Voice Announcement not working right.

dphillips0914 · May 01, 2018, 10:43:14 AM

I got the professional voice announcement done with Casey Motter and it worked just fine for our first three tournaments but this past weekends tournament it would only play the music and not the voice announcement for the kids. Some would play it and some it would be just the music. I have Apple Music and using the Apple on a tablet. Everything is on the tablet and phones as far as announcements and music goes. It looks like in the app it is playing it but the sound is down or something. Does this have to do with the music, the app, or the announcements being made. I have tried reloading the app, reloading the music, import and export to another device, and also enabled and disabled the announcements. It plays just fine on the phone but when hooked up to Bluetooth speaker it started to act up. Need help please.

UpAllnite Software · May 01, 2018, 11:36:40 AM

First verify that you have the latest version of the App. The Apple Music support had some problems in the first couple versions and then iOS 11.3 added some bugs in the Apple system player which required work arounds.

If you are still having issues, could you tell me if you are doing the announcements before or after the walkout song? Could you also tell me the brand of bluetooth speaker you are using?

With that info, I could do some tests here to see if I can duplicate the issue and find a fix or workaround...

If you wish to just avoid any possible problems, I would recommend avoiding using Apple Music song sources for the walkout songs with announcements. Apple forces me to use and manipulate the system player and system volume for playing and fading Apple Music songs. It works pretty well when directly wired, but there are some bluetooth speakers that do not handle the volume change very well.

If you instead use purchased songs for the walkouts, then the app can manipulate the raw audio samples to do the fading and avoid any manipulation of the system volume.

dphillips0914 · May 10, 2018, 07:40:21 AM

1. I have the latest version of the app for IOS.
2. I have tried it both ways. Before the song and after the song. It works for the first player and then the announcement for the rest does not work. It acts like it is playing it but muted it no matter what and then the song is messed up and takes forever for it to come on. I am using a Monster RR3 Bluetooth speaker for the announcements and music.

UpAllnite Software · May 10, 2018, 09:22:52 PM

I have found a couple bluetooth speakers that are having issues with the audio session and volume manipulation that must be done to play Apple music songs. I just ordered and have received an ecoxgear ecoboulder that a user reported having issues with. I tested it and did indeed see the problem. I will be working on a solution starting tomorrow, but there is a chance it can't be resolved.

As a workaround, I would recommend just using a long aux cable to connect to the speaker. The problem does not occur if you eliminate the bluetooth. You can also just purchase the individual songs from iTunes and avoid using Apple Music subscription songs. Apple requires me to do some very hokey workarounds to play the apple music songs. With purchased song files, the volume fade is done using raw audio samples so there are no issues with bluetooth speakers.

UpAllnite Software · May 11, 2018, 01:45:14 PM

During initial experiments... it appears this issue only occurs with my iOS 11.3 device and not one with iOS 11.2.6. Can you confirm you have iOS 11.3 on the device that is having the announcement issues? I assume that is probably the case since you mentioned everything was working fine until last weekend. Did that timing correspond with update to iOS 11.3?

UpAllnite Software · May 11, 2018, 06:17:28 PM

I have a beta fix prepared for this issue. Please reply on this thread if you are having this issue and would like to try the beta.

dphillips0914 · May 15, 2018, 08:30:12 AM

I have IOS 11.3.1 on all my devices. Not sure if it matters with the .1 or the plain 11.3. I am interested in using the beta test if you would like to send it to my email. Let me know of any other questions you have about the problems.

UpAllnite Software · May 15, 2018, 08:49:52 AM

Ok, I will submit your email to Apple. Look for an email from them with instructions on how to install the TestFlight app and then you should see the beta available within that app.

Let me know if for some reason you don't get the email or having problems getting it set up.

Gelftwin · September 21, 2018, 04:04:27 PM

Did this ever get resolved? I recently just purchased the app and having this same issue. I am using Apple Music with a UE Megablast Bluetooth speaker. When I play directly on my phone it seems to work, when playing through the speaker sometimes it will play the name announcements, but most it will not. If it hit volume up when the announcement is supposed to play it seems to start playing(almost like it lost connection). I am on ios12 and newest app. Please provide any help or suggestions.

UpAllnite Software · September 21, 2018, 08:57:37 PM

Yes, this was resolved in iOS 11, but I have not retested with iOS 12 yet. I will try to retest that with iOS 12 in the next day or so and see how it works for me. The fix for the problem did require some kludgy delays to work around oddities in the Apple music player and the system volume manipulation required to fade the walkout songs. I would not be surprised at all if the new iOS requires tweeks of those delays.

Long term, if it was me, I would use a long aux cable to the bluetooth speaker or use purchased songs rather than Apple Music so my app can do the fading using the audio samples rather than the system volume.

Gelftwin · October 07, 2018, 08:55:43 AM

Any luck with an update for ios12? I had to resort to using an older device that I did not update yet for the games. Please let me know if there is any plans for an update soon?

UpAllnite Software · October 07, 2018, 10:07:54 AM

I have been working on the update and have it mostly working except for a few corner cases. I expect to submit a beta to Apple this week.

UpAllnite Software · October 09, 2018, 01:34:04 PM

A beta version 2.4.3 is now available to address the iOS 12 Bluetooth announcements issue. If you are interested in testing the resolution of the issues, please send an IM to me with your email address and I will send a beta invite to you.