Chapter 2 (continued) AUTHORING/ENCODING TECHNOLOGIES — OtsAV DJ

OtsAV DJ, (OtsAV Radio to be addressed in future post)
When I first wrote about the OtsAV product line, it was focused on what is now the DJ product.  OtsAV however, now offers a much wider array of products of interest to Internet Broadcasters of both audio and video content, professional DJ’s and webcasting hobbyists.
Here is a description of the current OtsAV product lines from their website.
“Focused on innovation and quality in developing professional, intelligent computer-based audio and video solutions since 1996. OtsAV DJ, OtsAV Radio, OtsAV TV, Ots Player, and Ots Studio are all part of the Ots Labs suite of products. DJ software, radio automation software and TV automation software are our specialty.
Discover why OtsAV software is unique – a breakthrough application allowing you to manage, play and mix music, audio and video, in an unprecedented manner with a standard Windows PC. OtsAV heralds a new age in DJ software mixing, TV / radio automation and AV enthusiast enjoyment. ”
My first breakdown was of the OtsAV DJ product offering as included below.
OtsAV DJ also falls into the classification of Webcast/broadcast automation software, similar to SAM2.  Running from a Windows based platform, the software allows a professional component to be added to the mixing process of creating a playlist to be Webcast.  Some of the features the software provides to deliver a more polished and professional stream include an integrated mixer, an integrated dynamics processor, integrated graphics EQ, pitch control and a real-time pitch-preserving tempo control.  In addition to a graphic equalizer, a dynamics processor is an important feature for audio processing.
The dynamic processor allows you to control the level or volume of all the audio tracks to be combined into your stream.  Because of variations in the recording process from one CD to another, it is unlikely that all the MP3s copied from source material will be of an equal volume, and thus when delivered in a stream, level inconsistencies detract from the listening experience.  The dynamics processor functions of OtsAV DJ solve this problem.  The product provides a full-fledged, pro-quality dynamics processor including AGC, compressor and limiter functions, allowing full control of the characteristics of each processor section.
The encoding capabilities are limited to MP3 files, which are supported by the LAME encoder, an open source development project that now provides an effective MP3 encoder.  The advanced versatility of OtsAV DJ is in the additional processing it provides of the source MP3 files.  Through a feature called Ots album files, the MP3 files are further compressed to reduce file size, while also adding the capability to encapsulate multiple MP3s in the same album file.
OtsAV Studio is listed on the front page description of Ots Labs products, but I could not find a current breakdown of its features, so I suspect that they are incorporated into the DJ software at this point.  However, back on 2004, here is how I described these features.
>>OtsAV Studio allows you to create Ots albums, which for example can include an original CD with all of its songs, correct titles and artists, genres, copyright information, and original cover art – all in one compact file.
Alternatively, you use it to create your playlist of compilation tracks, which can then be easily imported and mixed in OtsAV DJ as individual songs or as albums. <<
OtsAV DJ will handle the mixing of CDs along with the digital audio files, but this will be of limited value as the streams will need to be fully encoded into MP3, but should allow encoding on the fly if the CD track is not previously encoded.  It also provides for processing of a direct line in, so that microphone inputs for DJ voice-overs are feasible, and able to be professionally processed.
OtsAV DJ also offers compatibility with the SHOUTcast and Winamp plug-ins, so that the professionally managed files can then be streamed to a SHOUTcast server, which may be of interest to both personal/hobbyist webcasters as well as more professional ones.
Currently the DJ package is offered in 2 versions, “Silver” and “Pro” and I have discussed the features that would be present in both versions so far, and there is about a $100.00 difference currently in the pricing of the products.
Both show a powerful playlist generator as a feature, but to obtain the advanced scheduling capabilities attractive to webcasters to assure compliance with DMCA playlist regulations, I suspect you now have to look at the OTSAv Radio Webcaster package, so we will do that next.
More information on the OtsAV DJ package is available here:
http://www.otsav.com/dj-solutions/
http://www.otsav.com/radio-solutions/
http://www.otsav.com/esperance/