How to Capture Metadata from PlayIt Live into Rocket Broadcaster

Introduction

PlayIt Live is an inexpensive radio automation package used by many webcasters, featuring flexible pricing and a number of add-ons. Rocket Broadcaster can be run alongside PlayIt Live, or on another PC, as a flexible streaming audio encoder.

In this guide, you'll learn how to configure PlayIt Live to send track metadata to Rocket Broadcaster, so your streams can have accurate "Now Playing" metadata for your listeners.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following:

  • Rocket Broadcaster Pro
  • PlayIt Live 2.16 or greater

For this guide, PlayIt Live and Rocket Broadcaster should be installed on the same PC.

Note: Versions of PlayIt Live older than 2.16 required a special Now Playing plugin for this integration to work. This functionality is now built into PlayIt Live as of version 2.16, so we require upgrading to 2.16 or newer. This guide has been updated to reflect this newer version.

Step 1 - Configure PlayIt Live

After installing the PlayIt Live Now Playing plugin, we need to configure it.

In PlayIt Live, do the following:

  1. Click Tools->Now Playing
  2. Under Targets, click Add New
  3. Change the Target Type to "TCP/IP"
  4. Under Host or IP Address, enter "localhost"
  5. Set the Port to 9002
  6. Change the Template to: 
    {artist}}
{{title}}
  7. Change the Text Encoding to "UTF-8"
  8. Click OK to apply the changes.

Here's a screenshot of how the Now Playing Target configuration window should look:

PlayIt Live configuration

Step 2 - Configure Rocket Broadcaster Pro

To configure Rocket Broadcaster Pro to capture metadata from PlayIt Live:

1) In the menu at the top, click Broadcast->Metadata Capture.

2) Click the "TCP Server" tab, and enable "Allow other applications to update your metadata over TCP".

3) Ensure the port is 9002 and "Format" is "Two-Line Simple Text". If PlayIt Live is running on a different PC, click "Remote computers (via any NIC)".

4) Click OK to save your changes.

Rocket configuration for PlayIt Live

When the next track starts playing, you should see the metadata appear in the Rocket Broadcaster main window, and it will subsequently appear in your stream.

Step 3 - Test it

When PlayIt Live starts plays the next track, you should see the artist and title appear in the main Rocket Broadcaster window under "Now Playing". This metadata will be automatically sent with your stream(s) as soon as it is received.

Troubleshooting

  • If you don't see the metadata update in Rocket Broadcaster, double check that all your settings match this guide.
  • Check the Rocket Broadcaster log file for clues. (Help->View Log...)
  • Double check the port and IP are correct. If Rocket Broadcaster is running on a different PC, ensure the IP address you entered into PlayIt Live is correct.