Optimus MR-8Z User manual

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SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS:

IMPORTANT:

 Read carefully the safety instructions.

 Keep this manual for future references.

 Unplug the equipment during lightning storms or if it won’t be used for a long time.

 Always use certified wires to prevent electric shock or fire. In case of doubt, consult a qualified

installer.

 Do not use the unit in humid places or near liquids. Do not install it near heat sources. Do not

block ventilation openings.

 When it is necessary, remove dust with a dry cloth. Do not use solvents such as alcohol. Keep

the unit clean and dust free.

 Maintenance operations require qualified personnel.

Note: The information provided in this manual does not include neither details of design

production or variations in equipment, nor possible risks during installation, operation or

maintenance. If you need special assistance beyond the manual, please contact our

customer service.

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INDEX

1. GENERAL INFORMATION .......................................................................................... 3

2. CONNECT THE SYSTEM ............................................................................................ 3

3. CONFIGURE THE SYSTEM ........................................................................................ 4

3.1 How to create a zone ............................................................................................ 4

3.2 How to create a new player ................................................................................... 5

3.3 How to change player mode ................................................................................. 6

3.4 How to manage all players/zones simultaneously ................................................. 7

3.5 How to make microphone announcements over individual players ....................... 8

3.6 How to play an internet radio station ..................................................................... 9

3.7 How to stream music from your iPhone, iPod or iPad wirelessly with Airplay ..... 11

3.8 How to create scheduler task .............................................................................. 13

3.9 How to create Jingles .......................................................................................... 15

3.10How to play a jingle in the selected zone ............................................................ 17

3.11How to schedule Jingles ..................................................................................... 19

3.12How to generate playlist with periodic ads or announcements ............................ 19

3.13How to prevent unauthorized accesses to the software ...................................... 20

3.14How to control the software remotely via web browser ....................................... 22

4. SUPPORTED AUDIO FORMATS .............................................................................. 24

5. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS ................................................................................ 24

6. GUARANTEE CERTIFICATE .................................................................................... 25

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1. GENERAL INFORMATION

Audio servers MR-8Z and MR-16ZD permit to control and broadcast audio to up to 8 / 16

independent zones. In combination with public address system, they present a perfect solution for

music distribution systems in Hotels and Shopping Centers.

The system is composed by the server itself and one or two 8 audio output modules.

MR-8Z  8 zones. Desktop or rack installation.

MR-16ZD  16 zones. Desktop installation.

2. CONNECT THE SYSTEM

Connect the Server to the audio output module/s using USB cable.

Connect the audio output module/s to the amplifiers using RCA outputs.

If you want to play audio from an external music source or microphone, connect it to the server

audio input using 3.5” mini jack.

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3. CONFIGURE THE SYSTEM

The first step is to install the drivers of the output module and the software.

Once the software is installed you can proceed to create the zones, one for each output, and the

players. After this operations the system is ready to use.

3.1 How to create a zone

To create a new zone, first go to Zones menu and click New zone or press Ctrl-Shift-Z hot key.

New zone is created and Zone window appears.

Please rename your new zone and select the audio device from the list. Each audio device can

operate in mono or stereo mode. 8 zone output module will appear as 4 stereo outputs. Select the

channels independently (Left and Right) to get the 8 ones.

Button Mute allows you to temporarily mute Zone. If necessary, set the volume and desired

equalizer levels. Click Apply button. Your new zone is ready, it will automatically appear in all

players

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3.2 How to create a new player

Go to the main menu Players. You can create three types of players.

For audio files or Internet radio streams select New Player (or press Ctrl-N hot key). If you want to

manage your external sources (for example line-in inputs or microphones), click New external

player.

Regular players can play a lot of popular audio formats, music playlists or Internet radio streams.

An external player, helps you to manage audio line-in inputs or microphones.

On the Zones tab, select zones to play music, then use player’s File menu to add files, folders or

playlists and press Play button.

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3.3 How to change player mode

There are five player modes. Tracks that you play appear in the Playlist pane. You can change the

order in which the items play by selecting one of these modes.

By default, player starts in None mode. This mode will play your Playlist and stop after last track.

When you turn on Repeat Playlist mode, all tracks in the main Playlist pane will play once and

then begin playing again. Repeat Playlist mode will play your Playlist and return to the beginning to

cycle through again when it reaches the end. To play only one audio track repeatedly, please

select Repeat Track mode. Select this mode to repeat the audio track that is currently playing.

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With Shuffle mode you can listen to your tracks over and over again, but in a different order each

time. Shuffle mode will randomize the playback of your Playlist. And last one is Stop after this

track mode. The name speaks for itself. It is useful if you need to stop playing after the current

track.

3.4 How to manage all players/zones simultaneously

If you want to start or stop all players at once, please open Players Control Center window from

Players menu or use Ctrl+Alt+P hot key.

Check “Apply to all players” check-box.

Then you can use all available on this window controls to manage all players simultaneously. You

can start, stop, pause and mute all players at the same time by one click.

You can manage all zones in the same way with Zones Control Center.

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3.5 How to make microphone announcements over individual players

At first, please connect your mic to server microphone input and then create new External player.

Now you need to select your audio source, please choose your microphone from dropdown box.

Go to Zones tab and select zones to play your voice announcements.

Only Play and Stop buttons are available for External player, so please press Play and start

speaking to your microphone. You can hear your voice in the selected Zones. You can change

Zones on the fly, but please keep at least any one always selected, otherwise you have to click

Play button again. Please press Stop button to turn off your microphone. If you need to tune the

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microphone level, please use horizontal fader below source box. If you enable “Automatic reduce

the volume of other players” checkbox, the volume of other players playing to same zones will be

reduced automatically.

3.6 How to play an internet radio station

At first, please create new regular player.

Set zones to play, then go to the player menu File and select Play URL…

Enter or copy-paste your internet radio station URL.

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This is the easiest and fastest way to play any kind of internet radio stations. All entered

addresses are stored and you can find them in the drop down list anytime.

The software supports a large number of codecs (MP3, AAC, WMA and more), radio

stations, Shoutcast, Icecast streams etc.

There is another way to play internet radio. You can create M3U playlist with one radio

station only or with radio URL and few audio tracks for example.

The player will play audio tracks, but when it comes to radio URL, the internet radio starts

playing.

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3.7 How to stream music from your iPhone, iPod or iPad wirelessly with Airplay

At first please download and install Bonjour discovery service on the server. This service installed

by default with iTunes.

Run the software and open AirPlayer settings window. Here you can change broadcasted name,

set password, change ports and audio buffering time.

Please enable “Run AirPlayer service at startup” check the check box and restart application. Then

open AirPlayer window and select zones to play.

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Connect your iOS device and the server to the same Wi-Fi network. On your iOS device, swipe up

from the bottom of your screen to open Control Center and tap AirPlay. Tap the name that you set

in software settings to stream your music content to.

Now you can control audio playback from your iPod, iPad or iPhone device and even change

volume remotely. You can control audio stream using Player buttons and change zones on the fly.

Apple, iPod, iPad, iPhone and AirPlay are trademarks of Apple inc., registered in the U.S. and

other countries.

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3.8 How to create scheduler task

Please go to Tools menu and open Scheduler window (or press Ctrl-Alt-S hot key)

Please give your task a unique Name and set the Start time. The default start time is the

current time. If you want to stop the task over time, please set the Stop time too.

There are two types of repetitive tasks. The first type is a task that is repeated every few

seconds, minutes, hours or days. Indefinitely or specified number of repetitions.

The second type of tasks is the task that is active only on selected days of the week.

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Next, you need to select the type of task – Player, Zone, Jingle or General task. The first

often used task is Player task. Select the player, select the action. Depending on the

chosen action, you can set the volume or choose the path to the file.

Zone task is the same, but its actions are slightly different.

Jingle tab has only one task, play selected Jingle.

And with General task you can schedule Save Workspace action.

Once finished click Save button. The new task will appear in the list below. Here you can

find all the tasks. To delete a task, select it from the list and click Delete button. To create

a new task, click New and specify a new unique name. Feel free to explore all possible

actions.

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If you want to edit a task, find it in the list and double click it. The selected task will be

loaded into the editor. Change the settings and click Save. If you need temporarily disable

the task, select it, turn off Enabled checkbox and Save it.

3.9 How to create Jingles

Go to Main menu – Tools, select Jingles. Or you can use Ctrl-Alt-J hot key to show Jingles

window.

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Then go to Jingles – New Jingle and select your jingle audio file. A lot of audio formats are

supported – MP3, WAV, WMA, M4A, MP4, AAC, OGG, FLAC and more. When your new

Jingle appears in the left window you have to select Players or Zones to play this jingle

with. You can select few items on each tab. For example you can play first VDJ jingle to

Radio and Spare Player with one button click. Each tool bar Numbers button has a tool tip

to help you.

You can use any created Jingle with each Player. Open Player window and go to Jingles

drop down menu or use Alt+Numbers hot key to call corresponding Jingle to current

player.

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3.10 How to play a jingle in the selected zone

At first you need to create at least on Jingle.

Open Zone Control Center (Ctrl-Alt-Z shortcut) window and double click on the desired

zone to show it.

You will find all available jingles in the Jingles drop down menu. There are hot key

shortcuts for each jingle Alt+digit.

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If you started jingle by accident or you want stop it immediately, please use Control menu

and select Stop Jingle.

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3.11 How to schedule Jingles

Please go to Tools menu and open Scheduler window (or press Ctrl-Alt-S hot key)

At first select Jingle tab instead of Player, and choose any Jingle that you created earlier.

Then, like all jingles, set start time, frequency, number of repetitions and specify the name.

Press Save button and new schedule will appear in the list below.

3.12 How to generate playlist with periodic ads or announcements

At first please create M3U playlist with all your ads. Start the software, go to Tools menu and run

“Music Database” (Ctrl-Alt-M hot key)

In Music Database window go to Playlist menu and choose “Generate new playlist…”

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In the “Save playlist” dialog please select folder and type new playlist name. And now Playlist

Generator window appears.

Here you can select playlists type: by time or specify number of tracks. If you want insert jingles,

enable “Insert Jingles from playlist” option and select prepared jingles playlist. Set how often insert

jingles. If you want repeat jingles infinitely, set “Repeat Jingles” and the generator starts to insert

tracks from the beginning, if they run out. Press OK and wait a little. Your new playlist is ready to

play.

3.13 How to prevent unauthorized accesses to the software

Please go to the Tools-Settings menu and open Security tab. Enable Protect with

Password checkbox and enter your password twice. Press OK and close Settings window.

Optimus MR-8Z, MR-16ZD User manual

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