The second big version of the professional radio automation system TuneTracker was just released June 1st and goes where no other has gone before, in more ways than one. For one thing, the TuneTracker System doesn't run under Windows. It uses the media-friendly Be Operating System. For another, it shatters all kinds of price-performance barriers for professional radio broadcasting software. "This rivals my (other station's) $15,000 system," says Mike Chandler of WOBS, Florida of the $149.95 TuneTracker System, who has been using the Beta version for months. "As a matter of fact, it has less hiccups." And now it can be yours! Read more on how you can win a free copy of TuneTracker 2! Update: The lucky winner is Daniel Mark! Congratulations Daniel!At the heart of the TuneTracker System is TuneTracker 2, a highly stable and flexible programming and broadcasting program with built-in counters, VU meters, and controls which allow fully automated or live DJ-style operation. TuneTracker is designed from the bottom-up for non-stop reliability so users can walk away, and even go on vacation, knowing it will still be running faithfully when they return. Its 100% user-definable format clocks allow an unlimited number of unique programming hours, arranged in any order, organized into program logs, and stacked for future playback over days, weeks, or even months of continuous operation.
TuneTracker is just one part of this broadcast suite. BeOS' query-friendly, attribute-driven file system forms the perfect basis for complex music searches, and this quality is exploited to the max in TuneStacker 2, TuneTracker's music selection and program log generation package. Using TuneStacker, broadcasters can automatically create a fresh mix of carefully-chosen music for each day's programming. TuneStacker innovations include a "PlayFolder" feature that will serves as a production-saver by building entire programs from a directory full of files. TuneStacker can also do traditional cut rotations of the kind radio stations have done for years using tape "carts." Also in the system is TimeTracker, which does an unlimited number of scheduled direct-to-hard-disk recordings of live audio feeds for broadcast at a later time. Cuts can be of any length, recorded in a variety of formats, and can be scheduled to happen once or routinely on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly basis.
"TuneTracker is targeted at a different market than the big dogs are, which is why we're keeping the price so low", says Dane Scott of TuneTracker Systems. "We want the small commercial operations, non-profit and non-commercial stations, LPFM, streaming Internet stations, broadcast classes, drive-by radio, hospital radio, and all the other emerging venues for radio broadcasting that need more quality than they think they can afford... We've done things with this package that have never been done in this price range before, and it'll be exciting to see what happens with it."
TuneTracker System runs on the freely downloadable BeOS 5 PE, which runs on most standard PCs (if you have an AthlonXP or Duron built around the AMD's XP core or Pentium 4 or Celerons built around the Pentium 4's core, email us to get BeOS installation help).
Things you need to know before entering the competition:
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The competition is now closed! Thanks everyone who participated!
