Questions and suggestions: RDS text in MB Studio

Hi Maurizio,

We bought the RDS encoder from Pira as you suggested it. It works very well in combination with MB Studio. The programmation of the rds encoder is done in MB Studio. I have now a few questions and suggestions for the next update:

1) The number of characters for the RDS is limited to about 128. Isn`t there any possibility to increase this value to 256 or to use a second "DPS", i.e. DPS3 when the number of characters is higher than 128. I.e. after DPS2 the song and artist in DPS1 is displayed and then if existing DPS3 with another text is displayed and then DPS1 with the artist and song title again and so on. (DPS2 -DPS1-DPS3-DPS1-DPS4-DPS1-DPS5-DPS1-DPSn ...) DPS1 is artist and title information only.

2) I really made a lot of tests without a result. It seems that one time we program the "DPS1" that the artist and title from i.e. M:\\MBStudio\.... is shown in the RDS it`s impossible to touch any more to "DPS1" or to work with "DPS1". It`s programmed that "DPS1" refers directly to M:\\MBStudio\....  where in a text file the recent played title and artist is shown. If we try to work with DPS1 the artist and song title aren`t shown any more. For a few month we didn`t touch to DPS1 and it works without a problem. The DPS1 file information was sent one time to the rds encoder. We only have the possibility to work with DPS2. We want to show two different texts with the "Artist - Title" between it or at least one text with about 256 characters and then the "Artist - Title"

3) Doesn`t there exist any code like %Artist% %Title% or something like that to show the recent played song during the text, i.e. "Now on Air %Artist% %Title% on Radio xyz" or is there the only possibility to work with "DPS1" to show the Artist and Title.

4) It`s not very easy to type the text for the rds. We don`t see any separation after 8 characters. We have to count each character because we want that the words are well displayed in the display which shows as you know 8 characters. We want if possible that words starts at the beginning of the display. Isn`t there any possibility to clearly separate each 8 characters during the programmation?

5) Isn`t there a possibility to replace characters. I.e. if we dont want that it is displayed "Artist - Title" but if we want that it`s displayed "Artist * Title" or if we want to replace "Request" if the song is an sms request with another word?

6) Isn`t there a possibility that the "Artist - Title" is centered in the middle of the display of 8 characters?

Now other questions and suggestions about MB Studio:

7) We have a database of 114.000 songs !!! You wrote that it will extremly slow down the database. We work very well with 114.000 songs (2GB RAM) and you can really make puplicity that your program is very good for databases over 100.000 songs. I know normally the database is limited to 20.000 songs. We only have one little problem. When we click on songs and that we see the 114.000 songs and that we want to sort it by rate not all the 114.000 songs are well sorted. 95 % of the songs are well sorted but at the end of the list the rates are not well sorted. I.e. we have rates between 1-255 at the beginning of the list and after that a few songs have rate 55 and 73 and so on. I am sure its only because we have so much songs and that the songs are well sorted in smaller databases.

Sometimes our announcers have problems when they want to announce the last played song. It`s shown on the top of the screen but when the song is over it is deleted at that place. Isn`t there any possibility to show the last played song on top. It`s easier for the announcer. I know that the last played song is shown on your right side at the bottom of the screen in the history but it`s not a perfect solution.

9) in the newer music the song cover is integrated in the id3tag. It seams that mb studio isn`t able to display that cover which is displayed in the id3tag. Isn`t there any possibility to show those covers or to extrate it automatically from the id3tag to the folder where all the covers are. Are the cover information in the folder "pictures" written in the id3tag of the songs which were a good idea or not?

I wish you and your customers of MB studio merry xmas and good luck in 2009

I thank you for reading,
best regards
Dean from Radio LNW from Luxembourg

Thank you Maurizio for your fast answer.
Concerning Question 4): I`ll repeat the question again because it`s an important question.
We programmed the DPS2 in "Agenda". I give you an example. We programmed the following into DPS2:
RadioLNW*102.2***Wiltz**. 
We want that "RadioLNW" is first displayed, then "102.2" and then "Wiltz". The stars are the spaces. We don`t want that our text is displayed like that: "RADIO LNW"  "102.2 Wi"  "ltz    ". During programming the DPS2, we have to count all the spaces to be sure that  "Radio LNW" , "102.2" and "Wiltz" are displayed at the wright place on the rds receiver. When we don`t count exactly the spaces all the following words are not displayed well.
Is there any possibility to separate all 8 characters to be sure that all is displayed well. I.e.
12345678-12345678-12345678-12345678
RADIOLNW-  102.2 -  Wiltz -        -        -
I mean that we can write 256 : 8 = 32 words of maximum 8 characters where between all 8 characters is a separation that it`s easier to fill in the 32 words. When at the beginning we don`t count exactly the spaces at the end the words are not displayed well. I hope I now explained it better than before. If not, I can repeat the question again.
Thanks in advance.
Radio LNW

Why you don't use the Magic Software of PIRA???

Why you don't use the Magic Software of PIRA???

We used the Magic Software of Pira before. In that software a lot of things worked which doesn`t work with MB Studio (center text, replace characters, more characters). We use the software of MB studio because in the "agenda" it`s possible to program for each minute and day or date different texts. Every minute it`s possible to change texts. That`s the reason why we use MB Studio to program the rds. I`m sure that Maurizio is doing his best to do modifications.