These are the instructions for setting up the countdown

Table of contents

1. StationPlaylist Studio
2. Configuration
   1. [obs-websockets] (required)
      1. host
      2. port
      3. password
   2. [debug] (optional developer options)
      1. launchtime
      2. loglevel
3. OBS Studio
   1. Make sure your WebSockets server settings match those in countdown.ini.
   2. Add the countdown source.
4. Testing and Usage

StationPlaylist Studio

Go to Controls > Options in the toolbar or press Ctrl+O.

An options window should have popped up.

1. Go to the Now Playing section of the options.
2. Select the File Output tab.
3. Make sure the Secondary Output is Enabled.
4. Make sure the Maximum Tracks is 1.
5. In the Template textbox, type in %S exactly, as shown.
6. Set the Filename to the duration.txt in the folder you installed SPL-OBS. Use the ... button to open a file selector.

Configuration

Configuration is done via a simple INI file, called countdown.ini:

The above are the defaults, should something break.

[obs-websockets] (required)

Just copy over the values you entered while setting up the WebSockets Server.

host

Default: localhost

This is essentially the IP address of the WebSockets server, in 99.999999999% of cases it will be localhost, only advanced users (i.e. someone running StationPlaylist and OBS on seperate computers) should ever need to change this.

port

Default: 4444

The default port is 4444 which is also the default port of the WebSockets server. This can be changed but there generally is no reason to do so.

password

Default: obs-spl

PLEASE CHANGE THE PASSWORD FROM THE DEFAULT.

Do so in both this file and in OBS.

[debug] (optional developer options)

You generally shouldn’t need to mess with these, but if you want to anyway, here’s what they do:

launchtime

Default: 0

This is what the countdown starts at when you start the software. Useful for testing countdowns if you don’t want to open StationPlaylist and play something from there.

loglevel

Default: INFO

This is the amount of output the program provides in the console log. Possible values are: NOTSET, DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, and CRITICAL, in decreasing verbosity.

OBS Studio

Make sure your WebSockets server settings match those in countdown.ini.

See Configuration and Setup the WebSockets Server for more information.

Add the countdown source.

Add a new text source by going to + > Text (GDI+).

Call the new source countdown, with no casing or punctuation, then press OK.

You can ignore the properties window that pops up for now, by pressing OK or Cancel, either works.

Testing and Usage

Double-click SPL-OBS Countdown executable in the folder you installed SPL-OBS in. A window like this should pop-up. If a window briefly pops up then disappears, or doesn’t popup at all, check that your configuration is correct, specifically the [obs-websockets] config.

You should get a window like this: (colours may vary)

Don’t worry about the ERROR DEAD AIR! messages, it just means that the countdown is at 0 seconds, so either nothing is playing or the countdown has no idea that something is.

You can also now see the timer in OBS:

If you trigger a song update, by playing a song or skipping to the next one, you should see the update in both the program window and in OBS:

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