DOSREquirements

From: John Zolkoske - Auto-Mate Systems
Date: 2-4-1999

Carol: I hope this helps somewhat.

Everything you need to run The Auto-Mate:

You will need a complete set-up for each station:

1. (1) P.C. 486 SX33 or higher. Minimum Pentium 75mHz, or AMD K-5 processor, recommended - though not necessary (Cost: Case, Mother Board, CPU, floppy disk, w/ Windows or DOS operating system, 8 megs (minimum) RAM,- $100-$1000 -depending on speed and age of unit.)

2. P.C. also needs minimally to contain the following:
If used For Music on Hard Drive: 10 gigabyte hard drive ($200-$300)
If used For Satellite Automation: 2-4 gigabyte hard drive ($100-$150)
CD Rom (2x or higher) ($40-$80)
Monitor (VGA, or SVGA color) 14" or larger screen. ($100-$300)*

*You can probably by a new state of the art PC containing all of these parts for about $1200. A used PC would cost around $700 for all items shown above.

3. (1) SoundBlaster ™ Audio Card (SB16, 32, or 64 series). ($75 - $120). Model is not significant for audio quality.

4. 8 conductor wire reaching from satellite receiver or tone decoder to PC w/ The Auto-Mate (2 conductor each for Spots/Liners/Magic Calls/I.D's)

5. Auto-Mate Software (1 per each individually programmed station) $429.95 for first copy - $100 discount for the second station ($329.95) - total = $759.90 for both stations . There is no additional charge to run a copy of The Auto-Mate in your production room P.C.

The satellite reception equipment must have the capacity to send dry contact closures so that the game port or relay card can detect when a break, liner, or ID is supposed to play.

If you receive sub-audible tones, you may need to purchase a tone decoder/relay generator from a supplier such as Mueller Broadcast Design (708)-352-2166. This unit will cost around $250-$300.

Optional equipment:

Relay card:

The Auto-Mate has the capacity to use a built-in game port on your computer. If you use this, the audio card must be used to mute audio during break playback. This works fine for most applications. However, some do not wish to mute audio this way, and want a hard disconnect during the break. In this case, you would need to purchase a relay card for your computer so it can sense breaks and mute satellite The relay card also makes it easier to record programming directly into the on-air P.C., since if you use the audio card for satellite muting and recording, it uses the same audio input. If this is the case, you must route your satellite audio away from the PC while you are making recordings (otherwise you would hear your satellite audio on the commercial you were recording, and you would hear your commercial over the air while it was being recorded). In this case, you don't need to buy additional gear, but need to allocate an additional pot on your board for 'satellite audio only' (not mixed with output of The Auto-Mate) for use when in a recording session.

Relay Card (if used) (cost = $165 for each card - if 1 AM, 1 FM = $330).

Production:

If you do not want to use the on-air control room PC to make recordings, you can produce them on another PC and import them to the control room. This eliminates the problem with routing away satellite audio during recordings, but of course requires additional hardware:

If Running Networked Production Room System:

1. (1) P.C. 486 SX33 or higher ($100 -$1000)
2. Production/Editing Software (i.e. Cool Edit, or SAW) ($30 - $500)
3. (1) 2 gigabyte or higher hard-drive. ($150-$300)
4. (1) SoundBlaster - $75 - $120
5. Network cards (1 for each P.C. used i.e. 1 AM, 1 FM, 1 Prod Room - ($15 - $50 each).
6. LANTASTIC software with DOS support - (typically around $100 - **not sure of current pricing, though**)
7. Ethernet cable, or coax to run between all networked P.C.'s - Price varies prbably under $100 for all cable.

Printer:

You may want to attach a printer to print verification logs - Cost ($100 - $300).

Backup Device:

You may wish to store data on a cartridge or removable disk (i.e Iomega Jazz drive) in case of hard-drive failure: cost: $200 - $400.

That should be about all you need to get going. Let me know if you have any other questions.