Using commands to set Now Playing information for the duration of a show

Modified on Tue, 24 Sep at 12:56 PM

If you are playing a pre-recorded show or broadcasting from a live source, you may want to force the Now Playing information to remain throughout the show or broadcast.

Let's say you are taking a pre-recorded 1 hour show (with no cue sheet file). Rather than displaying the Media Item title, you may prefer to use a command that is scheduled in the Log to force the Now Playing to be what you want, then disable further updates for the duration of the show.

The process would be:

Force the Now Playing to whatever your like (i.e. The Big show with Bob).
Disable further Now Playing updates.
Play your pre-recorded show or live event.
Re-enable normal Now Playing updates.
Continue with your normal programming.

This process can be achieved with two simple Command Media Items.

The first Command Media Item will be used to set the Now Playing information and then disable further Now Playing updates.

The image above shows the Command Media Item you would need to achieve this sequence. Follow these steps to create the Command Media Item

Edit a blank Media ID.
Give it a suitable title (eg Set now playing to Bobs show).
Change the Media Item Type to Command.
Expand the All Commands > On Aire option on the left hand navigator and then double click on the SetNowPlayingPlain option to add that to the Command window.

Change the stationID to the Station ID for the Station you are working on (-1 will use the default).

Set the mediaID value to 0. If you set this to anything other than 0 it will read the title from that Media ID.

Change the itemTitle field to be the title you want to use (eg The Big Show).

Change the firstArtistName field to be the artists name you want to use (eg Bob).

Change the itemType field to be Song so OCP will update our Outputs as if it is a Song.

So the finished Command line should look like this.
```
OnAir.SetNowPlayingPlain(0,0,"The Big Show","Bob",Song)
```
This Command will set the Title to 'The Big Show' and First ArtistsName to 'Bob' but we still have to disable updates otherwise OCP will overwrite this information at the next segue.
On the left hand navigator, double click on All Commands > On Air > DisableNowPlaying. This will add a second Command to the Command Window.

Set the stationID field to be the same as in the previous Command.
```
OnAir.DisableNowPlaying(0)
```
The first Command Media Item in complete, click on the Save button and close the Edit Window.

Before we test this, we should create a second Command Media Item that will re-enable the Now Playing updates.

Follow the same steps as before to create a new Command Media Item, title it appropriately and add the follow Command to the Command window. All Commands > On Air > EnableNowPlaying.

OnAir.EnableNowPlaying(0)

Make sure the stationID is set to the same as previously!

Now that you have the Command Media Items to manually update Now Playing and stop updates (and enable them of course), you can test it out by double clicking on the Command Media Items on the Media Wall and checking OCP for the 'Now Playing' information.

In the example above, you can see that a song by Ronan Keating is playing in the Dashboard and that OCP has that listed as the 'Now Playing item.

Double click on the 'Set Now Playing - Bobs Show' Media Item will trigger the commands. You can see from the above screen shot that Ronan Keating is still playing but now OCP is shows 'The Big Show by Bob' as it's Now Playing item.

If we allow the Log to continue to play, when it moves on to the next item in the Log (Lady Gaga), normally OCP would update the Now Playing item but you can see from the screen shot above that 'The Big Show by Bob' is still listed as the now playing item.

If you look carefully at the information area in the top right corner, you will see that the On Air status panel has an icon. This warns you that OCP is currently not being updated! You can hover your mouse over the icon to learn more.

Next, let's test that the second Command Media Item will re-enable OCP updates.

Double click on the Media Item to trigger the command.

You will notice the icon is no longer on the On Air status panel and that the Now Playing in OCP is now correctly displaying the correct information (Jess Glynne). Please note that running the Re-Enable OCP Command Media Item will re-enable OCP but OCP will not be updated until the next segue as OCP is only updated when information changes.

Now that you know how to create Command Media Items to force Now Playing and disable updates, you can create more to cover all of your pre-rec shows (the same re-enable Command Media Item can be used for them all).

To incorporate these into your Log for automatic use, all you need to do is add the appropriate Command Media Items to the beginning and end of Clocks for pre-recorded shows.

In the example Clock above, the first Media Item will trigger the Command to set the Now Playing and disable updates.

You can then add all the normal content for your Clock (a pre-rec Media Item in this case).

Finally, make sure you use your second Command Media Item to re-enable OCP updates at the end of the Clock.

Tip: If you use this technique a lot then it may be a good idea to add the Re-Enable OCP command Media Item at the beginning of all Clocks as it will not hurt to run the command if OCP updates are already enabled!