[BC] Can anyone ID this automation system?

[Chris Gebhardt]

Steve wrote:
> 
> Dan:
> 
> I know it well. It's On-Air Digital (Dallas, Tx) I know the guy who 
> programmed it in Linux, Bob Nelson. Jock turned programmer. It is one of 
> the most reliable systems with which I've worked. It never goes down and 
> seldom (and I MEAN seldom) burps. We use it at the station I'm trying to 
> buy here in Opp, Alabama <grrrrrr>. It's the UDS-II system. It's a 
> division of SMARTS Broadcasting of Dallas (I believe and SMARTS is the 
> music programming side of the company) After the initial library dump, 
> we didn't deal with that division again. (won't go into that story)
> 
> Hope that helps. If you want any additional info on the system just holler.

What a great, reliable system.   One of the stations I worked at used 
UDS-II with 3 Sony jukeboxes & a DigiCart2.   This was before the LAN 
days, so you would record all your spots & production elements in 
Production, dump them down to the Bernouli drive, carry that into Air, 
copy them from the Bernouli to the DigiCart, and you're ready to go.

Just make sure when you program, you don't run into a situation where 
you have back-to-back jukeboxes.  You'll sit through several seconds of 
dead air while the jukebox puts the old CD away, retrieves the new one, 
then spins it up.   Interestingly, we found this even happens if you go 
to a different cut on the same CD.

Part of the remedy was careful scheduling.  We made things a bit more 
flexible by adding a 4th jukebox.

I know it's nowhere near as flexible as modern HD based systems, but 
those jukeboxes look way cool stacked in a shelf.  They even light up to 
a soft glow.

Chris Gebhardt
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