Setting up automatic recording of live shows in Myriad 5 Playout

Modified on Tue, 24 Sep at 12:56 PM

If you need to regularly extract shows from your broadcast to use them again or publish them on a 3rd party platform, we would recommend looking at Myriad 5 Logging (Myriad 5 Logging (broadcastradio.com)) as a practical long term solution as Myriad Logging records all station output and can be set to automatically extract sections from the log and place them in a folder (that can be auto-imported) or even publish them to MixCloud.

If Myriad 5 Logging is not an option then an alternative is to use a Command Media Item to record into a specified Media ID and then schedule that command to be the first item in the hour you are wanting to record. You will also need a second Command Media Item to stop recording which can be placed as the list item in the Log to finish and save the recording.

Here is how!

The Theory

Let's say you have a live show for an hour at 1pm on a Tuesday that you want to repeat again on a Thursday at 1pm. You will need to record the complete audio for the show (both Myriad and voice) so your Myriad system should be set to record from an audio device that is being fed 'station output' from your mixing console.

In order to automate the process for recording the 1pm show on a Tuesday then replaying that recording at 1pm on Thursday, you would need to follow these steps:

Create a Command Media item (we will call this the Record Trigger) that, when triggered' will start recording immediately into a specified second Media ID (we will call this the Recorded Show).
Create a second Command Media item (we will call the the Stop Recording Trigger) that stops and saves the recording.
Place 'Recording Trigger' Media ID as the very first item in the Clock / Log for the show at 1pm on Tuesday.
Place the 'Stop Record Trigger' Media ID as the last item in the Clock / Log for the show at 1pm on Tuesday.
In the Clock / Log for 1pm Thursday, only place one item in the Clock which is the Media ID that you set the Record Trigger to record into, this will be the hour long recording.
Each week the cycle repeats.

Creating the 'Record Trigger' Command Media Item

You will need to create a separate Command Media Item for each recording you intent to make as this Command will always record into the same Media ID.

Edit an empty Media item.
Give it a suitable title.
Click on the Command button on the Media Item Type selector.
Add the follow text into the Command Script area.
```
Recorders.RecordItem(-1,1,4205,Immediately)
```
When triggered, this will start recording immediately into Media ID 4205.
Save and close the Media Item.

Changing the Title, Artists & Description

The above sequence we result in Myriad recording into the selected Media item but the Title / Artists will be set to the date and time you recorded. You may wish to instead, change these to be a more appropriate Title / Artist / Description. If you are using Myriad v5.27 or later then there is an additional Command you can add to the Record Trigger to also rename the Title, Artists and Description fields.

The Command you need to add is:

Recorders.SetItemDetails(stationId,recorderIndex,title,artistName,itemDescription)

So in the example below we have added this Command to the Record Trigger as a second line. As before we need to set the Station ID (to -1) and Recorder Reference (to1), then just type in the Title, Artist and Description we want to use. These will be written to the Media ID once it is saved.

Creating the 'Stop Record Trigger' Command Media Item

You only need to create one of these even if you are recording multiple shows as the Recorders.CloseAndSave Command works on the Recorder, not a specific Media Item!

Edit an empty Media item.
Give it a suitable title.
Click on the Command button on the Media Item Type selector.
Add the follow text into the Command Script area.
```
Recorders.CloseAndSave(-1,1)
```
When triggered, the Command will stop recording and save to the designated Media ID (in the recorder).
Save and close the Media Item.

Putting it together in a Clock

Now that we have a Command that will start recording into Media ID 4205, all we need to do is place the Start and Stop Record Trigger Commands at the start of the Clock that will be used at 1pm Tuesday to start recording at the start of the hour and stop and save at the end of the hour. We also need to create a new Clock to be used at 1pm on Thursday which only includes Media ID 4205.

Tuesday 1PM Clock

Open the existing Clock for 1pm on Tuesday and add a Basic Media item to be the very first thing in the Clock, this will start the recording as soon as the hour in the Log starts. Double click on it and set the Media ID to the ID you created the Start Record Command in (4200 in this example).

Scroll down to the end of the Clock and place another Basic Media Item as the final item in the Clock and set that to be the Stop Record Trigger Command you created (4201 in this example).

Make sure the Clock is assigned to the 1pm hour on Tuesday.

Thursday 1PM Clock

Create a new Advanced Clock which will only contain one it which is the Media ID that the show was recorded into (4205 in this example).

And assign that Clock to the correct slot on the Clock Assignment Grid.

That should then automatically record the live show on Tuesday between 1 and 2pm and then play the resulting recording at 1pm on Thursday.

Other Considerations

There are a few things you need to consider when determining whether this method will work for you:

You will need to create a Record Command Trigger item for each show you want to record in this manner along with assigning a corresponding Media ID for the recording.
When the recorded show is played, no meta data will be displayed in your web player or other platforms that display metadata. This information was lost when the recording was made.
The name for the recorded item will be the time and date that was recorded unless you add the additional Record.SetDetails Command (as outlined above).
If the show is automated or voice tracked then you will be better looking using the Repeat Hour From Log method Automatically Repeating Hours From Your Log – Broadcast Radio Help.
You need to ensure the record device setting in Media Engine Settings is set to a device that is fed mixing desk output.

If you are needing to regularly record and use sections from your station output, you may be better talking to Broadcast Radio about Myriad 5 Logging.

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