Muzak

[oldies76]

It happens very, very rarely (blue moon variety), but when it occurs, this back-up feed always plays the same songs, always in the same order, which includes the 1981 set. I believe the whole loop lasts about 5-6 hours and actually repeats itself over again. I heard this once over Memorial Day weekend this year. There is dead air after the previous regular song has signal problems...then the alternate feed kicks in.

Bebel Gilberto's "So Nice (Summer Samba)" is part of this alternate loop.

Also "Summer's Place" by Percy Faith
"Summerfling" by KD Lang
"Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" - BJ Thomas

"The Coast" by Paul Simon and many others!!

[Darth_vader]

Actually Playnetwork is a sepearte company altogether, which provides services that are similar to those of Muzak. They are based out of Seattle. If I remember right PN was formed from the remnants of AEI Music that DMX didn't want when they bought out AEI in 2002.

(AEI were another Muzak-like service, actually founded in the early 70s as a response to Muzak, which were all-instrumental then. AEI conceived the whole "foreground music" concept--in fact their cmpany name was "AEI Foreground Music" until the mid-1990s when they dropped the word "Foreground" from their name. They were bought out by DMX in 2002.)

Playnetwork's delivery method, in general, differs from that of Muzak and DMX in that it is all on-site, meaning computers and CD-ROM discs. They don't have any satellite service of their own, rather opting to redistribute XM Satellite audio feeds.

@satech--
The PN computer definitely sounds interesting, and the specs you listed almost resemble that of DMX's higher-end Profusion systems (all of which are also dedicated Redhat-based PCs.) Does your machine use a micro-ATX form factor motherboard, like the DMX machines do?

Also, do the music files play back in your regular Winamp, or do you have to use some sort of non-standard (meaning DRM'd/quality-degraded) player programme?

[satech]

@satech--
The PN computer definitely sounds interesting, and the specs you listed almost resemble that of DMX's higher-end Profusion systems (all of which are also dedicated Redhat-based PCs.) Does your machine use a micro-ATX form factor motherboard, like the DMX machines do?

Also, do the music files play back in your regular Winamp, or do you have to use some sort of non-standard (meaning DRM'd/quality-degraded) player programme?

The motherboard is Mini ITX, which is even smaller than Micro ATX.  Also the system is completely fanless; the CPU has a large heatsink and is located under vent holes in the case.  I've heard about the special copy protection Muzak uses on its music files, but on PlayNetwork's system, the MP2 files can be used directly with any audio player (Windows Media Player, WinAmp, etc.).

[Darth_vader]

That sounds almost like the innards of the Profusion systems. On all I have seen, they have fans in the power supplies, but merely a heatsink over the CPU. Apparently whomever makes these machines must be trying to cheap out (personally, I can't imagine bringing myself to build a PC without at *least* a fan over the CPU!) Partcularly, the Profusion D (CD-ROM playback only) uses a mini-ATX motherboard, whilst the Profusion X (the big, fancy top of the line one that also has video playback) uses a micro-ATX. In general, they are just specialised PCs built of components you can get at the local Comp-USA.

Does your PN machine have a real plug-in sound card or just a chipset on the motherboard?

Neat little trick: assuming we're talking about MP2 as in "MPEG 1 audio layer 2" (such as used for the soundtrack in DVB-S streams and many imported DVD-Video discs) copy all the files to another directory, pull up a DOS (or whatever you use) prompt, switch to that directory, do "ren *.mp2 *.MP3" then record them out to a CD-R in ISO9660 format. If you've a CD player that plays MP3 files from CD-ROM discs, strap on your earphones and rock on.

At 48 kHz * 80 kpbs mono, you should be able to cram ~300 or so songs onto a single 700MB disc, or about 20 hours worth. Incidentally that's the same format the mono Muzak DBS programmes on Echostar (not the Encompass machines) go out in. For 750 files (assuming they are all the same format) it will probably take 3 discs to store them. (Fun for parties. ;o)

[vchimpanzee]

Actually Playnetwork is a sepearte company altogether, which provides services that are similar to those of Muzak. They are based out of Seattle. If I remember right PN was formed from the remnants of AEI Music that DMX didn't want when they bought out AEI in 2002.

(AEI were another Muzak-like service, actually founded in the early 70s as a response to Muzak, which were all-instrumental then. AEI conceived the whole "foreground music" concept--in fact their cmpany name was "AEI Foreground Music" until the mid-1990s when they dropped the word "Foreground" from their name. They were bought out by DMX in 2002.)

Playnetwork's delivery method, in general, differs from that of Muzak and DMX in that it is all on-site, meaning computers and CD-ROM discs. They don't have any satellite service of their own, rather opting to redistribute XM Satellite audio feeds.

@satech--
The PN computer definitely sounds interesting, and the specs you listed almost resemble that of DMX's higher-end Profusion systems (all of which are also dedicated Redhat-based PCs.) Does your machine use a micro-ATX form factor motherboard, like the DMX machines do?

Also, do the music files play back in your regular Winamp, or do you have to use some sort of non-standard (meaning DRM'd/quality-degraded) player programme?

I wondered what happened to AEI's background music. There was an instrumental channel called Lifestyle, more conservative than Muzak's Environmental, but DMX has no such thing. DMX has a very conservative channel and a contemporary instrumentals channel.

[vchimpanzee]

Getting back to the original topic, once again in my grocery store the volume on what I believe is FM1 seemed too loud. I was not going to go through another week like the previous week, so I asked for a manager. The young girl who showed up said she couldn't change the volume herself but had to wait for THE manager, who was in a meeting.

By the time I checked out nothing had been done. I was avoiding certain parts of the store (and even forgot to buy a bunch of stuff) but even then "Never Surrender" by Corey Hart and "The First Cut Is the Deepest" by Sheryl Crow plus some worthless Christmas tune had blasted from the speakers. Now this is not as bad as what I experienced back when they first switched to vocals at this store, but I let them know this was unaceptable and the next time I come in the store--Saturday at 9--they'd better already have it turned down.

I don't really want to hear any arguments about whether these songs are appropriate. If they interfere with my shopping experience, by definition they are intrusive, and we could be on our way back to my calling the chain's 800 number every week until it gets fixed.

And there's no way I would have waited for a manager 10 years ago. They would have gotten the manager up there NOW. Or else.

[Darth_vader]

As I understand it, DMX continued to produce the AEI programmes for about a year, then just blew them all away.

I have a few old CD-I discs of AEI's FM1-like programme "Audio Wardrobe" from mid-2003, released under a simultaneous DMX/AEI label and the series name "Soundscapes". I got hold of them via a friend who used to work at the local Meier & Frank store. AW is similar to FM1 but, like Lifestyle, was a bit more conservative and somewhat more mellow than Muzak's programme, with more of an emphasis on oldies and vocal standards. There's a good chance those discs might be the last several issues of AW to have ever been published!

It's a shame DMX decided not to keep that one going.

AEI's analogue satellite subcarrier broadcasts on (if I remember correctly) one of the Galaxy birds kept going until just a couple years ago, the last remnants of AEI. By that time they were merely simulcasts of the closest-related digital programmes DMX were running: an AC/oldies programme (specifically "Classic Hits Blend", one of my favourites and more FM1-like than Wardrobe), a classical programme, a jazz programme, an easy listening programme and a country programme. (There were only five, because AEI only carried five satellite programmes.) I don't think AEI ever transmitted anything in DVB, as I am only familiar with their analogue satellite service, but I could be wrong.

[Mike Sheridan]

I interviewed with Muzak a few years ago.  I may have mentioned this before.  When I was there the music was still being played off of CD jukeboxes.  The job I was interviewing for was in the technical department.  I got the feeling there were problems with the jukeboxes jamming.  I was told that because of the RIAA, Muzak was required to play the music off of CD's rather than audio files.  It sounded like a crock to me but I didn't question it.  The was interviewed by the head of the department.  This guy had no sense of humor, with all the warmth of an ice cube.  The money was way less than what I needed and the job far more demanding than what I was doing.

The music they played around the Muzak building was kinda cool.  It was kind of a hip standards format.  Made me think of a classy night club.

We have a Chicken & Biscuits place here called Bojangles.  I don't know who does their music but they used to play some great classic oldies.  The last time my daughter and I went in the music had changed to the new nondescript music.  Even my 22 year old daughter said it sucked. 

[Darth_vader]

"I was told that because of the RIAA, Muzak was required to play the music off of CD's rather than audio files."

That's what some of the people at Muzak used to tell us on their discussion boards. In fact, the operation is somewhat reminiscent of how they used to do it decades ago, only with CD players and satellite transponders instead of reel to reel decks and phone lines. And yes, their central CD machines are prone to failure, being mechanical devices sporting lots of moving parts, and sometimes you can even hear it over the air! Things like skipping, lock-groove, discs that won't advance when they are supposed to (see next three paragraphs) and the like.

And they are controlled by external computers yet. These computers apparently contain the track listings for all the discs, track cueing data, the programme sequence for the particular machine and day, and probably other things. One Muzak DBS "horror story" I like to tell to people is that of "England Dan & John Ford Coley Day": one day several summer breaks ago when I was at my neighbour's place--she was on vacation at the time--listening to Expressions (DiSH Net stream "AUD03", #925) "Nights Are Forever Without You" off of "Very Best Of ED&JFC" (Rhino R272568) was the next song in the sequence following off of some squealy-saxopone cut. (I don't mind saxophone music, but you can have too much of a good thing, can't you?)

So then, "Lady" came up after that. Then "Sad To Belong", "Showboat Gambler" etc. Listened to it *all the way through* on there and it was kind of nice hearing it again, my copy of that particular CD having been stolen in a car robbery about a year prior. So I finished up my work there, shut off the receiver and thought nothing of it. Came back later that afternoon, about six hours later.......and the same EDJFC CD was still playing on Expressions!

Well, it was a weekend and apparently their broadcast monitoring centre is pretty understaffed on the weekends. Called up the 800 number and navigated the usual maze of menues, before eventually reaching a human on the other end who worked in distribution. Had her put me through to whomever is in charge of monitoring the satellite programming. Turns out after talking to the guy that the computer controlling the CD player had crashed and he needed to reboot it! So after about ten minutes of dead air on Echostar, he did finally get the stream back up again, in the sequence it is supposed to run in.

Don't know if CD player glitches have ever been present on the EncLE streams (the coffee shoppe I frequent has an LE playing classical music and I've yet to hear a glitch on it; I hypothesise that the LE's audio may be sourced differently) but they do happen on DBS!

O.T.--Wish there was still a Bojangles around here. Now we just have Popeye's and some other newcoming chain called "Church's Chicken" (never been there) and although Popeye's isn't as good as Bo's, it at least fills the niche. At least Pop's definitely blows Kentucky Fried Crud's -ss out of the water! Too bad I have to drive 15 miles to get to it....

[vchimpanzee]

Getting back to the original topic, once again in my grocery store the volume on what I believe is FM1 seemed too loud. I was not going to go through another week like the previous week, so I asked for a manager. The young girl who showed up said she couldn't change the volume herself but had to wait for THE manager, who was in a meeting.

By the time I checked out nothing had been done. I was avoiding certain parts of the store (and even forgot to buy a bunch of stuff) but even then "Never Surrender" by Corey Hart and "The First Cut Is the Deepest" by Sheryl Crow plus some worthless Christmas tune had blasted from the speakers. Now this is not as bad as what I experienced back when they first switched to vocals at this store, but I let them know this was unaceptable and the next time I come in the store--Saturday at 9--they'd better already have it turned down.

I don't really want to hear any arguments about whether these songs are appropriate. If they interfere with my shopping experience, by definition they are intrusive, and we could be on our way back to my calling the chain's 800 number every week until it gets fixed.

And there's no way I would have waited for a manager 10 years ago. They would have gotten the manager up there NOW. Or else.

The problem has been solved. I hardly noticed the music last time, and that is as it should be.