.2 View/Edit/Delete a Schedule ........................................................................................ 14

2.5 Advertising ............................................................................................................................. 15

2.5.1 Adverts Played At Specific Times................................................................................... 15

2.5.1.1 Add Advert Schedule ..................................................................................................... 16

2.5.1.2 Change Advert Name .................................................................................................... 18

2.5.1.3 View/Edit Advert Schedule ............................................................................................ 18

2.5.1.4 Delete Advert Schedule ................................................................................................. 19

2.5.1.5 Delete Advert ................................................................................................................ 19

2.5.1.6 Download Advert........................................................................................................... 20

2.5.1.8 Record Advert ................................................................................................................ 21

2.5.1.9 Advert Studio Wizard ..................................................................................................... 22

2.5.1.10 View Reserved Adverts .................................................................................................. 25

2.5.1.11 View Zone Advert Summary .......................................................................................... 26


2.5.2 Adverts Played At Specific Times................................................................................... 27

2.5.2.1 Make an Advert Active/Inactive .................................................................................... 28

2.5.2.2 Change Advert Frequency ............................................................................................. 28

2.6 Settings .................................................................................................................................. 29

2.8 Updates ................................................................................................................................. 31

2.9 Help ....................................................................................................................................... 32

2.10 Logout .................................................................................................................................... 32


COPYRIGHT

© Almotech 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means - electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise - without the prior written permission of Almotech Ltd.

DISCLAIMER

Almotech makes no representations or warranties with respect to the contents hereof and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Further Almotech reserve the right to revise this publication and to make changes from time to time in the contents hereof without the obligation of Almotech to notify any person of any such revision.

Document Conventions

Term Definition

MusicManager Web based application, allowing the user full control over the audio (music, advertising, radio) content at their premises.

Zonat / Player A multi-zone audio player located in the user’s premises capable of playing audio (music, advertising, radio) to 1-3 independent zones.


1. Introduction The Zon@t Retail Radio System from Almotech provides the user with complete control over the audio (music, advertising, radio) content provided in their premises via a simple web interface. It has the following features:

- Remote Control: Log into the MusicManager web application using a secure username and password from anywhere in the world

- Online Music Library: Customise your music collection with instant access to Almotech’s extensive online digital music library. You can select the album, artist or song required by browsing by genre or searching by keyword.

- Online Advertising: Providing a portal for customers who want to record or upload

audio marketing messages for inclusion in their daily play schedule. A user can select a advert, select the frequency at which it is played and the dates and times when it will become active. This is a powerful tool, providing a fully customizable in-store radio system which can be used for promoting your own products or selling air-time to other companies.

- Playlist Creator: Create your own custom playlists, listen to the music that you & your customers want, when you want it.

- Scheduler: Schedule a playlist to become active on a particular day/time e.g. schedule “Current Chart Hits” to become active in the Bar zone at 9:00pm on a Friday and Saturday evening.

- Dynamic System Playlists: A pre-created set of playlists from a range of different genres

are available for scheduling. System playlists are automatically be kept up to date with the latest chart releases e.g. Almotech Radio.

- Multi-Zone Player: Provides 3 different streams of music to 3 independent zones. It combines flexibility and reliability to provide you with the ultimate listening experience. It is controlled and updated remotely via the MusicManager web application

- The player does not require internet connectivity in order to play music, just switch it on and it will play music from the last updated schedule. An internet connection is required in order to update changes made via the remote MusicManager e.g. playlists and schedules.


2. MusicManager

2.1 Login

Log into the Zon@t MusicManager via the following link:

www.almotech.com/zonat

You are presented with the following screen:

Enter your username & password to continue.

If you are having any problems with the username/password contact support using the details provided.

2.2 Home Upon entry of a valid username & password you will be logged into the MusicManager and the following screen is displayed:

http://www.almotech.com/zonat


The screen contains 3 icons representing the main features within the MusicManager

o Playlists – a shortcut to the Playlists screen

o Scheduler – a shortcut to the Scheduler screen

o Advertising – a shortcut to the Advertising screen

2.3 Playlists The Playlists screen puts you in control of the type of music you want to play. You have the option of using pre-created system playlists or creating your own custom playlists using Almotech’s extensive online digital music database.

The Playlist manager has 4 main sections (highlighted above)

1. Playlists: A drop-down list containing system and user created playlists.

2. Tracks: A list of tracks within the currently selected playlist.


3. Search: A user can build their own playlists by searching Almotech’s online digital music database by All, Artist, Title, Album or Genre.

4. Catalog: Almotech’s digital music catalog displayed alphabetically. Tracks can be selected from an album and added to a playlist by clicking on the “Add Tracks” button

2.3.1 Add a Playlist

- Click on

- Enter the name of the new playlist and click

- The track list will be empty for newly created playlists

- Select tracks from the Music Catalog in order to add tracks to a playlist

2.3.2 Add Tracks to a Playlist

Select tracks from the Music Catalog, to add tracks to a playlist

You can browse the online digital music database using the following 3 methods:

a. Search By All


b. Search By Artist/Album or Track

Select the Search by criteria, enter the search text and click on Search

c. Browse the catalog alphabetically

Click on the letter of the Album name you wish to view.

Selecting all, displays all albums within the catalog starting numerically and then from A-Z.

You can browse within a selected letter using the buttons

d. View albums by Genre

Select from the Genre drop down list. All albums in the Almotech music catalog matching the genre will get displayed.

You can browse through the albums for a selected Genre by using the Prev & Next buttons.

You can view the tracks within an album by clicking on the arrow icon at the beginning of each row i.e. . Once selected the icon will change to a and all tracks within the album will be viewable.


In order to add individual tracks, click on the icon beside the tracks name:

In order to add all tracks on an album, click on the icon beside ‘All Tracks’

Note: You cannot add or remove tracks from a system playlist. In order to make changes to a system playlist see 2.3.3 Add/Remove Tracks from a System Playlist

2.3.2 Removing Tracks from a Playlist

Select the playlist to remove tracks from

Click on the icon in order to remove a track from the playlist

You can remove all tracks from a the current playlist section by clicking on the icon at the top of the playlist

2.3.3 Add/Remove Tracks from a System Playlist

You cannot add or remove tracks from a system playlist. You can however make a copy of the system playlist and change the copy by adding/removing tracks, as follows:


- Select the system playlist from the Playlists drop down list

- Click on

- Enter the name of the new playlist (‘Afternoon Hits’ in the example above) and click

on

- Now you have a personal ‘copy’ of the system playlist to add and remove tracks from.

2.3.4 Delete Playlist

Select the playlist to delete and click on

Note:

System Playlist playlists cannot be deleted. If you try, the following message will get displayed:

You cannot delete a playlist that is currently active within a schedule. If you try, the following message will get displayed:

2.4 Scheduler This screen lets you schedule the music that you want to listen to, when you want to listen to it.


The Scheduler has 3 main sections (highlighted above)

1. Select the zone to view, can support 1-3 zones (3 in above example)

2. See 2.4.1 Create a Schedule

3. A graphical representation of schedules within the current week.

Each weekday has a seperate column from left to right. The timeslots within each day run from the top of the column down starting from 00:00 to 23:59.

2.4.1 Create a Schedule

Click on to create a new schedule.

Enter the following schedule details:

o Start Time: schedule start time, in 30 minute slots


o End Time: schedule end time, in 30 minute slots

o Active Days: Day(s) of the week the schedule is active on, click on Every Day to select all days

o Type: Playlist or Radio station to play during the schedule period

o Mix: This option is available if Playlist is selected as type. It allows 2 playlists to be used within the same schedule slot. This can be very useful for holidays and special occasions where different types of music may be required in a schedule e.g. Christmas.

§ Select Playlist 1 e.g. Almotech Radio

§ Select Playlist 2 e.g. Christmas

§ Select the Mix Ratio, the default for this is 1:1. In the example above the ratio is 4:1, this means that for every 4 tracks played from Almotech Radio, 1 track will get played from Christmas.

Note:

If a track exists in both playlists only one of the tracks will get played

Playlists can have variable lengths/tracks

Playlists will be re-shuffled whenever all of their tracks are played

o Click to save the chosen schedule

The playlist will appear in the Schedule for the current zone. A brief summary of the schedule appears with the playlist e.g.

The following schedule tells us:

Playlist(s): Easy Listening (System) mixed with Christmas (System) Tracks: 728 - contained in playlists Playlist: 49hrs 48mins - duration of playlist(s) Schedule: 11hrs 0mins - duration of schedule Playlist doesn’t repeat: the schedule is less than the duration of the playlist(s) so it will not repeat within the schedule.


The size of the playlist is in proportion to the duration of the schedule playlist, e.g. if the playlist was scheduled for 4 hours it would cover a 4 hour time slot within the schedule window regardless of the actual duration of the playlist.

If the duration of the playlist is less than the schedule period, the playlist will repeat within the schedule e.g. a 2 hour playlist scheduled for 4 hours will get played twice.

Playlists are shuffled before each full track listing is played.

2.4.2 View/Edit/Delete a Schedule

Click on the schedule you want to edit within the Schedule window. The Add/Edit Schedule window is displayed.

You can change any of the previous schedule settings within this screen.

Click on to save changes and to exit

In order to remove the currently selected schedule click


2.5 Advertising This screen provides an interface for uploading and scheduling Adverts for inclusion in the play schedule. There are two methods for scheduling an advert:

Adverts Played At Specific Times

The advert is scheduled to play a number of times between a start and end date. When the advert is due to get played the currently music track is paused, the advert is played and the music track play is resumed.

see 2.5.1 Adverts Played At Specific Times

Adverts Played Between Tracks

The advert will get played at the end of each track or number of tracks as defined by the frequency setting.

see 2.5.2 Adverts Played Between Tracks

2.5.1 Adverts Played At Specific Times

The Adverts Played At Specific Times screen contains the following information:

1. List of adverts that have been uploaded to the site and their current status

Name: Name of the advert

Duration(secs): Duration/length in seconds of the advert

Scheduled: If the advert has a schedule which is currently active or will

be active in the future there will be a green tick here . If the advert has no schedules or there are schedules which have expired there will be no tick here.


Date Added: Date the advert was uploaded

Action: Play Advert (speakers required)

View / Edit /Delete Advert Schedules

Add Advert Schedule - see 2.5.1.1 Change Advert Name - see 2.5.1.2 View/Edit Advert Schedule - see 2.5.1.3 Delete Advert Schedule - see 2.5.1.4

Delete Advert - see 2.5.1.5

Download Advert - see 2.5.1.6

2. Upload Advert - see 2.5.1.7

Record Advert - see 2.5.1.8

Advert Studio Wizard -see 2.5.1.9

View Reserved Adverts - see 2.5.1.10

3. View Zone Advert Summary - see 2.5.1.11

4. Reserved Advert Slots - see 2.5.1.12

2.5.1.1 Add Advert Schedule

To add a schedule to an advert:

1. Click on the edit icon of the advert you want to add a schedule to

2. A window will appear with containing the advert name and any existing schedules.

3. Click on to add a new advert schedule

4. The Add/Edit Advert Schedule expands to show the following:


Active Zones: select the Zones that the advert will be active in

Start Date: date when the Advert will start playing

End Date: date when the Advert will stop playing

Active Days: days that the advert will be active in

Type: There are two methods by which an advert can be scheduled

Play once only: Play the advert at a particular time e.g. play a “this store will be closing in 10 minutes” message at 5:50pm every day to tell customers that the store will be closing soon.

• Select the time when the advert will get played

Play during time period: Play the advert a number of times within a time range e.g. play an advertisement message 3 times per hour

• Select the Start time & End time

• Select the Frequency / number of times that the advert should play within the time range.

• Select the time range within which the advert will play, i.e. number of times per hour Or number of times between Start time and End time

Note: A maximum of 20 adverts can be scheduled to play per hour with the Minimum Advert Gap set to 3 (see Settings Screen) this is the system default.


e.g. A maximum of 30 adverts can be scheduled to play per hour with the Minimum Advert Gap set to 2 i.e. 60 / 2 = 30

5. Click on to save the new advert schedule

The new schedule appears in the Schedule window for the current advert

If the advert has been scheduled for the current day, the Zone Summary (right side of screen) is updated to display the actual times when the advert will get played at the site – see 2.5.1.11 View Zone Advert Summary

2.5.1.2 Change Advert Name

1. Click on the edit icon of the advert to change its name

2. A window will appear containing the advert name and any existing schedules.

3. Change the name of the Advert and click to save the change

Note: If the advert has a schedule(s) associated with it you will need to close the schedule window before you can edit the advert name.

2.5.1.3 View/Edit Advert Schedule

1. Click on the edit icon of the advert / schedule you wish to view/edit



3. Click on the edit icon of the schedule you wish to view/edit

4. Changes to the advert schedule can be made using the same process as described in 2.5.3 Add Advert Schedule.

Note: If an advert has only one schedule associated with it, it will automatically open the schedule.

2.5.1.4 Delete Advert Schedule

1. Click on the edit icon of the advert / schedule you wish to delete


3. Click on the delete icon of the advert schedule you wish to delete

4. The Zone Summary (rightmost column) will be updated to reflect the change, if the advert was scheduled for the current day/week

2.5.1.5 Delete Advert

In order to delete an advert from a site:


1. Click on the next to the Advert you want to delete from the Adverts list. The following window will appear:

2. Click on to delete the currently selected advert and any schedules associated with it from the site.

The Advert will be removed from the Adverts list.

2.5.1.6 Download Advert

In order to download the selected advert to your local PC:

- Click on the next to the Advert you want to download.

2.5.1.7 Upload Advert

To upload a new advert:

1. Click on

2. The following window will appear:

3. Click on


4. Select the advert file (with .mp3 extension) from your local computer to upload it to the

site and click on . The selected advert(s) will get uploaded to the site.

o Select multiple files by keeping the Ctrl key pressed

o 1-5 Adverts can be uploaded at any one time

o Click to clear a single advert or to clear all adverts

5. Once the file is fully uploaded, it will appear in the list of available adverts. The list is ordered by the date added, so the most recently uploaded advert will appear first in the list:

2.5.1.8 Record Advert

To record an advert:

1. Click on

2. The following window will appear:

3. Click to start recording the advert

4. Click to stop recording the advert

5. Click to listen back to the recording

6. Click to clear a recording and start again

Note: You can edit the recording e.g. remove gaps at the beginning or end of an advert as follows:

- select the portion to remove with the left mouse button in the example below a gap at the end is selected


- right click on the selected portion and click on Delete Selection to remove the portion from the advert

7. Enter the Name of the Advert e.g. Join our Christmas Club

8. Click on to upload the advert to the site

2.5.1.9 Advert Studio Wizard

Provides the ability to add a more professional / studio finish to the vocals of a recorded advert as follows:

1. Click on

2. Step 1 of 5 : Select an advert

- Click on the advert you want to add sound effects to and click


3. Step 2 of 5 : Add a header

- Note: This step is optional. The header is played before an advert is played. It can be a familiar jingle that is associated with the corporate brand or a noise to get your customers attention e.g. Paging Bell.

- Click on the header you want to get played before the advert is played and click

4. Step 3 of 5 : Add a backing track


- Note: This step is optional. A backing track can be used to provide a more professional finish to the vocals of a recorded advert. The backing track gets mixed into background of the advert vocals.

- Click on the backing track that will get mixed with the recorded advert a

button appears once a backing track has been selected

- Fade out (secs): number of seconds to fade out the backing track after the advert has been played, default 2

- Backing track volume: volume of backing track that will be mixed with the advert vocals, default 5

- Vocals volume: volume of advert vocals that will be mixed with the backing track, default 5

- Create Preview: Click on to create a preview of the advert with the selected backing track and settings. Click on to listen to the preview.

- Select a backing track and click

5. Step 4 of 5 : Add a footer

- Note: This step is optional. An ending can be used to add a corporate tagline or jingle that customers would normally expect to hear at the end of your advert.

- Select a footer and click


6. Step 5 of 5 : Check result and update

- Click on the button to listen to the end result.

- Click to save the changes to the advert or to cancel

- If Apply is clicked and the advert is currently scheduled, the player attached to this site will get updated with the new advert. A copy of the original advert will get saved to .old so the original will still be available.

2.5.1.10 View Reserved Adverts

This button is available if the site has been configured for reserved adverts. If the site is configured for reserved adverts, a number of slots will be pre-reserved for scheduling of adverts by the multisite user. It is not possible to schedule adverts in a pre-reserved slot as a standard user.

1. Click on

2. The following screen will appear if there are reserved adverts for this site:


- Click on to listen to the advert

Advert: Name of the reserved advert

Start Date / Time: Date / Time when the advert will start playing

End Date / Time: Date/ Timewhen the advert will stop playing

Frequency: Frequency advert will play at e.g. 4 times per hour

2.5.1.11 View Zone Advert Summary

This column displays the times that adverts will be played for each zone within the range of 1 week, starting from the current day.

1. Select the zone at the top of the table to view the advert times for the current day

2. Select the day within the range of a week for the current zone

Advert times are in the 24hr clock format and start from 00:00 for the current day/zone.


2.5.2 Adverts Played At Specific Times

The Adverts Played At Specific Times screen contains the following information:

1. List of adverts that have been uploaded to the site and their current status

Name: Name of the advert

Duration(secs): Duration/length in seconds of the advert

Active: If the advert is active in a zone there will be a green tick here

Note: Only one active advert will get played between tracks. If there are a number of adverts active within a particular zone each advert will get played sequentially in the listed order.

Date Added: Date the advert was uploaded to the site

Action: Play the advert (speakers required)

View / Edit /Delete Advert

Change Advert Name - see 2.5.1.4 Make an Advert Active/Inactive – see 2.5.2.1

Delete the Advert

Delete Advert – see 2.5.1.7


2. Uploading/Record an advert for the site

Upload Advert - see 2.5.1.1

Record Advert - see 2.5.1.2

3. Set the amount of tracks that get played before an advert is played.

Change Advert Frequency - see 2.5.2.2

2.5.2.1 Make an Advert Active/Inactive

In order to set an advert as active/inactive for a particular zone:

1. Click on the edit icon of the advert from the list. The following window appears:

2. Active Zones: Select the zones that the advert will become active/inactive in

3. Click on to save any changes

Note: If the Advert Frequency is 0 the advert will not play at the site

2.5.2.2 Change Advert Frequency

In order to change the advert play frequency:

1. Select the frequency that you want advert(s) played from the drop down list, i.e.

2. Click on in order to save changes

Note: If the Advert Frequency is 0 the advert will not play at the site


2.6 Settings This screen contains current system configuration details.

Status:

Status of the site

Ok – Working as expected

Warning – the Zonat at the site has not connected back to

the server within the expected timeout limit

Error – there is a problem with the Zonat at the site

Inactive – the Zonat is inactive

Last Access Time: The last time the Zonat at the site contacted the server

Location: Location of the site

Version: Version of the software running on the Zonat

Currently Playing: The playlist and track currently playing on each zone of the Zonat

Empty schedules play: Contains a drop-down list of system playlists. If there are blanks in the schedule this playlist will get played.


Block explicit lyrics: When checked, tracks with explicit lyrics will not appear for selection within the music catalogue in the Playlists screen. This prevents, accidentally adding tracks containing explicit lyrics to scheduled playlists.

Shuffle all playlists: When checked, tracks contained in playlists are shuffled before they are played on the player. If not selected, tracks are played sequentially in playlists.

Min Advert Gap (mins): This is the minimum amount of time between adverts.

If set to 1, 60 Adverts can be scheduled for play in an hour, 2 would allow 30 adverts and so on.

Note: This is not editable if an advert is currently scheduled. All advert schedules need to be removed in order to change this setting.

Radio News Bulletins: Use this option to listen to radio news bulletins. A number of bulletins can be scheduled throughout the day. When it is time to play a news bulletin, the music is stopped and the radio stream is played. When the duration of the news bulletin is complete, the music is started again.

Play News Bulletins: Select this option in order to activate news bulletins

Duration (min): Set the duration in minutes of the news bulletin

Station: Set the station of the news bulletin

Zones: Zones that the news bulletin will get played in

Note: If there is only one zone it will automatically get selected.

Start Times: Times when the bulletin will get played

Adding A Time: Enter the time and click

Note: Keep the Recur Hourly: box checked in order to add the same timeslot for every hour in the day.

Removing A Time: Select the time from the Start Times list and click Clear.

Note: Click Clear All to remove all times from the list

Zones

Name: The name of the current zone


Music Volume: The level that music will get played at in the current zone.

Advert Volume: The level that adverts will get played at in the current zone.

Radio Volume: The level that radio will get played at in the current zone.

Apply Save any changes made

Revert Discard and changes made and revert to the previous settings

2.8 Updates As playlist, schedule and advertising changes are made in the MusicManager, the messages are queued for collection by the Zonat (player) and are visible within this screen. The Zonat checks for messages from the MusicManager server at regular intervals and downloads any updates found. The screen is provided for informational purposes, no changes can be made to the content provided.

When all updates have been sent to the player or no changes are pending, the following screen will be displayed:


2.9 Help This screen provides links to video tutorials and this file. If you have any further questions or queries, you can contact us directly using the details provided.

2.10 Logout Clicking on logout will return you to the login screen.

Documents

ZON@T IN-STORE RADIO SYSTEM - music.almotech.commusic.almotech.com/RemoteMusicManager/pdf/userguide.pdf · become active. This is a powerful tool, providing a fully customizable in-store