From mAirListWiki

A Regional Container is used in situations where you wish to send varying audio tracks to different transmitters/services, such as:

• If your radio station has transmitters in different areas (or maybe an AM and FM service), you may wish to send different adverts and jingles to those transmitters.
• You may have a dedicated webstream that (due to copyright restrictions) cannot carry certain audio.

The most obvious solution is to create a Playlist and Player combination for each service that you wish to send a unique feed to. However, you may also use the Regional Container feature. Like a normal Container item, the Regional Container is a single playlist item that carries more than 1 audio item. You will need to manually edit mairlist.ini and devices.ini to enable this feature (see below for full details). You will obviously need to have multiple sound devices on your studio computer - Pro audio cards usually offer 2, 4 or 6 stereo outputs and these are suitable as are domestic/semi-pro multi-speaker cards like the Creative Labs Audigy. With this card you can have up to 3 stereo outputs from a single card. Ensure you set the card's multichannel properties in Control Panel first!

INI File Configuration

Open mairlist.ini in NotePad and add the following (I've used Virgin Radio's frequencies as an example):

[Regions]
Item0=1215AM UK
Item1=105.8FM London

Add more if you wish for further splits (anorak note: Virgin Radio actually has a third: for DAB, Freeview and internet). These descriptions will appear as text on each Region Tab in the Item Properties window - allowing you to easily see what each region contains. Finally, you will need to specify the sound channel outputs in devices.ini:

RegionDevice0=<Device><Driver>BASS</Driver><Device>1</Device><Speakers>0</Speakers><SampleRate>44100</SampleRate><Options><FileManagement/><SampleFloat/></Options></Device>
RegionDevice1=<Device><Driver>BASS</Driver><Device>1</Device><Speakers>2</Speakers><SampleRate>44100</SampleRate><Options><FileManagement/><SampleFloat/></Options></Device>
RegionPFLDevice0=<Device><Driver>BASS</Driver><Device>1</Device><Speakers>0</Speakers><SampleRate>44100</SampleRate><Options><FileManagement/><SampleFloat/></Options></Device>
RegionPFLDevice1=<Device><Driver>BASS</Driver><Device>2</Device><Speakers>0</Speakers><SampleRate>44100</SampleRate><Options><FileManagement/><SampleFloat/></Options></Device>

The device numbers correspond to the hardware number of your soundcard. The easiest way to set these up is to assign your intended Regional Devices to a Player using mAirListConfig and then editing devices.ini using NotePad. This ensures that the device and speaker settings are correct. Remember that as Regional (or Split) audio is usually "direct to air", you won't hear anything through your mixing console - So you will need to be able to monitor an "off air" feed to ensure that audio is being transmitted. Timing information is calculated for the longest item within the Regional Container, there is NO warning should the Regions contain varying durations of audio!

Scheduling Region Containers using M3U

It is possible to schedule your Regional Containers using any M3U scheduler (such as StationPlaylist Creator or Natural Music). Typically, you would enter this as a Break Note (Creator) or Clock Text (Natural Music), depending upon your scheduling software.

#mAirList BEGINREGIONCONTAINER container title
#mAirList BEGINCONTAINER Container
C:\Audio\Jingles\Top of Hour - 1215AM.mp3
#mAirList ENDCONTAINER
#mAirList BEGINCONTAINER Container
C:\Audio\Jingles\Top of Hour - 105.8FM.mp3
#mAirList ENDCONTAINER
#mAirList ENDREGIONCONTAINER

That's a 2-way split which will play each jingle via the devices as configured above. The actual Container item will "play" within a player on the playlist you are using, giving you a visual representation of the time played/remaining. Note that only the longest Region is calculated - If one of the splits is not the same length, you will not know unless you open the Properties window or can select the relevant feeds via your mixing console.

It is also possible to have a multi-split Regional Container (such as 3, 4 or 5 splits) but not actually send any audio to certain Regions. An example may be a networked show that does not always transmit to the same locations/transmitters. Blank Container entries can be accomplished via the following format:

#mAirList BEGINREGIONCONTAINER container title
#mAirList BEGINCONTAINER Container
C:\Audio\Jingles\Top of Hour - Region 1.mp3
#mAirList ENDCONTAINER
#mAirList BEGINCONTAINER Container
#mAirList ENDCONTAINER
#mAirList BEGINCONTAINER Container
C:\Audio\Jingles\Top of Hour - Region 3.mp3
#mAirList ENDCONTAINER
#mAirList ENDREGIONCONTAINER

You may also include a Regional Container within a normal M3U music playlist by using the new parameter #mAirList INCLUDE C:\folder\regional container.m3u. Using DateTimeFormat tokens, you could (for example) schedule your regional advert breaks within StationPlaylist Creator by entering #mAirLIST INCLUDE C:\Regional Ad Breaks\Ad Break %D(format).m3u which would give you the following output: #mAirLIST INCLUDE C:\Regional Ad Breaks\Ad Break Mon 01 Jan 1858.m3u for a Timed Break Note. Details for the %D format are contained in the Help for StationPlaylist Creator.

For details on scheduling software and how they work with mAirList, see the Scheduling article for more information and walk-throughs.