Planet Christmas Radio during no-show hours

[josh3955]

I apologize if this is already covered somewhere, but I didn't have much luck searching for it in the forum.

Is there a way in S3 to have planet Christmas Radio (or really any windows media player playlist) play when the show is not running?

[KenL_MCSE]

As far as I know your options to have radio playing during off show hours are Zara radio or to make daytime sequences the do not have any lighting effect.

[Greg]

I do this using Zara, After my show is finished Zara kicks in and plays for 2 hours then Zara connects to planet christmas radio and plays from midnight till 6 am

[beeiilll]

I too use Zara for this as well.
I run Christmas music suring the day whenever the show is not running with weather and show announcements every 1/2 hour during the day. Zara then shuts down during the show and picks back up after,
Couldn't be simpler and Zara will let you broadcast radio or satellite if you want as well.

[Guest wbottomley]

I use Zara as well but with my own music. I don't wont the Christmas ghost to haunt my display for airing PC radio.

[JBullard]

:):):):):):)

[josh3955]

Seems one can use a windows script in a show with no lights to make a call to windows media player. Going to x-periment.......

[Paul Roberson]

wbottomley wrote:

I use Zara as well but with my own music. I don't wont the Christmas ghost to haunt my display for airing PC radio.

I do the same here.

[josh3955]

Well that was actually pretty easy.

You will need an Advanced License to use Windows Shell commands.

I created two animation sequences, each only 10 seconds long with no lights.

I then created a batch file to call windows media player and pass it the playlist for planetchristmas...you can use any playlist you want really.

I created a second batch file to kill media player.

I then created a show for each sequence...start and close.

I then added those two shows to the schedule. Setting them to only run for 10 seconds. (do not want to send the commands a second time)

It is helpful to actually open the playlist first and make sure you answer all media player's questions so it will no longer prompt you on open for anything.


I have zipped up all the goods for this. To use it, you'll need to copy the contents to c:xmasdev (if you put elsewhere, then you'll need to adjust the batch files and the commands below accordingly.)

In the file start-PCR.las set a windows shell command to c:xmasdevstart.bat with a normal windowfocus setting

In the file close.las set a windows shell command to c:xmasdevclose.bat with a normal windowfocus setting.

In scheduler you'll be adding two separate shows, one to start the playlist and one to stop it. Make sure the schedule for each show is no longer than 0:10 (10 seconds) to keep from sending the commands more than once. Set the "close" show just before your main sequence starts up.

Attached files xmasDEV.zip

[Steven]

josh3955 wrote:

In scheduler you'll be adding two separate shows, one to start the playlist and one to stop it.

As an alternative to separate shows, you could add the "Stop Media Player" sequence to the "Startup" tab of your main show, and the "Play Planet Christmas" to the "Shutdown" tab of your main show.

[josh3955]

Good idea! The intro sequence on the main show could be used to stop it! Unless you want it to stop at some other point, then you would need a separate show.

Great enhancement to the idea.