Want to send Now Playing song data from RCS Zetta to your RDS Encoder, Website, or Streaming Server? MetaRadio makes this possible. This article explains the setup of MetaRadio and RCS Zetta.

For other setup guides, see out MetaRadio Support Site.

Prerequisites

• MetaRadio installed on your PC
• RCS Zetta installed on your PC
• Access to an Administrator user account in Zetta
• Network connectivity between Zetta and MetaRadio PCs

Configuring RCS Zetta

RCS Zetta supports a “Now Playing Export” (“Billboard” in earlier versions) output. This is configured in the Configuration > System settings menu, and runs in the Startup Manager on one of your Zetta Workstations.

Zetta sends XML data from a designated computer, TO MetaRadio on any other networked computer. To achieve this, you must have a TCP Port opened in your firewall between Zetta and MetaRadio. MetaRadio automatically adds a Windows Firewall exception, so you will only need to add a firewall rule if your two computers are on different networks/subnets/VLANs.

To setup Zetta, follow this process:

1. Open RCS Zetta on any workstation and login as an Administrator (e.g. ‘Supervisor’)
2. Click “Configuration” > “System” in the top menu
   
3. Open the “Now Playing Export” tab.
   
4. Fill out the details as follows:
   1. Name: Enter any name (we recommend “MetaRadio” and your station’s name)
   2. Active: True
   3. Station: Select the radio station you wish to send to MetaRadio (if you have multiple stations, you’ll need to complete this process for each one)
   4. Computer: Select any workstation with network access to MetaRadio (must be running all the time)
   5. Format: Zetta Lite
   6. Output: (leave blank)
   7. Number of Items: Set this as the same number of Play Devices you have for this station
   8. Data Encoding: UTF8
   9. Device: TCP
   10. IP Address / Computer Name: Enter the name or IP Address of the computer running MetaRadio
   11. IP Port: Select any unassigned TCP Port Number. Each Station must have its own port number. This will also be mirrored in MetaRadio. If in doubt, enter ‘3601’.
   12. Connection Style: Close connection after each message
5. Save your changes in Zetta
6. Open the Statup Manager on the Zetta Workstation as selected in step 4-4, and check “Now Playing Export” is started.
   

That’s it for the Zetta side of things. Now we can move over to the MetaRadio setup.

Configuring MetaRadio to talk to RCS Zetta

1. Open MetaRadio Config
2. Add a New Station
3. Select “ZettaXML” from the dropdown menu
   
4. Enter the IP Port Number as specified in RCS Zetta.
   
5. Enter the Datetime Format for your system.
6. Save Station Details, and Save the global settings in the app.
7. Restart the main MetaRadio app and confirm Zetta is connected. You should see the TCP Port Number, and information displayed whenever the current on-air song changes.
   

Now that MetaRadio is receiving data from Zetta, you can configure any outputs (RDS Encoders, Website, Streaming Servers, etc.) as needed.