10 Things to Think About When Autodub Won't Work

1. What firm is having the problem? In some cases, that will tell you what automation is being used, what integration path is being used, and what names should be used for different components.
2. What is the automation type? Cumulus uses OpX as their automation in all cases. Audacy, Radio One, and Jim Pattison Broadcast Group all use Wide Orbit.
3. What is the integration path? OpX will always use a path developed internally by Cumulus. Audacy and Jim Pattison Broadcast Group both use a Wide Orbit direct integration path developed in-house by vCreative. Townsquare uses AIM as their integration path. Other firms will require a check.
4. Autodub not working at a Cumulus station? Have the user (or their engineer or IT person) check to be certain that both vcautodub and T&C (transfer and convert) are running on the OpX server. They can be restarted individually if you do not want to restart the server. The programs are supposed to restart with a server reboot, but you may want to verify this is the case.
5. Both Audacy and Radio One use a computer in front of their WO CS to run our vCreative autodub application. They both call this computer different things. With Audacy, it’s known as a scrubber unit. For Radio One it’s called a jump box. Same function in the autodub process, but two different names. Make sure you call it the right thing for the right user.
6. Right now, Townsquare has its autodub configured by individual stations. When using the API Tester, you need to enter the call letters of a station that is not working to return a valid result. For all other autodub installations, you can enter the Firm ID to get a result.
7. Some markets need to send spots to multiple servers. This is done by designating a server with a ????.1, ????.2, and so on. You will then need to configure the stations for each server in the options. Check this in the Firm settings and save yourself a whole heap of trouble.
8. OFL files. When you open newer versions of Adobe Audition, you can sometimes see MP3 files that have been formatted as “MP3 320 Kbps CBR OFL” for some ungodly reason. I haven’t been able to find any solid documentation on what it is or what it does. But I know that when someone using a Wide Orbit server says their file didn’t make it into the server but vPPO shows that it did, the file usually has that OFL tag applied to it. It stands for “Original File Length” and is used by some music software to indicate a looping point. Or so I have been told. It’s just one more thing to keep in mind.
9. Ask yourself a question. Why did this work yesterday, but stop working today? What changed? What looks wrong on the PO? Or the Firm Settings? Is it our problem or the station’s? Ask probing questions of the users having the problem. Step through the process to dub a spot. Did the user miss something? Is it a “user error” issue or something wrong with the pipes?
10. If all else fails, get another set of eyes on the problem. None of us is as smart as all of us.