Rick_McCormack@mindlink.UUCP (Rick McCormack) (04/01/91)
In an article, Alan Ramaley <ramaley@csli.Stanford.EDU> writes: Alan: > I'm the music director at KZSU, Stanford's radio station. Alan: > Like any other radio station, we report charts to trade Alan: > magazines, and we also mail out a monthly chart. Our charts Alan: > are entirely based on airplay, so we need to keep track of Alan: > what DJ's are playing. Alan: > Alan: > Our present system involves putting new records in a Alan: > numbered "A-file". When DJ's do their shows, they write Alan: > down the numbers of the A-file records they play, and put Alan: > this list is a box. We come by, tally up all the records Alan: > played, and do a ranking by number of plays. Alan: > Alan: > The only problem is, this takes a lot of time, and it needs Alan: > people who know a lot to always be around to run the Alan: > tallying, and it requires honesty, and there's always Alan: > mistakes. So I want to computerize the process. Alan: > Alan: > I could put a mac in the studio with the DJ's; but I want Alan: > the expensive hardware locked in a room, for security as Alan: > well as maintenance reasons. Alan: > Alan: > The solution? Put a mac in my office, but connect a dumb Alan: > terminal in the DJ studio to it, so DJ's can input the Alan: > A-file numbers, but can't do anything else. So how should I Alan: > do this? [stuff deleted] Alan, you may want to consider using something like the Visidex bar code reader in the studio, and bar code the records. This way, your DJs only scan the label when they play a record. You download the scanned info into a database like Omnis to create your charts. This solution should be cheaper and more reliable than the terminal idea, and easier to implement/police. [I have no interest in Videx (or Visidex, or whatever com,pany makes those little credit card size scanners) or Omnis. Heck, I don't even use a spread sheet or database program - but I could if I wanted to!] Luck -- _________________________________________________________ | IMAGISTICS Business Theatre Technology | Rick McCormack | | Interactive Effective Compelling | Vancouver, BC | |________________________________________|________________| | UseNet: Rick_McCormack@mindlink.uucp | A O-L: Rique | |_________________________________________________________| .
ramaley@csli.Stanford.EDU (Alan Ramaley) (04/02/91)
Hi folks. I've got a question about how to connect a dumb terminal to a mac. Let me tell you what I'm doing. I'm the music director at KZSU, Stanford's radio station. Like any other radio station, we report charts to trade magazines, and we also mail out a monthly chart. Our charts are entirely based on airplay, so we need to keep track of what DJ's are playing. Our present system involves putting new records in a numbered "A-file". When DJ's do their shows, they write down the numbers of the A-file records they play, and put this list is a box. We come by, tally up all the records played, and do a ranking by number of plays. The only problem is, this takes a lot of time, and it needs people who know a lot to always be around to run the tallying, and it requires honesty, and there's always mistakes. So I want to computerize the process. I could put a mac in the studio with the DJ's; but I want the expensive hardware locked in a room, for security as well as maintenance reasons. The solution? Put a mac in my office, but connect a dumb terminal in the DJ studio to it, so DJ's can input the A-file numbers, but can't do anything else. So how should I do this? (1) I could try to split the video signal, and put a keypad and a monitor in with the DJ's; but I'm concerned about issues of signal degradation over the 40 feet the signal would need to travel, and how I would go about splitting the video from a mac anyway. (2) I could hook up a dumb terminal to a serial port, and write a program to manage it; however, I don't have the faintest idea how to do this. If you can email me pointers to the right technical books on these matters, or if you've dealt with similar problems yourself, I'd be very grateful. -- Alan Aitken Ramaley (415) 497-5265, P. O. Box 9217, Stanford, CA 94309 Senior, Symbolic Systems Aquarius -- Alan Aitken Ramaley (415) 497-5265, P. O. Box 9217, Stanford, CA 94309 Senior, Symbolic Systems Aquarius