Important things to know

This section contains some very important information on how SAM Broadcaster Cloud operates. To properly use SAM Broadcaster Cloud you will need to understand the concepts below.

This document refers specifically to SAM Broadcaster Cloud and not SAM Broadcaster Cloud Live Streaming which is provided by the integration of SAM Broadcaster Pro or the use of SAM Broadcaster Live-DJ.

Near real-time operation

SAM Broadcaster Cloud is not meant to be a real-time DJ solution where you pick the next track seconds before the current track is about to end. The concept for SAM Broadcaster Cloud is as an always-on, hosted broadcasting solution that you configure and then leave alone so all the hard work can happen in the cloud!

That being said it is indeed possible to operate SAM Broadcaster Cloud in a near real-time fashion where you manually build and organize the queue.

The problem is best explained with an example.
John is listening to his own station and receives a request from a listener that asks if John can play “James – Sit down” next. John hears that the current track “Dido – Thank you” is about to end and quickly searches for “James – Sit down” in SAM Broadcaster Cloud and drags it to the top of the Queue. But, a few seconds later “INXS – Need you tonight” starts playing and “James – Sit down” is still at the top of the queue. Why?

There are several reasons why John’s action was not in time.

1. Firstly, the streaming introduces a delay. The streaming server keeps a minimum buffer of between 20 and 30 seconds. This not only allows the stream to start playing instantly when a listener first tunes in, but also protects the listener from internet problems and reduces the chance of buffering and audio anomalies, therefore, what you hear is several seconds behind what is happening in the cloud currently.
2. Any change you make to SAM Broadcaster Cloud first needs to be synchronized with the cloud. This can take anything from 1 second to 20 seconds for a very big change.

A safe delay to work on is to assume that what you hear is 60 seconds behind real-time and schedule your content accordingly.
Don’t worry – after a while you will be quite used to this delay and learn how to manage your schedule accordingly.

Tracks are stuck in the Queue and never seem to play?

Only tracks that uploaded and was processed by our cloud will play. If a track is not ready for playback then the rotation logic will simply skip the track until it becomes ready.

Turning your station on has a delay

Once you set the “on air status” to the “on” state and click on the player, you might notice a delay before the audio starts playing. This is mostly due to the fact that the streaming server first needs to fully buffer the stream.

The good news is that this buffer then allows new listeners to hear the audio much quicker as the streaming server can “burst” data to the listener filling the player buffer faster and allowing actual audio to start sooner.

Same track imported only once

SAM Broadcaster Cloud will only import a track with the same path once. If you drag an item at “c:\music\a.mp3” onto SAM Broadcaster Cloud it will be uploaded into the cloud. If you however drag the same file located at “c:\music\a.mp3” onto SAM Broadcaster Cloud  again, then the file will not be imported or uploaded again.

NOTE: If the item is dragged onto a Playlist then a new entry will be created in the Playlist, but the item will not be uploaded again.

This holds true even if you physically put a different file in the “c:\music\a.mp3” location. SAM Broadcaster Cloud will not detect a change because the file changed. If you need to upload a new version of the file currently the only option is to delete the item from the SAM Broadcaster Cloud library and then re-import the file again.

FUTURE: In the future there will be an Upload library filter where you can force a re-upload of an existing library item.

Supported file formats

The following audio file formats are currently supported in SAM Broadcaster Cloud.

• MP3 (*.mp3)
• Windows Media (*.wma)
• Ogg Vorbis (*.ogg)
• Free Lossless Audio Codec (*.flac)
• AAC (*.aac, *.m4a)
• Wave (*.wav)

If there is a file format you wish for us to support please do let us know!