It’s been ten months since the last version of MetaRadio was released. Since then, we’ve been hard at work – releasing over sixty beta versions. Today, we announce the newest release of MetaRadio Standalone and MetaRadio WordPress – Version 1.3.0.

In that time, MetaRadio usage has roughly doubled – and many more people have requested trials. Our WordPress plugin has become a key part of CBAA’s Radio Website Platform, and some large international radio networks have begun using it. We’ve even released our first Mobile App using MetaRadio for to configure the experience.

However, we know there are hurdles preventing people from using MetaRadio. This release aims to address some of the big issues:

  • Date/time formats – most automation systems issue date & time values in a different format, often relying on the computer’s system time format. This release now fixes issues caused by date/time in the majority of cases, making it much easier to connect your automation system.
  • International RDS – RDS largely only supports the Latin alphabet, which is a nuisance for people in many countries which have a different alphabet. While we can’t fix RDS itself, we now have a translation table to convert unsupported characters into standard ASCII. We’ll write up a full guide on how to use this at some point soon, but in the meantime you can contact us for pointers on getting your countries alphabet added to the conversion database.

New Systems

We’ve added support for the following new systems:

  • PlayoutONE – the latest version of PlayoutONE will have a special output option, making it super easy to connect (look in PlayoutONE Monitor > Settings > Metadata).
  • Generic Automation Systems – Now we have generic templates to send via TCP IP or File. This is useful if your system is not supported by MetaRadio, but you know how to make it output data in the correct format (you can always contact us to build the integration for your system).
  • Onair2 WordPress Theme – your website will now have a URL like this (http://example.com/metaradiofeed/station-name), which can be inputted into the Onair2 theme to show title & artist
  • Omnia9sg
  • Omnia7
  • Omnia9XE
  • SiriusXM – MetaRadio acts as a TCP server, allowing SiriusXM to receive data from your automation system
  • ACR Cloud Broadcast Monitoring – setup ACR Cloud to send detected title & artist data directly to MetaRadio WordPress
  • Simian – now you can connect via an XML file, bypassing the unreliabilities of Simian’s TCP output
  • Streamguys Icecast – send iTunes cover art to be used in the Streamguys Player
  • MetaRadio Mobile App – if you have an app built by us, you can configure it in the new WordPress settings screen.

General Feature Updates

  • Shoutcast – added formatting string, fallback data, and uppercase option
  • WordPress – Add new classes to show/hide the current and upcoming programs from your program guide
  • WordPress – add a feature to allow dequeueing scripts and styles from the MetaRadio Player

Other Bug Fixes

There’s also plenty of bug fixes – too many to mention. But here are some:

  • Improved Unicode Support – We’ve fixed some Unicode issues in many outputs: HTTP, WordPress, Custom File (+FTP), JSON File (+FTP), and Track History.
  • WideOrbit – fix improperly escaped XML on incoming data
  • WordPress – fix a bug that prevented songs from displaying if there was no iTunes match
  • Song Finder HTML Template – fix a bug when displaying hours < 10
  • Simian IP – general changes to try and improve stability
  • HTTP Outputs (including Omnia 7, 9sg, & 9xe) – fix a crash when the HTTP connection fails

How to Upgrade

If you are an existing MetaRadio licensee, you can download the latest version from the downloads page. Simply enter your email address, and you will be sent a download link with the latest version. This release is available for every existing licensee – free of charge.

You can upgrade your existing installation of MetaRadio Standalone simply by running the installation wizard. Please ensure you take a backup before you upgrade. In the event you run into issues, please feel free to re-install the older version, and then contact us for support.

Free Trials

Previously, the free trial signup form only allowed one trial every 12-months. We often extended this manually if someone requested a longer trial period.

However, now you can request a trial once every 40 days. This means if you tried MetaRadio some months back, you can now give it a try again!

What are you waiting for? Sign up for the free trial!