GUI

In this section of the configuration you can adjust the appearence of the graphical user interface (GUI) of mAirList.

General

On the General tab, the following settings can be adjusted:

  • Window position: Choose whether the main window should appear maximized on one of the available monitors, or use the default position (which will possibly be remembered when you close and re-open the software, see option below).
  • Show GUI in language: mAirList comes with a number of international translations, selecting the appropriate one according to your Windows locale settings. If you want to override this automatic selection, choose a specific language from the dropdown list.
  • Global progress bar interval: This is how often the progress bar is updated. A shorter interval will result in a smoother display, but also higher CPU load.
  • Clock time format: Select the display format for the clock; the default is tt which corresponds to the default time display format from the Windows local settings. You can override it using the same variables as available for logging.

Additionally, the following options are available:

  • Remember window size and position: If enabled, mAirList will remember the last window size and position when you close the software, and restore it in the same place when you re-open it.
  • Show status bar: Controls whether the status bar (with last log error/warning, ON AIR status and current time) will be displayed in the main window.
  • Show close confirmations if there are active players: If enabled, an additional warning will be displayed when the user tries to exit the software while there are players playing on air.
  • Minimize to try: If enabled, the software will move its icon away from the taskbar to the Windows tray when the application window is minimized.
  • Use small icons: when checked, the toolbar of the main window uses smaller icons, which can save some space on smaller displays.
  • Use separate tabs for playlists: When more than one playlist is configured, they are usually displayed below each other (or side by side, see next option). With this option enabled, they will be presented on separate tabs instead.
  • Side-by-side alignment of playlists: Check this option if you want the playlists to be displayed side by side, rather than below each other.

Browser

The options and settings on this page refer to the browser part of the main playout window.

  • Use full height for the browser: If enabled, the browser will use the full height of the right hand side of the playout window, making the players less wide.
  • Show Browser button in toolbar: If enabled, a Browser button is displayed in the toolbar which can be used to show/hide the browser.
  • Visible at startup: Check this option to display the browser by default when the software starts. If unchecked, the user must click the Browser button first to display it.
  • Use a separate window for the browser: With this option, the browser can be detached from the main window, and displayed in its own separate window.
  • Separate browser window is always on top: If enabled, the separate browser window will always be on top of the main window.
  • Allow stack of panes to be minimized: If enabled, the user can minimize browser tabs with the mouse, turning them into small side-by-side buttons, to save screen space.
  • Show panes as tabs: This option will use plain Windows-style tabs for the browser tabs, rather than the default panes.
  • Show file durations (may be slow): If enabled, mAirList will read out the duration of all files in directory browsers.
  • Auto update folder contents: If enabled, mAirList will update the contents of directory browser regularly.
  • Folder browsers are read only: By default, the directory browsers have a context menu that mimics the behavior of Windows Explorer, and also allow drag/drop of files to copy or move them. Check this option to disabled these features and make the directory browsers entire reay-only.
  • Disable Windows Explorer colors: Check this option to disabled coloring of files in directory browsers according to Windows Explorer settings.
  • Keep search history: If enabled, a dropdown with the most recently used search terms will be available in the Database Search browser.
  • Enable autocompletion for search history: This option enabled autocompletion in the search history of the Database Search browser.

Cue Editor

This section provides settings for the Cue Editor, both in the Item Properties dialog, and in the PFL window that appears when a player is started in PFL mode.

On the Favorites tab, you can select the most frequently used cue marker types. If one or more type is selected, a new tab labeled Favorites is displayed in the Cue Editor with only these types, and the complete list of markers is displayed on another tab labeled All.

On the Options tab, you can enabled “Stutter” mode, which will repeatedly play a small part of the audio as you edit a cue marker, similar to the function found in DJ CD players.

The options on the Waveform tab control the appearance and behavior of the waveform in the Cue Editor. See the Common Settings section for a description of the various options.

Progress Bar

The options on this tab control the “global” progress bar displayed below the playlists. See the Common Settings section for a description of the available options.

Item Colors

On this tab, you can define colors for playlist items, based on their item type (music, jingle, advertising, etc.). These colors will be used when no specific color is defined or a particular item in its properties.

Screen Objects

Screen objects allow you to add additional elements (buttons, labels, utilities, …) to the playout window.

To add a new screen object, use the Add button and select the desired type from the dropdown list. To edit the properties of an existing object, double-click it, or select it from the list and click Configure.

The order of the screen objects can be rearranged by dragging items around with the mouse; this will also affect the order in which they are displayed in the playout GUI.

Common Settings

On the Advanced tab of the screen object properties dialog, there are some settings that are common to all or some types of screen objects:

  • Position: Select whether the screen objects should be displayed above or below the browser, or in a separate Tools window that can be accesses through the Tools button in the main toolbar (only visible when at least one screen object is set to Tools Window). You can also select the alignment within the Tools window.
  • Automatically hide or minimize: Some screen object types can automatically hide themselves in situations where there is no information to display. For example, the Countdown to next event object can hide itself when there are no upcoming events. Check this option to enable this automatic hiding. The option is grayed out for those objects that don’t support it.
  • Border: mAirList can display an optional border around the object. To enable the border, set the border width greater than 0, and select the desired color.
  • Remote ID: Some screen object types can process remote control commands. For example, the Extended Button object can receive a PRESS command that simulates a click. To enable processing of remote control commands, you must configure a remote ID for that screen object, which will serve as the prefix for the remote control commands. It should be in all capital letters or digits, and should not contain spaces. For example, when you set MYBUTTON as the remote ID, the resulting command will be MYBUTTON PRESS. A list of supported commands is given in the description of the various screen objects below. Please note that, due to the dynamic nature of these commands, they will not appear in the command selection dropdown list of the remote control configuration.

For all text-based and button screen objects (e.g. “Date or time”), the font, font color background color and text alignmenet can be adjusted and previewed on the Appearance page.

Streaming Encoder Status

This screen object displays the the status of the encoder and allows the user connect or disconnect the encoder, and toggle the live (LINE and MIC) inputs.

For more information, see the description of the screen object in the Encoder chapter.

Date or Time

This screen object displays the current date or time, according to the time format which is specified in Delphi’s FormatDateTime formatting. See here for a list of possible formatting variables.

If you want to display static text before or after the time string, enter it into the text format field, and use %s as the placeholder for the actual time string.

LED Clock

This screen object contains a studio-style LED clock. You can adjust the colors for both the dots and the clock background.

Countdown to Top of the Hour

This screen object displays the remaining time until the top of the hour (xx:00:00). The format settings are the same as those for the Date or Time screen object.

Player Countdown

This screen object displays a countdown for the active player. You can choose from the following countdown types:

  • Remaining time
  • Elapsed time
  • Total duration
  • Remaining ramp
  • EOF warning
  • Remaining time to outro

The format settings are the same as those for the Date or Time screen object.

Comment Viewer

This screen object displays the value of the Comment field of the item currently selected in the playlist.

On Air Status

This screen object shows the current ON AIR status (ON AIR or OFF AIR). Fonts and colors can be set individually for both states.

On Air Switch

The same as On Air Status, but you can toggle between ON AIR and OFF AIR by clicking the screen object.

Simple Button

This screen object displays a single Windows-style button. When the user clicks the button, the Actions configured on the Actions tab are executed.

Extended Button

This screen object provides a button with a number of configurable options.

The button can either be a “simple” click button (actions from the Action tab are executed when clicked), or a “toggle” button (button can be toggled between “active” and “inactive”).

You can freely configure the texts and apperance used for each of the possible states (inactive, active, disabled, disabled+active). The default text will be used for all states that don’t have a specific text set.

If the button is configured as a “toggle” button, it will execeute the appropriate action list from the Action tab when it is activated or deactivated, and the following additional options are available:

  • Active at startup: Check if you want the button to be active when the software is started.
  • Execute actions when toggled remotely: Determines whether the action lists should be executed when the button is toggled from a remote control command (see below).
  • Status controlled by script: If checked, the button will not toggle its status on its own when clicked, but only execute the action lists; its state can only be toggled from a remote control command (see below). This can be used for interactions with scripts when you want the button to toggle only if the script processed the action/command successfully.

In order to control the button through remote control commands, set a Remote ID on the Advanced tab, e.g. MYBUTTON. Thereafter the button will process the following commands (prefixed by your Remote ID, e.g. MYBUTTON ENABLE):

  • DISABLE: Disable the button (user cannot click it with the mouse).
  • ENABLE: Enable the button again.
  • ACTIVATE or ON: Switch to active state (toggle button only)
  • DEACTIVATE or OFF: Switch to inactive state (toggle button only)
  • ACTIVATE/DEACTIVATE or ON/OFF: Toggle between active and inactive state (toggle button only)
  • PRESS: Simulate a click and execute actions (simple mode button only)
  • TEXT <value>: Change the default text of the button. Use "" to clear the text.
  • INACTIVE TEXT <value>, ACTIVE TEXT <value>, DISABLED TEXT <value>, DISABLEACTIVE TEXT <value>: Change the text for a particular button state. Use "" to clear the text.
  • FONTNAME <value>: Change the font name.
  • FONTSIZE <value>: Change the font size.
  • FONTSTYLE <value>: Change the font style.
  • FONTCOLOR <HTML color code>: Change the font color.

Static Text

This screen object displays a simple static text.

Status Display

This screen object works similar to the On Air Status, but it is used to display any kind of custom status, controlled by remote control commands and/or a script. To toggle between the states, define a Remote ID and use the commands <REMOTEID> ON and <REMOTEID> OFF.

Image

This screen object displays an image, e.g. station logo. All common image formats (PNG, JPG, SVG, etc.) are supported.

PFL Player

The PFL Player screen object provides a quick way to pre-listen to any audio item by dragging it onto the player.

Talk Timer

This screen object displays a talk timer that can be used as a stopwatch during live shows. The format settings are the same as those for the Date or Time screen object.

The timer can be started or stopped by clicking it with the mouse. Additionally, the following remote control commands are available:

  • START
  • STOP
  • START/STOP (same to mouse click)
  • RESET

Time of Next Event

This screen object displays the time of the next upcoming event in the Event Scheduler. The format settings are the same as those for the Date or Time screen object.

Countdown to Next Event

This screen object displays the remaining time until the next upcoming event in the Event Scheduler. The format settings are the same as those for the Date or Time screen object.

Countdown to Next Fixed Time

This screen object displays the remaining time until the next upcoming fixed time item im the playlist. The format settings are the same as those for the Date or Time screen object.

Mix Editor

This screen objects provides a fully-functional, embedded Mix Editor, which is automatically loaded with the items currently selected in the playlist.

Web Browser

This screen object provides an embedded web browser It uses Microsoft Edge internally, and the WebView2 Runtime must be downloaded and installed before you can use it.

The browser always starts with a fixed URL, and is it does not provide any address bar or other controls (except the right-click menu), you should only use it to display small dedicated web widgets that do not require a large amout of navigation. Good examples for suitable use are a chat application or a DHD 52 WebView.

Aircheck Recorder

The Aircheck Recorder provides a convenient recording facility for live shows. See here for more information.

Stream Monitor Status

This screen object displays the status (connection list) of the Stream Monitor.