Power-Merge for ENCO* and DADPro
* Trademark Enco America, Farmington Hills, MI
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PM - Version 3.5 - The perfect companion for Voice Tracking and Advance Playlist Assembly!
Sample POWER-MERGE Edit session with a Music format.
For over 10 years in America's top radio markets, Power-Merge (by Power-Link Systems) has provided robust software and solutions for many of America's radio stations scheduling and reconciling from their ENCO system. This software was designed much in part for the Susquehanna Radio Corporation with their divers formats who needed quite different processes to make them schedule properly. From the World Series to Music stations PM is adaptable to all.
While PM pulled all the programming together for the final playlist, Susquehanna Radio was referred to by Insider Radio as "one of the most efficient and well operated radio chains in the the USA. From the simple task of integrating commercials and music to the complex task of conditioning play-lists for sports and news/talk formats, Power-Merge provides the expertise and software to perform these tasks in a easy to use, intuitive manner.
Also, we'd like to thank one of the most proficient ENCO users, Miss Hilly Palmer now with ESPN radio's uplink site in Connecticut. While at ESPN and formerly with KSTP AM-FM in Minneapolis, she contributed to the ideas and testing of new functionality.
With Power-Merge, you command where and how music, commercials, programs and liners fall into the final playlist file. Power-Merge supplements your music compiler to get your station compiled with the correct ENCO schedule coding (e.g.: auto starts, update events, segue-patterning, "over-plays" of voice tracks etc). Power-Merge writes directly to the source playlist file so it takes advantage of the many controls found in ENCO's powerful playlist system. Check it out today and see why the most demanding ENCO users are using Power-Merge!
Many Other features in Power-Merge are sure to get your show on the air!
Fully Supports Voice Tracking and allows user to place a "music only" playlist into ENCO for voice work to be done by jocks, then when Traffic is ready the (now voice tracked) playlist is brought back and traffic is merged in. This combined with a full playlist file back up system is the perfect companion for ENCO users who want a "live like" voice tracking along with many other controls Power-Merge allows over the playlist. See the procedure of events below.
Working Overview:
Well in advance to the broadcast day the music director puts the music through Power-Merge and exports it to a "reloadable" playlist (named KXXXmmdd.dbf) it is placed in the playlist directory and re-plist is called to attach it. Over the next days the voice tracking is done. After the jock tracking is done the reloadable playlist (saved containing the jock trax) is then backed up (placing a copy in a folder named WORKBKUP under the PLAYLIST folder) and the AUTO-MERGE process begins as outlined below.
Click here to see the specific (and technical) version updates and changes.
PM Version 4 introduced a larger record size for each event and most of the current continuity checks and reports against a common or specific cuts.dbf file.
In PM version 3 the all-in-one (AUTO-MERGE) export function performs:
1. Loads the content
of a reloadable playlist (that has the voice trax in it) or a raw
music export from your compiler.
2. Merges in the new Traffic file for that day.
3. Merges any template (now you can assign a template for each day
of the week) that you have configured,
4. Processes the placement of spots into the traffic break
commands (spot catchers)
5. Processes the fill breaks (padding out spot sets to the correct
length)
6. Processes the segues (according to what pattern you want for
that hour and day),
7. Places the configured end-of-hour soft branches into the hours
that you have configured.
8. Refreshes, packs and indexes its own copy of cuts.dbf
9. Retrieves the actual durations of the cuts from cuts.dbf
10. Recalculates the time stamps on all events based on what is
now actually in the playlist (now that spots are there)
11. Provides an on-screen and/or printed report of the (playable)
cuts that are currently NOT found in the database.
the user then can look over the playlist and export it to a final playlist which is also backed up in a (PM made) folder PLSTBKUP under the \DAD\FILES\PLAYLIST folder for easy retrieval if it is needed.
Feature Details:
The use of programming templates makes scheduling possibilities virtually limitless. Templates are designed by the user and contain any type of programming structure. Templates are merged into schedules when needed.
Power-Merge features a continuity checking system to make sure that each commercial or element scheduled is recorded and available in (cuts.dbf) your playback system and are not out-of-date. During the AUTO-MERGE process (or performed manually) Power-Merge checks CUTS.dbf (the DAD audio data base) and reports any playable cuts that are not currently found.
Power-Merge places the proper branching commands insuring that ENCO consistently updates at the end of
each hour. This assures that the proceeding hour starts with the correct events.
In the event of major traffic revisions the playlist can at any
time, be pulled back into the editor and either edit traffic events
one by one, a group change or a full replacement of the traffic
schedule is possible without disturbing the music and voice tracked
contents.
Segue control is flexible, powerful and can be customized to your particular needs. ENCO and Power-Merge allow you to take full control of every hour of the week.
Power-Merge allows the user to declare which carts are to be overplayed. Then Power-Merge is able to calculate and show the placement of overplay cuts using policies setup by the user.
Special export - import routines allow users to create a more perfect live sound when fully automating. Power-Merge works with the ENCO voice tracking system to provide a state-of-the-art playlist preparation suite of software. Announcer breaks can be recorded (days) before the play-list goes to air, with the music content available to them to perfectly edit the overlays of audio. Then the day before broadcast the playilst will then merge in the fresh order of commercials.
When Network formats dictate that the local station fill a predetermined spot-set duration, Power-Merge's "Must-Fill Breaks" feature automatically fills required spot breaks with "filler carts". Each spot-set is individually filled so that the amount of time and the sequence of events are controlled.
Dynamic Carts enhance the programming ability especially for stations that call upon certain audio events whose airplay is contingent upon a certain time of day or sequential count. Dynamic carts are often used to place announcer liners, news, weather, or time checks and reduces much preparation time to accomplish and maintain the task.
Printing of the entire play-list. This creates a flowchart of music, commercials, and all other program elements. No more need for side by side logs.
Sample POWER-MERGE used in satellite format:
