Yes I emailed my feedback directly to the address the sneak peeks were sent to. Pretty much agree with much of what has been said above. I too found the artist pictures work barely half the time, when we had them before it seemed better, also agree with the issues concerning cropping of the photos and pixellation though some pictures look great. Another issue I've found is that if the background is white in a picture, part of the track info is sometimes invisible. The track history is also titled "NaN years ago". What does that mean ?

I find it a bit odd you can see your stats and station page and not anything else presumably we won't be able to test the scheduling of playlists etc until it goes live. One thing I'm not seeing which I recall in the preview videos was info about how much disk space you have left, presumably that will come when all the tracks are in the new version.

Just my 2 cents worth, I would like to see a tear away player. Many that listen are at work and having a whole web page open to listen, especially a flash based player/page is not an ideal set up for them.

I concur with the comments made by Tim and Keoll. I will not repeat them but now is the time to make Brandon aware.

I want to thank Brandon and Tia for their hard work so far!!!

Like all of us, I am intrigued and excited by the potential the new Loudcaster is intended to offer its listener and broadcaster community, but I did want to provide some feedback based on my own first impressions. I would like to preface my following comments by stating that I love Loudcaster and appreciate all the hard work that the Loudcaster team has put into this great product and service.

Background Images:
The amount of screen real estate used by the “Background Images” feels overwhelmingly disproportionate to the rest of the user interface and visually similar to the experience of watching a movie while sitting in the front row of the theater. I do like the idea of introducing images as part of the user interface, but I think incorporating them as a component of the “Now Playing” information might be more effective and visually appealing to listeners.

Custom Background:
After disabling “Background Images”, I do appreciate that I can still display my custom background image, but my uploaded background image now appears dramatically oversized and extends out beyond the screen. I realize I can create a new background image, but the new look does create a lot of screen real estate needing to be filled with a single, non-interactive image.

Toolbar:
The toolbar at the bottom of the screen seems a bit over-simplified, too minimized and non-intuitive to the average listener.

Volume Control:
There’s nothing indicating to users that the blue bar at the bottom, left of the screen is a volume control. I would imagine most listeners would fail to realize there is a volume control available and would suggest that using a more standardized type of volume slider would likely be much more intuitive and familiar for listeners.

Channel Info:
Links to my station’s Facebook, MySpace and Twitter pages should be more readily available, rather than requiring the listener to click on the “Channel Info” button. Also, the “channel info” should be readily displayed as part of the default station page when a listener arrives on my Loudcaster station.

Transparency:
The transparency of the “History”, “Chat” and “People” components makes the text in these windows somewhat difficult to read for the listener. I would prefer to have transparency as an option that, as an administrator, I could enable or disable depending on how I want my listeners to experience the user interface of my Loudcaster station.

Now Playing Info:
Tucked down in the bottom, right corner makes this information seem unimportant to the listener. From my perspective, the listener's default line of vision should immediately be able to see the “Now Playing” information without having to search around the screen for the information.

Again, I appreciate the opportunity to take a "sneak peak" at the new Loudcaster and want to extend my appreciation for the extensive effort that Brandon and the Loudcaster team have poured into making Loudcaster a great product and for their continued excellent service. I'm looking forward to the further evolution of Loudcaster and to being a part of the Loudcaster community.

I have a few minor gripes about the LC2 layout. The transparency of the chatbox, history and now playing feature is hardly readable for people with low visions. the problem is that that it used bright tranparent background. I think a dark background is much more suitable. also font need to be a big bigger and and bit bolder.

I will agree with other griping about the some minor drawbacks. uploaded imaging looking like it zoomed out if you have a large pixal image. the took bar in the bottom could be an issue for window users. I think it better to have the bar on top.

now playing info should also be showed on the top left or right hand corner.

I have to agree with wes about the Channel Info


that my 2 cents

Thanks for all the feedback. We've already started acting on it. Improving readability and fixing browser incompatibilities.

A few things:

You won't see any of the new broadcasting tools until your station has been migrated to the new broadcasting stack. This is a time consuming process and everyone will be given a date. Thopugh this doesn't prevent us from launching the new site.

If you find font sizes too small, use the built in accessibility features of your browser to adjust them. Control +to increase, Control - to decrease, Control 0 to bring back the default.

If you find the player too large, re-size the window. We're working on code a broadcaster can place on their website to open the player at various sizes.

It's a challenge to know which pictures will display well. It's a work in progress. Accuracy is also a problem for some kinds of content. So you have the ability to turn off artist image if you're not satisfied.

If you see something like "NaN years ago", you may not be on one of the browsers we fully support yet. Recent IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari.

Thanks for all the feedback. We have a busy week ahead of us!

Brandon, please by all means take your time and avoid going through any time table. it best tp avoid getting sloppy as much as possible

I would agree with Hool that it would be better to avoid a premature release for the final product rather than releasing to meet a deadline, if that's an option. I think making the "sneak peak" available to broadcasters in order for us to provide feedback for further development, while keeping the current Loudcaster in place as the public interface, would be a good idea, if it's practical.

I'm a big fan of Loudcaster and appreciate the hard work that Brandon and the Loudcaster team are putting into the new version. I'm very excited and anxious, but I would have no problem continuing with the current product for a while and letting the new version bake a little longer before serving.

I'll be happy to continue providing additional feedback if it can help to benefit the release of the final product. Thanks again for the opportunity.

Wes
www.revolutionradio.fm

One more thing, I don't see any type of "Live" indicator in the Guide or anywhere else for that matter :-).

We're trying to make Live better. Right now the Live indicator lights up whenever someone is streaming remote that doesn't meet the expectations of most people. Most people expect Live to mean there us a person live, on the air, hosting a show. People are actually seeking that out and they aren't getting it. We've had a boat load of questions about why a Live station seems to have no human at the wheel. I think what we'll end up with a Live indicator a broadcaster turns on and off as they want.

Hey staff

how much longer until my dj dashboard gets updated to the new loudcaster v2 version

let me know please

thanks

"that doesn't meet the expectations of most people"

I'm curious who "most people" are? I get on average between 5-10 request a week between Party Hitz Radio and 80's Party Machine and most are honored not only with the request being played, but with an email after stating that and thanking them for tuning in. While both run in automation, they are almost always manned (the few exceptions are while sleeping and hunting).

I guess my feeling is if the listener want to listen to some DJ talking about trivial topics, they can tune into terrestrial radio. Call me crazy.

A bit off topic, but while deer hunting I did tune to local radio and in the short time I had listened, I heard the same song 3 times in less than a day. It just reinforced my desire not to listen to their form of "Live" radio.

All I'm saying is when someone see's the word Live, they are expecting a hosted experience. Bagel Radio does a live show every Friday, and many other stations have live shows throughout the week and people show up specifically for the live shows. Live has been a source of confusion because when it's lit up 24/7. It's probably better to let someone turn the Live indicator off and on rather than show a radio station is Live just because they are pushing audio to Loudcaster.

Hey staff

will my dj dashboard get updated to the new version this week or not

i would like to know please

thanks

and take care

Regarding the "Live" indicator, my assumption is that most listeners would be indifferent as to knowing whether they are listening to the DJBot stream or a remote stream. From a listeners perspective, a "Live" indicator would seem to imply some type of "live" presence, such as a DJ, would be interacting during the broadcast.

I think providing the option for the broadcaster to choose whether to enable/disable the status of the "Live" indicator would be a reasonable solution, although it could be an option that broadcasters might tend to ignore, unless presented to them in an obviously accessible manner so they could enable/disable on the fly when broadcasting.

@golfing123 just use one of the links in the OP and then select Broadcast on the top right of the page to review your Dashboard.

@golfing123 - I can't give you an answer at this time.

I have some insights, but I just lost my internet access so it will be a while before I contribute. Basically, I am studying user centered design techniques right now, even as we speak, this quarter, so this is right up my alley.

And it's exciting.

I love the idea of being to turn off the indicator when I'm away from the keyboard. This way if a listener is listening from Loudcaster they'll know. One more thing I may suggest is an HTML code we can copy/paste into our website that would also give a Live indicator. Many of my listeners from iTunes like to listen via iTunes due to the fact that iTunes delivers better sound than the flash web player.

Speaking of your favorite player I'd like to see links on the Loudcaster launch page for your own 3rd party player. This way they can launch their player from Loudcaster's launch page for your station.

Real Album Rock
http://thelegacyradio.com
http://loudcaster.com/channels/151

Personally, I would really like a way to give the listener graft to my DJs and staff. It helps moral when they know how many people are listening at any given time.

Also, are going to get a way to look at our listener data for the month? It would be super neat to have that graph telling me when listeners are on during what times of the day. Something like that for the last 30 day would be awesome.

My last feature request would to have a bit more control over the background image I personally would like mine to justify the image to the top of the image and to scale by width no matter how big or small the image pixel count is.

Thanks for your time.

The sneak peak looks good. My question is with the stats. They are not reflecting the same number of listeners as the old site. Also, how can the history of the stats be tracked?

Also, will there now be a charge for shoutcast and mobile apps???

Hey brandon

can i get a sneak peak of the loudcaster v2 on my dj account please

thanks

Hey Brandon... I monitor this board every day, but seldom comment, because most of my thoughts are already mentioned, but I wanted to take this time to thank you and the rest of the team for the GREAT work you guys are doing...

Also, what about the total listening hours on the new site??

@Jacksharp - huge thanks!

@claddison - Stats and reporting are not complete. We're not changing your plan.

A mute button might be nice for station owners wishing to use the chat function while live.

'Caster 2 is gonna be absolutely killer.

Isn't the stop button the same thing? Not trying to be a smarty pants just a question. The song info still changes when you press stop but what would be cool is if you could enter chat without actually having to launch your station page so that way you could have it on another tab or have it as a tear away. Maybe even instead of a side player have the chat on the left side and your stats on the right so if a listener chats with you a response could be made and you can still manage your station and monitor chat.

A ban feature would be nice in case a gouge user starts trouble in chat O(I haven't had this yet but just want to be prepared for anything).

One good idea can spark many to follow lol.

I think a mute button would be good, in fact I've had people ask me about that very same thing lately.

are you dead serious Trip? you had people asking for a mute button?

I'm not so sure about a ban features since ban functions are prone for abuse.

Yeah Chris, go figure. Guess people don't know how to lower the sound without one. LOL

Ban, nah, just delete their comments. Don't think a ban is necessary.

Just briefly.

Yes, a mute button.

And yes, we know as broadcasters that the stop button means the same thing. We also know that a listener can open up a separate tab by right clicking when the music page is loaded to not interrupt the music.

But we're not here for us. We're here for listeners. And if listeners want a mute button, we should make one instead of berating them for not knowing how a stop button works. If listeners want a link to open in a separate tab, we should make the link open in a separate tab instead of asking them why they don't just right click.

Trust me. I have had this drilled in my head over the past several weeks via usability reports and school work.

It's not about the website designer. It's about the person using it.

You know.... DJT, I have to agree with you. Sometimes we as broadcasters forget why we are here. I have a habit of wanting things for my usability, and its nice to be reminded about what is usability for listeners, may be different from what us as broadcasters see as usability.

Just a quick heads up, there were many great UI improvements made over the last week.

Listeners want a mute button? If the station is muted by a listener then that station is still being reported as being listened to by the listener thus another occurence to be paid for. radiowayne thinks that if a listener doesn't want to hear a song, then close out the player.

But, then again, he could be wrong.
Wayne G. aka radiowayne

If we ever added a mute button, it would perform the same function as stop/start for that very reason.

While we have no mute button yet, the latest iteration clarifies the volume function and makes it a bit more obvious how someone would stop the sound. It functions like the volume controls on iPod/iPhone, Pandora and Spotify. All of which have no mute. They do have pause button but that makes sense because they are playing tracks not broadcasts.

FWIW, I primarily use Opera and the new version is working good. Just a few things I have noticed using Opera.

1. When pressing the Stop button, the music stops as expected. When you Click Play again, the music starts where you started listening, not where it should.

2. The volume control is missing. I do see the speaker indicating that is where the volume control is, but here is no control.

I have used Firefox and the only things that I can see as an issue are:

1. When a station firsts loads, the graphic only partially loads. A reload of the page will correct the issue.

2. The Stop and Play buttons are still partially viewable.

I was looking at the navigation buttons and they seem to be slightly cramped, being left aligned. I wonder what a center alignment would look like?

I also think a progressively taller volume control would be helpful with a slider control.

And, the box below the track info (station info box) could be moved to the left side of the player directly across from where the rack info used to be displayed. This just might give a more balanced look.

You may or may not have these in your cross hairs already, if so, sorry for bringing it up again.

I strongly recommend a far better and visible favorite/preset button. on the current station page the big red heart is worthless and sadly ignored. I mean no one has clue what it is unless you tell them but they hardly pay attention to chat feature either. so a better favorite/present button with the word preset or faavorite oooooor save station as favorite would be more direct.

The current revisions to the user interface are definitely an improvement. I'll break my comments down as follows:

Now Playing:
The larger display is much better. However, for clarification to the listener, it might be beneficial to add a prefix describing what the "Now Playing" information represents, such as...
Artist: Artist Name
Song: Song Title
Album: Album Name

Chat:
The new chat display is a significant improvement and much more readable. However, the "Block" option overlaps the "Delete" button on the messages which makes it a bit precarious, making it likely to accidentally "block" a user when intending to only delete an individual message from the chat board.

Volume Slider:
The speaker volume icon appears, but does not provide an actual control slider to adjust the volume.

Info Box:
Definitely good to have the "Info" box displayed seperately from the "Now Playing" information, but I would prefer to have the MySpace/Facebook/Twitter/Homepage links displayed within this box without having to click the "i" button. I would suggest replacing the "Creator" display with the social networking button so they are immediately apparent and available to the listener.

Background Images:
I have disabled the background imaging option, but would still want the option to upload and dipslay a fixed custom background design for my station.

People:
The images of fans in the "People" display seem a bit too small and should probably be resized to be more viewable.

For reference, I'm viewing the sneakpeak using Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 8. The current round of changes are certainly moving in the right direction and I will provide additional comments after more testing. You guys are doing a great job and giving us the opportunity to provide feedback is really appreciated.

OK, incorporated a bit more feed back.

@Wes:

Raising the font size on now playing does look better. A more descriptive now has been on the agenda, but it's a bit involved considering the variety of data sent to us between live and unattended broadcasting.

Larger people icons have grown on me too.

You actually can have your background image show without the slideshow. We probably won't be doing a fixed size background because a scalable background image can be adapted to fill out as much or as little of the area as desired. We just haven't provided any image specifications. We're waiting until we're done with tweaking the design.

We haven't put all the outgoing links on the top level view because the data shows significant traffic is coming from home pages, tweets and facebook pages. Since the people already know who you are, it felt like we were providing them too many non-radio options and causing some confusion with the social-like buttons.

How come I still don't have LC2 yet? I would like to try it also.

http://forum.loudcaster.com/discussion/240/loudcaster-sneak-peak#Item_1

This has been available to all broadcasters for quite a while.

Apparently, not me. I just clicked on the link and got this:

Permission Problem
You don't have permission to do that.

Same here when I clicked on it.

Brandon, thanks for the follow up and also for the continued excellent work that you and your team continue to deliver to us.

Background Image:
I absolutely agree that background images should scale with the browser resizing, so my use of the term "fixed" was a poor choice of words on my part. Scaling of the background image is definitely essential. I'll be curious to know how much of the actual background will be available for displaying an uploaded custom background image, because that background image option makes for a very significant means of imaging a station and for us to provide information, such as broadcast schedules, etc., more directly to the listeners.

Broadcaster Dashboard:
When navigating the available pages within the dashboard, if I attempt to return to the dashboard main page by clicking on the dashboard's "Home" button, it returns me to the "Station Guide" rather than the broadcaster dashboard.

Social Buttons:
I see your point and agree with the logic, and I do like how the expanded "Info" window displays. However, the minimized "info" display doesn't seem like it would effectively direct a listener's attention to get them to click for more info and it seems like web users have become so familiar with the availability of social network buttons that the interface seems a bit lacking without them being directly presented.

Volume Control:
I see that there is now a clickable level control for volume, but I would suggest that an actual slider control is more user friendly rather than a click-position control.

I'll leave my comments there for now and will follow up with more as I continue to explore... Thanks again to you, Brandon, and to the entire Loudcaster team for the continued effort to provide us with a great product/service and also to the Loudcaster community here on this forum for their continued friendly and helpful advice, suggestions and comments.

Wes
www.revolutionradio.fm

@starfox and @trip, try the link again. I am not sure why, but I think the thread it was in is not available to all broadcasters for some reason. Let me know if you still cannot access this link: http://forum.loudcaster.com/discussion/240/loudcaster-sneak-peak#Item_1

Sorry for the confusion :-(

The scaling background is the way to go. The graphics stays where it's designed to at all resolutions. Nice work!!

I like the fact that since the whole window needs to be open to listen, the whole page content is devoted to the station you are listening to. I think you are getting closer to a finished product :-)

@Wes

re: images - I try 800x1200. Keep anything you don't want cropped within the margins. Try 15% top and bottom margins, and 20% on the sides. For a full page feel, put artwork, patterns or colors or whatever else in the margins, but stick to stuff that can be cropped. A bit of zen moment, but imagine a flower in a field. You want the flower visible, so keep it in the margins. The grass around it crops or fills as needed to fill the screen.

We added external link icons. We'll have to get new ones made as they don't have the best look, but they are there.

Thanks to all for the feedback.
We've still got a to-do list of improvements to make, but we don't feel there is anything preventing us from choosing a go-live date and tackling some of the finer detail post launch.

I would suggest to rename the people button to fans

@brandon

For testing, am I able to upload a new background image to my sneak-peak site without overwriting the existing background image currently being used on my "live" Loudcaster station?

Let me know and I'll proceed accordingly. Thanks again for the follow up.

Wes
www.revolutionradio.fm
www.facebook.com/revolutionradio.fm

Oh right, ya...upload this to the Sneak.