Setting up AutoDJ with Centova Cast

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Select an FTP application

To upload media for your AutoDJ and to add the media to your playlists, you will need an FTP application. Take a look at our guide on choosing an FTP application. The guide suggests using FileZilla, but you may use one of the other suggestions at the bottom or the FTP application of your choice. The guide will also show you how to upload files, although the folders will be different for shoutcast media. Your FTP connection details (including host, username and password) can be found in your shoutcast panel (CentovaCast) under “QuickLinks” in the left sidebar under the section called “FTP Client Connections”. Make sure you use port 21 (the default FTP port) and not port 80xx – the port on which your shoutcast server streams.

Upload Your Media

Once you’ve connected using those details, you will see a folder called “media” – this is where you should upload all of your music. Use the guide linked above to learn how to transfer files from your computer to your shoutcast server. If you already have playlists configured in CentovaCast, you willnot see them within the media folder. Upload all music files to the media folder and, after you tell Centova to detect your media (as shown below), you will be able to sort your music into playlists within the Centova interface.

Note: If you experience a corrupt audio file after uploading – where your song(s) sound like they’re skipping so much you can’t hear the actual song – try changing your FTP Connection setting for “Transfer Mode” to Binary (not ASCII or Auto) then re-upload your music files. Filezilla may be incorrectly identifying your music as text.

Enable AutoDJ

By default we do not enable AutoDJ on your account, although it is permitted on all but our free testing accounts. To enable AutoDJ, login to CentovaCast and choose “Stop Server” in the lower left corner. Choose “Configure Server” in the sidebar, then select the AutoDJ tab. Change the “AutoDJ Status” option to Enabled and click the Update button.

If you do not have an AutoDJ tab, then we have configured your account based on a template without AutoDJ – please open a support request mentioning the problem with a link to this article and we will re-configure your account to resolve the problem.

Have CentovaCast Detect Your Media

Once your licensed music is uploaded, login to CentovaCast and follow these directions:

  1. Choose “Media Library” in the sidebar.
  2. Select the “Update Media Library” option in the lower left hand corner. This will tell CentovaCast to scan your media folder and detect the music you uploaded via FTP.
  3. In order to start your server, you must first drag and drop some media into the standard rotation playlist. You can also create any number of additional rotation playlists scheduled for whatever times you wish, but you must always have some media in the Standard Rotation playlist to start with. Drag and drop the audio files you wish to play by default into the Standard Rotation playlist, then click the “Return to control panel” button in the lower right corner.
  4. Finally choose “Start Server” in the lower left corner to get things up and running with your new AutoDJ playlist.

If you have any trouble with this guide, please open a support ticket. Be sure to include at which stage of the guide you’re having trouble. Indicate the steps taken that got you to the problem so that we can attempt to reproduce it.

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Jordan Schelew

Jordan has been working with computers, security, and network systems since the 90s and is a managing partner at Websavers Inc. As a founder of the company, he's been in the web tech space for over 15 years.
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2 Comments

  1. nathan on January 17, 2014 at 10:09 pm

    does centova cast turn on the auto dj automatic when the computer crash or internet cuts off

    • Jordan Schelew on January 20, 2014 at 10:06 am

      Hi Nathan,

      That’s a great question! There are two situations to consider here — when you disconnect by actually opting to disconnect from your live stream and when you disconnect because you’re forced to (such as in your examples of a computer crash or internet problem). In the former case, an Icecast account will automatically detect the disconnect and resume playing from your AutoDJ (assuming it was configured to be playing).

      In the latter case, there’s a timeout interval setting you can specify within Centovacast (in seconds) that will detect when there is dead air and allow the specified amount of time before assuming you’ve disconnected and then auto resume AutoDJ. This also requires an Icecast (and not Shoutcast) account to function.

      Hope this answers your question!

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