UPGRADE FROM PRISTINE MMCS TO THE NEW PRISTINE RAPIDFIRE SYSTEM
Upgrading from Pristine Music Management and Commercial Control System (MMCS) to our new Pristine RapidFire graphical digital studio system will make your live assist operation much easier, more powerful, and fun. Take a look at Pristine RapidFire on one of your existing computers. Included in the Fall 1996 Update was a RapidFire demo program. Just enter RF-DEMO at the MUSICMGR prompt after installing the update. You’ll see how your station can benefit immediately from upgrading to Pristine RapidFire.
Here is a checklist for planning your upgrade to Pristine RapidFire. Since current configurations are all not the same, upgrade projects will vary.
- COMPUTER HARDWARE – Pristine strongly recommends using a Pentium computer for your on-air playback server. While RapidFire can operate on some 486 computers, to take advantage of RapidFire’s current and future features, Pentium series computers provide the processing power necessary for quick response. Our new turnkey RapidFire systems use Pentium 133 computers.
- AUDIO CARDS – Pristine RapidFire is a hard disk music and satellite network playback system and does not control compact disc players. Stations using RapidFire will provide their programming from hard disk or a satellite network or a combination of the both. RapidFire uses high quality professional 48k Dolby-AC2 and MPEG audio cards, and can control up to four audio devices. RapidFire is compatible with either single or dual device Dolby-AC2 or MPEG audio cards previously purchased from Pristine. Our latest audio cards are dual device, they can playback two audio files at once. The advantage of using a record/playback card in the on-air machine is accessing RapidFire’s TimeWarp feature, which records network feeds and
time shifts them for delayed broadcast. Also a telephone bit recorder/editor is planned for RapidFire for early next year that will also use the record function. For some stations, an alternative is to use Pristine’s 32k MPEG dual device record and playback cards. Two would be needed in the on-air playback server and one for production. This alternative would provide recording for the TimeWarp feature at a lower price. - HARD DISK STORAGE SPACE – The price of hard disks has dropped dramatically in the last year so now is a great time to consider this upgrade. With IDE’s growing larger in capacity, they are now an option to consider for smaller music libraries at an affordable price. SCSI hard drives are more appropriate for those of you considering running multiple hard disk music systems from one central location. The SCSI drives have also become more affordable in the recent months.
To determine how much hard drive space you need, multiply the number of minutes needed by 2MB per minute stereo or 1MB per minute mono. Then divide the number of MB by 1,024 to get the number of GB of space needed. With hard disk audio, CD player conflicts and cue up times are a thing of the past. - AUDIO SWITCHING HARDWARE – If you plan on using Pristine RapidFire’s TimeWarp feature, you may need a Metrabyte digital I/O card,
accessory box, relay board, and cables to control multiple satellite or audio sources. You may also need an audio switcher if you are going to use multiple audio sources with the system. - MONITOR AND POINTING DEVICE – Pristine RapidFire is controlled by a trackball, mouse, or a touchscreen monitor for a pointing device. Pristine recommends you use at least a 17” SVGA Color .28 pitch monitor on your on-air playback server for best results, but a smaller monitor will work.
- PRISTINE RAPIDFIRE SOFTWARE – RapidFire is a brand new software package and is not considered an extension of MMCS. It is a fully-functional stand alone digital studio system. RapidFire has been integrated into Pristine Music Plus, so your playlist scheduling operations remain the same. RapidFire is fully compatible with all current Pristine Dolby and MPEG audio cards and production packages, such as Audio Commander and VoiceTraxx.
© 1997 Professional Management Services Inc.
All Rights Reserved. MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft, Inc.
This page last updated 11/12/97