Radio World Buyer’s Guide articles are intended to help readers understand why their colleagues chose particular products to solve various technical situations. This month’s articles focus on media asset management including automation, traffic and billing.
Northwestern Media has deployed a full suite of RCS software across its 15 stations, which feed 137 broadcast signals. This includes Zetta radio automation, GSelector music scheduling and Aquira traffic scheduling and billing. The organization also is onboarding its newest station group with Revma for streaming.
Network Production Software Manager Derek Murphey said the selection of Zetta automation began several years ago. “The University of Northwestern-St. Paul, our parent company, was asking questions about what to do with Windows 7. As is so often the case, it all came down to an operating system and new PC hardware requirements that go with that.”
The organization had been satisfied with its RCS NexGen software but now wanted a platform built with current code, following best practices, that would get it through the next several OS revisions. It researched the decision over several years and sent air personnel and technical staff to see various automation systems at other stations and trade shows.
In 2020 it committed to converting its media automation to RCS Zetta. By 2022 it had also deployed GSelector and Aquira to take full advantage of the RCS ecosystem.
“From the on-air side, we placed a lot of value in the ability for Zetta to integrate with everything that is in the studio and in the air chain,” he said.
“With Zetta and the code that is running on the back end, really the possibilities are endless on what you are able to integrate — different audio consoles, audio routing devices, traditional analog devices from GPIO to TCP, HTTP.”
Also important was the ability to automate steps that operators do over and over into a button click or an automated task; he said this allows them to focus on delivering a great product over the air.
“Software has to look good on the front end as well, and Zetta really shines when it comes to the UI. The user has so much flexibility to customize and save multiple layouts to enhance their workflow, everything from module size, position, data sorting, columns, the coloring, the font size.” Murphey said talent appreciates the UI customization. “They set it up for their workflow and don’t have to spend mental energy trying to find what they’re looking for.”
The feature that finalized the decision for Northwestern Media is the ability to voice track remotely in a web browser with Zetta2GO. “It allows us to utilize voices and talent from other markets efficiently and easily. It’s really fantastic when your talent has robust home studio setups. Even with less-than-ideal hardware, Zetta2GO still shines. Any web browser, any audio device, track directly into the system, see the log as it is, to hear the songs and segues exactly as they are.”
His users are vocal about the integration with other software.
“When programming schedules a new log, it’s populated in Zetta. When sales closes a new client and their media ID is assigned, there’s a placeholder in Zetta. Talent or producers who want to swap songs or imaging in Zetta can see the ‘best’ options according to GSelector’s defined goals. Those changes update in real time so they don’t have merge and reconcile logs across platforms, it’s all in sync.”
