revisitting an Accessibility feature request

[jharris171185]

Hello,
I know I brought this up at one point, but can't find the thread where I mentioned it, so figured I would post again, and see if this has been given any more consideration. It is specifically a feature for those of us who use a screen reader, though others might find it useful too. It would be nice to have a short alarm, like a beep of some sort, play on a specific sound card, (not the primary one where our music is playing) when we approach the end of a track. I know how to find the area where it shows what's on air, and time remaining. But, there are times when multi tasking, that I had planned to say something on air, and missed my chance because I thought I still had more time.
I got the idea for this feature from an addon for the NVDA screen reader created for another broadcast software. Since I don't have the programming knowledge to make a plugin, and honestly a separate NVDA plugin isn't needed, since Radioboss is so accessible, it would be nice if you could just implement this one feature. If you want, just mmake it work under accessibility mode. The user should be able to define the number of seconds before track ends that the alarm sounds. This would be really helpful, since we wouldn't have to spend so much time tabbing around between the "on air" box and the playlist area. Since we often have to do so many other things at the same time we are broadcasting, it would be really nice to have this audio cue so that if we do plan to say something on air between songs, we have a bit of warning and can be ready.

 

[djsoft]

Thank you for the suggestion. I think we can add it as an option, when accessibility mode is enabled, to play this sound using the Preview device.

 

[jharris171185]

Yes, through the preview device would be perfect. Thanks for this.

 

[jharris171185]

Any progress on this? I would be happy to run this in a beta if you want before public release.

 

[djsoft]

Not yet, it's in the queue for the future versions.

 

[jharris171185]

I'm just curious as to whether or not this was or will be implemented in RB 7?

 

[djsoft]

I'm just curious as to whether or not this was or will be implemented in RB 7?

Not in version 7.0 I'm sorry; but there were some other accessibility improvements here and there in 7.0.

 

[jharris171185]

Just wanted to say thanks for implementing this, though a bit of fine tuning could be done. It would be good if the user could define the number of seconds before track ending the beep would sound. Right now, it is sounding pretty much at the very end of the track. Some might want it just like that, while others might want say 10 seconds warning. Also, it might be good to not have it sound on very very short tracks like music beds. But you have the idea right. Thank you for your continued work on accessibility of the program. You really are doing a great job!

 

[jharris171185]

After and hour of broadcasting I have been able to test things out a bit more, and can report that the beep is only sounding on short tracks like adverts, which is what I meant in my previous post, about how it would be better if it didn't sound on short posts, but I can report that on actual songs, it doesn't sound at all, which is where it is actually needed. So yeah, still being able to define the number of seconds before the end would be a huge help, as well as actually having it sound where it is needed.

 

[djsoft]

It would be good if the user could define the number of seconds before track ending the beep would sound.

This is controlled by the "Flash track ending" and there's an option to control time (in seconds how much before end it will flash/beep) - it's in Settings/Playback/Muiscellaneous.

Also, it might be good to not have it sound on very very short tracks like music beds.

There's also an option for that ("Exclude tracks shorter than...").

I can report that on actual songs, it doesn't sound at all, which is where it is actually needed

Probably they are mixed with the other songs earlier, before the beeping is supposed to occur.

 

[jharris171185]

Fixing flash finish fixed pretty much everything. I never used that before so it was set to 0.
Now, would it be possible for us to adjust the volume of the beep independent from the volume of the preview device? Right now, it's almost to loud. The idea is to be able to hear it and thus be ready, but for it not to be so loud that it's jarring. But volume level is something that lots of people may not agree on, so the ability to adjust it would be great. Otherwise, it is working now exactly as needed.