Easy Player Basics

Overview and Uses

The Sound Mill Easy Player is designed to provide a very simple interface that can play Sound Items and/or run Automation Scripts. It is designed for several uses:

• Operation by Wireless Remote Control Devices  - Standup performers, such as magicians, story tellers, etc., may want to control Sound Mill audio from a remote control device in their pocket. The Easy Player will work with standard presentation remotes designed to run Power Point presentations or Windows Media Player; as well as programable remotes including some cell phones via a software add-in; other wireless input devices such as number keypads.
• Kiosks  - You can create an audio Kiosk and allow customers or visitors to play the audio directly from any kiosk device, touch screen or laptop. Show Mode will hide all Player edit function from Kiosk users.
• Easy UI for Novice Operators  - The intuitive Player user interface (UI) will allow operators who are not trained on Sound Mill to operate the sound design in show scenarios.

Basic Player Operation

1. Create a Sound List  - Or open any existing Sound List. Then open the Easy Player window.
2. Create a Playlist  - Click File -- New Playlist.
3. Add Sound Items  - You build a Playlist by adding Sound Items via Edit Playlist - Choose Sound Items for Cue Buttons.
4. Rebuild Player  - Rebuild the Player via Actions -- Rebuild Player. A Cue Button is added to the Player Cue Button Table for every item added in the previous step.
5. Play  - You can now push/click any Cue Button (via mouse click or keyboard Enter/Spacebar key) to play the associated Sound Item.
6. Keyboard Navigation  - You can navigate the Cue Button Table with the keyboard via the Arrow keys ( Left, Right, Up, Down arrows or Tab key). The current focused (active) Cue Button is hightlighted.
7. Playback Controls Panel  - A Playback Controls Panel is provided for mouse operation to Play, Stop, Pause, Resume and Move Focus to the Next or Previous Cue Button or use the Actions keyboard shortcuts.
8. Save Playlist  - Click File -- Save Playlist. Playlists are saved within the Sound List file.

Figure 1. Sound Mill Easy Player

Customize Player Look and Feel

The visual look/feel of the Player is completely customizable including: a Player Background Image, a Marquee Image, Title, and Description. Visual styling such as fonts, colors, size, spacing and more are available. In fact, each player Cue Button could have its own look/feel if you wanted/needed it. When the Player enters Show Mode, the Window Title bar, menu bar and status bar are hidden, leaving just the content of the player window showing to the user.

Figure 2 depicts a sample custom visual design for a touch screen museum kiosk. Each Player Cue Button has its own image and uses Opacity for a partially transparent background. There is a custom marquee image for "Darwin Museum". You can see the Elephant Cue Button is highlighted in reverse video since it is the selected Cue Button. The player has a background image of the African plains for visual impact. And the playback controls button panel is hidden (as a design choice).

Figure 2. Easy Player - Sample Custom Visual Design for Kiosk