Do you want to send Now Playing Song Data to Pira’s RDS Encoders, from your Radio Automation System? MetaRadio makes this possible. This article explains the setup of MetaRadio and Pira RDS Encoders, allowing the current song title and artist to be sent to RDS-equipped radio receivers.

Using MetaRadio, you can send your Now-Playing Song & Artist as RadioText and RadioText+. You can also use MetaRadio to send custom messages, such as promotional and branding messages.

Sending song now-playing information to your RDS Encoder has clear advantages for your listeners and also your station. Now Playing data enhances the listener experience by allowing them to discover new tracks. Sending additional messages such as promotional or advertising messages provides an additional revenue opportunity.

We believe MetaRadio supports all current and past Pira RDS encoders, including these models:

  • Pira P332 – Serial & IP/Ethernet
  • Pira P232 – Serial Only
  • Pira P132 – Serial (Via USB port) & IP/Ethernet
  • Pira P232 Module – Serial Only
  • Pira P32 – Serial Only
  • Pira MicroRDS – Serial Only (wiring information)
  • Pira MiniRDS – Serial Only (wiring information)

What is MetaRadio?

MetaRadio is software which acts as a connector for your radio station’s metadata. It enables you to send your now playing data to dozens of different types of systems (including Pira’s RDS Encoder), and also unlocks new opportunities for revenue and promotions by inserting commercial and non-commercial messages between your song data. While many automation systems can send data directly to some of these third party broadcast systems, MetaRadio aims to connect all your systems together and provide advanced features.

MetaRadio takes all the hard work out of connecting your metadata. There’s no need for custom scripting – MetaRadio does everything you need out of the box.

Getting Song Data From your Radio Automation System

Before you can send your song metadata to Pira, you must first install MetaRadio and connect it to your radio automation system.

MetaRadio has over 30 different input system – including all the major Radio Automation System vendors. If you don’t have reliable metadata available in your automation system, you may like to consider using radio stream fingerprinting software with MetaRadio.

There is a free trial available of MetaRadio so you can test the entire system before committing to purchase.

Configuring Pira to accept RDS Data

Your RDS Encoder needs to be configured before MetaRadio can send any data to it. You will need to do this within Pira’s MagicRDS software. Once you have configured your encoder, you don’t need MagicRDS anymore.

  1. Open MagicRDS and connect to your encoder via the Options > Preferences menu
  2. Go to the RDS Encoder > Device Setup menu
  3. On the “Device Setup” screen, press “Read” to get the current configuration from your RDS Encoder
  4. On the “Device Setup” screen, enable Port 4 with the following settings:
    1. Protocol: TCP
    2. Port Number: 6670 (or another port number of your choosing)
    3. The RDS encoder is: Server
  5. If you haven’t already configured an IP Address, on the “Device Setup” screen, specify a IP Address, Subnet Mask, Gateway, and DNS Server. This must be on the same subnet as your MetaRadio PC.
  6. On the “Device Setup” screen, press the “Store” button

Configuring Pira Serial

You can also configure your Pira RDS Encoder to accept now-playing data via serial connection.

  1. Open MagicRDS and connect to your encoder via the Options > Preferences menu
  2. Go to the RDS Encoder > Device Setup menu
  3. On the “Device Setup” screen, press “Read” to get the current configuration from your RDS Encoder
  4. On the “Device Setup” screen, make note of the “Port 1” speed / baud rate. The default is ‘2400’.
  5. In Windows, open the ‘Device Manager’ and check the port number assigned to your serial connection (e.g. COM1)

Sending Now Playing Data to Pira RDS Encoders

Now we have successfully configured MetaRadio, our Automation System, and have the connection details for Pira – we are ready to connect all these systems together.

All configuration in this step is done in the MetaRadio Configuration App. By default, the MetaRadio configuration app is available by going to http://127.0.0.1:9606/

MetaRadio’s configuration interface lets you control all settings within MetaRadio.

  • The left contains the menu with various options – including the Input and Output settings.
  • The centre of the screen contains information about your system, including license details, and a summary of the inputs and outputs you have setup.

The options you see available will vary depending on the version you have installed, and the license options you have installed.

In the left menu of MetaRadio, click on “Outputs”. Find your station, and click “Add Output”. Now you can select Pira RDS (IP or Serial) from the list, and configure its settings.

Click “Add Output System” under the Pira heading. You can now configure your connection. You can now enter your connection details to your Pira RDS Encoder. The fields you will need for your connection are:

  • IP Address – this is the IP Address of the your Pira RDS encoder.
  • TCP/IP Port Number – this is the TCP Port Number you configured in MagicRDS (e.g. 6670).

You can also configure your message settings:

  • Now-Playing Text Format – these messages will be sent via RadioText whenever a track is currently playing. You can have multiple messages rotate by clicking the “Add Item” button.
  • Default/Fallback Text – these messages will be sent via RadioText whenever a track is not currently playing. You can have multiple messages rotate by clicking the “Add Item” button.
  • Message Interval – this is the quantity of seconds to wait before rotating to the next message.
  • Uppercase Text – enable this option to uppercase all messages automatically

Click Save, and then click “Apply & Restart” up the top to restart MetaRadio.

The black MetaRadio window will now display a status update whenever a new messages is sent to your Pira RDS Encoder. If you don’t see any errors when data is sent, you can check Pira & your RDS Monitor to see if the data is being output correctly.

If data is not being received, check the following:

  • Check the connection parameters in Pira.
  • Check the black MetaRadio status windows for errors.
  • Check your network allows connections from your MetaRadio PC to your Pira.

Support & Next Steps

Thanks for choosing MetaRadio to manage your now playing song data needs. Make sure you explore all the features, such as station scheduling, message scheduling, and all of our advanced output options. Please get in touch with us if you ever need assistance!

If you have any trouble with this process or it’s not working, please send the MetaRadio Support Bundle through to our support team. We’re here to help! You’ll find the support bundle file in MetaRadio’s dashboard.