RCS Player101

[CurtisMachek]

Hello everyone, it's been a long time since I've posted on this site.

 

My station, RadioKick, has been down recently. Long story short: we need new automation.

 

I've decided to fork out some of the big bucks, and give Player101, from RCS Software, a try.

 

The sweet part about Player101: it's all included. It was the former "Nexgen" from back when Prophet owned it, and when they came out with a new version of Nexgen, the old version became PSI101 (Player101 now).

 

It's got everything, the music scheduler, voicetracking, everything you could possibly need.

 

So, over the next few weeks, I'll be installing/configuring it, and I'll post what I think here.

 

The price is right too, just under $1000.

 

http://www.rcsworks.com/en/products/player101/default.aspx

 

Thanks, Curtis

[Arfa B]

There is much cheaper, like SAM- that works perfectly well.

and Zara is free!

[fozzy]

The price is right too, just under $1000

Wow £500 must have money to burn lol sam is a good software to use and cheaper like arthurburton said ..It can do lots of stuff to just like player101

 

Fozzy

[CurtisMachek]

Fozzy, no money to burn, just a savings account for the station

 

I know there's many that are far more affordable, but they just can't be compared.

 

Player101 is something you'd see in a commercial FM environment, and there's features in it that are essential for me, including Proper Music Scheduling, proper Voice tracking, multi-studio integration.

 

It'll also playback over multiple channels on the console. IE Song A plays on Channel 1, then the sweeper will play on Channel 2, the next song on Channel 3, then back to 1 again.

 

I find Player101 has a great price for something comparable to $5000+ systems.

 

--Curtis

[ceejay7777]

Automation software is always a personal choice and based on a variety of reasons and, in the end, if 101 floats your boat then you're gonna buy it. My own opinion after testing NexGen101 and then PSI101 alongside the StationPlaylist Creator/Studio package was that SPL beat 101 in almost every respect at less than half the price, so that's what I went with for our FM station. The one area where SPL took second place behind 101 was in music scheduling, but the next release of Creator contains an import function that I've tested with the free version of MusicGen and so that last aspect will now be overcome.

[Blazin 97]

A friend of mine used Player 101 on his internet radio station a few years back, and one weekend when he was away on vacation I had to go to the studio and schedule some mixshows to play at certain times. I personally did not like the layout of the software and didn't think it had much of a bang for your buck, but like ceejay said, if it floats your boat, hope it works well for your station!

 

I use SAM and it's alright, much more of a bang for your buck in my opinion.

[JBVoice]

Well, I'd like to note about the comment made that you see this program in most FM stations. This might have been true years back but all the commercial stations here in Baltimore/Washington (a HUGE market) they all use either Station Playlist or Jazzler, both in my opinion are great programs! I spent a month working as the programmer at the local college station and they went with Jazzler because the interface is so simple and it works well with their console, so...the comment that you see Player 101 in most FM studios is not so anymore, at least not here in Baltimore anyway.

 

 

 

My input.

 

-JB

[CurtisMachek]

It's not in every FM studio at all. It's just comparable to something you might find in an FM studio (in fact, in my local market, all the commercial stations are on Scott).

 

so...the comment that you see Player 101 in most FM studios is not so anymore, at least not here in Baltimore anyway.

 

-JB

 

So far, RCS has been the absolute best for customer service. I get fast reply's, and they hooked me up with a Software demo which isn't the "Limited Demo" most people use, it's a fully licensed 30 day activation code for all the modules.

 

I've been loving the system so far. Everything's so much more flexible than anything else I've ever used (in my opinion).

 

-Curtis

[JBVoice]

Well thats pretty good. Glad you like them, fast customer service is always a must.

[andhow]

I know this in an old post, but I once managed a radio station at a local university, that had implemented RCS Player 101, for a couple of years. Player 101 is very particular about .wav files and does not play mp3s. It does not have any encoders for streaming, unless you purchase that particular module. It is really designed more for professional radio stations who just use it for the desktop control desk. The rest of the components that you would normally have to engineer into your station are already built into SAM.

[azza5570]

Im with the RCS guys, we use Zetta and GS on license on http://www.careamradio.com and shes the best bit of automation software ever -been using it since the start of the station and the license fee every month is very good too and affordable

[andhow]

How much did Zetta with GSelector set you back?

[azza5570]

We pay £50 + vat a month we license it - great bit of kit

[andhow]

I managed a couple of stations that used RCS Player 101. I always thought it was a great product and lot of commercial stations use RCS. If Zetta was available when I started my current station, I would have purchased it, because at the time their products were priced out of reach of non-commercial stations. It is good to see that they are on board with the market and have a reasonably priced product now.