On Friday October 12th, 2012 version 2.5 of Zetta touched down on planet earth. Zetta is the “best of both worlds,” best features of both Master Control and NexGen Digital and when a new release of Zetta comes out, we get very excited here at RCS.
Back in the 90’s, I read about NexGen’s predecessor (Audio Wizard) and what struck me was how advanced the data sharing was between sites. I worked for a group that had stations located about 30 minutes from each other in southern New Hampshire. We frequently had to get commercials from point A (the mothership with the majority of the voice and production talent) to point B (smaller satellite facility with less staff, and not much of a production studio). We would record the spots to tape across an Intraplex that was attached to our point to point T1 line. The fact that a company had figured out how to take those commercials and send them as files from one location to another was revolutionary back in those days; like sending a man to the moon. I wanted to work for that company and now do.
As we added more functionality to that original concept, NexGen Digital led the industry in how data sharing is done. Over the years we made the system more efficient and easier to use. “Wancasting®” takes data sharing to a new level and it’s just one of the additions to version 2.5 of Zetta. You might say, it’s out of this world.
In addition to improvements on legacy features, we’ve added some new features that were asked for in the past, but due to computer and OS limitations we could not deliver until now. Now we can go where some systems have never gone before.
This year, we added the ability to define your own audio types. In addition to the stock “songs and spots”, you can create a type with a custom name and lock them down so that they are only visible to those with rights.
Zetta now does what we call “Splits™”, which is the ability to air different commercials and IDs on regional versions of the same stations. “Splits” is the perfect solution for medium and large networks.
We also added another legacy NexGen Digital feature to Zetta. Now you can apply custom colors to Hotkeys. And we also added the ability to override the output, which gives the operator the ability to change the hotkey’s audio stream playout.
One of the great Master Control features has come home to Zetta 2.5: “Stretch to ETM” which allows you to time out an hour and then narrows it down to what items should be stretched (or squeezed) depending on the hour.
All of this continues the tradition of creating the most flexible, user friendly digital playout systems in the universe. Oh, and one more thing. We’re in the final stages of the planning of Zetta version 2.6, which will include just as many new features, if not more. So, stay tuned.