»

[Flash@TMB]

One every 15 years or so The Moorings unveils a new jukebox. Today was one such day

The new jukebox can hold up to a whopping 1440 CDs.

Playback is in full bandwidth CD Audio (not MP3 - yuck)!

Selection is via a 19" touchscreen which will be located midway down the bar, where the DJs usually stand.

The day of the hand written inlay card is over So the regulars can breathe a sigh of relief, instead we have to upload inlay cards and track listings for each album. This is time consuming, so please do not expect all 1440 albums to be available on the first day. The selection is a little flakey to start with as there are still 100 CDs in the existing jukebox that will need swapped over, plus at least another 200-300 downstairs waiting to be insertion. The holdup is that we have to type in each track name, artist, year, shoe size, insert a JPEG of the album cover blah blah. Personally I reckon we were better off with the bic pens and coloured card. We'll be working hard to get as many CD installed as possible, but this will take a few weeks. It's only possible to crunch through 25 per day, and we're not on the case EVERY day.

We can include customers CDs, but these must be the original media, in the original packaging.

This is not an 'Internet jukebox' and there is no facility to download tracks from the Internet. Thus we retain some semblence of quality control - remember not everyone has good taste in music, or even good taste, or even taste.

Price is 20p per track. It only accepts 20p, 50p, £1, and £2 coins. Actually that's a lie. It will also accept 1p, 2p, 5p, and 10p, but those won't count towards credits.

There is a queue facility so you can see what's coming up, and how much stuff is waiting to be played. There is a facility for you to jump the queue, but this costs £1 per track extra.

We've been programming in relative levels between CDs to avoid anything sounding too loud or too quiet.

Please be patient because there are likely to be a few teething problems this week. It is conceivable that we may have to temp go back to the old jukebox until we iron everything out. But so far (fingers crossed) it's working fine.

Enjoy!

***

For anyone interested, bored, or wanting to be bored - here are the technical specs:

The jukebox is homemade/custom in that it has been assembled from various disparate components.

A powerfull Dell (I hate Dell too but they are cheap and solid) PC.

Two of these suckers:

http://www.kintronics.com/drm5004x.html#DRM-5004X

The system could potentially hold even more CDs if we ever bought more of those changers (but there are limits - the cellar is only so big)!

Each changer is kitted out with 2 head units which will make changes instantaneous as it will have the next CD loaded up and ready to go in advance. The dead load time (no CD currently playing) is 4-8 secs... but the jukebox is programmed to cache the first 10 seconds of every track, facilitating instantaneous playback!!! Having 2 units and 4 heads also gives us some resiliance should anything go tits up.

The PC connects into our mixing desk in direct digital AES/EBU via one of these:

http://www.rme-audio.com/english/digi96/digi96pa.htm

We are using some commercial jukebox control software that runs on Windows XP.

Coinage is handled via this:

http://www.microcoin.com/display.asp?entityid=887

And one of these:

http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html

The screen has toughened hammer resistent glass. It's also waterproof and designed for use outdoors in a kiosk or ATM:

http://www.tridentdisplays.co.uk/tou...stic_wave.html

The sound quality is fantastic, having the CD drives completely isolated from the vibrations helps a lot. It really shows off the rest of the sound system

[Camie]

That's fookin' ace.
Although will be sad to see the old one leave.
Have to admit the hand written card's were a bastard to read at times!

can i have the old one?

the new one sounds sweet, can't wait to go down and check it out.

[Flash@TMB]

Originally Posted by Camie

Although will be sad to see the old one leave.

Just for trivia, the first track played on the new one was Aerosmith - "What It Takes". Rather poigniant, brought a tear to my eye.

sounds fucking awesome, will have to check it out on satarday (oh, flash, arite if i come to the second:thopught gig on satarday? also the last day smoking is legal if i am not mistaken :'( )

[Tubthumper]

Flash, you made that jukebox sound like a beast. And I'm sure it is. I'll have to check it out sometime.

[Teabags]

so, the realy question is.................

is there any Rainbow? or Zeke?

[Marillionboy]

How fantastic. As I read it I thought it was gonna be one of those ones that hold zillions of songs and cost a pound a song, but as ever the Moorings comes up trumps!

PS Sorry I didn't bring the cast in on Saturday Flash, by the time we hit the town the bands would have been on!

[stuartmaxwell]

the jukebox is amazing. i seen it and touched it with my own willy last night

[psydoll]

I used my hands and it was pleasing but it needs ridiculous amounts of CDs in it before I'm suitably impressed to touch it with anything other than my hands.

Perv.