Digital Workshop

I have a page with multiple text objects which are initially hidden and display as needed. When a text object shows it triggers the playing of a WAV file which actually speaks the text contained in the text box. (These WAV files are all generated by TTS software.) These WAV files range in size from 220KB to 3.4MB.

By using the Synchronise To End trigger I have no problem with correctly playing a sequence of WAV files.

This is going to be a pretty big pub, so I thought I might make things more interesting by playing some background music to the speech. I have suitable music in either CDA, MP3 or WAV formats (thanks to Rob Kirkwood from VisibleForm.) The file I have used in this experiment is 4MB.

The original speech WAV files are set to:
1. Play once
2. Preload
3. Initial volume 100%
4. Channel - Auto.
5. Wait for sound to finish... is NOT set.

When I added the background music, I used these settings:
1. Play continuously. As a minimum I would like the music to play during the display of the page, but would prefer to have it continue when pages change.)
2. Preload
3. Initial volume 70%
4. Channel - initially I left it set to Auto, but when problems arose, I selected specific channels.
5. Wait for sound to finish... is NOT set.

With background music added, I can successfully play the speech and background music once. On subsequent replays (in preview -- I haven't tried publishing yet) the speech plays, but the music doesn't.

If I reset the music channel to any other choice, everything works fine for one play only. Resetting the channel agan solves the issue for one play only. So, for the moment I have abandoned the idea of using background music.

This is not a major issue, but I would like to know if it is possible to do this and would appreciate any advice -- just in case I'm missing the obvious.

Hi Ray,

Thank you for your enquiry.

I have tried to reproduce the issues you describe, but all sounds appear to play correctly every time the publication is previewed.

Please find attached the publication and sound files which I have used to test this. Could you please try opening this publication into Opus and test to see if the problem can be reproduced?

If the problem persists, it would suggest that there is either a corruption in your current installation of Opus, or a problem communicating with your DirectX components or soundcard drivers. The following procedure should address these possibilities:

Please visit www.microsoft.com/windows/directx and follow the instructions given at the web site to locate, download and install the latest version of DirectX.

Once DirectX has been updated and the system restarted, please use the following procedure to update your graphics drivers:

- Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > System

- Select the Device Manager tab (if you are using Windows 2000 or XP, you will need to select the Hardware tab and then click the Device Manager button)

- You should see a list of hardware types currently installed on your machine. Click on the plus-sign next to the Sound, video and game controllers entry to display the corresponding components

- Make a note of the make, model of your soundcard and any other information displayed

- Now visit the manufacturer's website. In most cases, the soundcard will be SoundBlaster-based and you will need to visit www.creative.com, but if you do not have a dedicated soundcard (i.e; the audio chipset is on the motherboard) you may need to visit the motherboard manufacturers website

- Access the Support section of the web site and find the Download Drivers area

- Follow the on-screen instructions to locate the latest drivers for your model of sound card. Once located, download and install the drivers using any advice given on the manufacturer's site.

Once the latest drivers have been installed and the system restarted, please use the following procedure to cleanly reinstall and update Opus Pro:

Please first uninstall all versions of Opus from your system. To do this, click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs. Look through the list of installed programs for any references to Illuminatus Opus, Illuminatus Opus Pro, Opus Pro XE, Opus Presenter, Opus Pro 04 or Opus Presenter 04. If found, click on the entry to highlight it, then click the Remove button to uninstall the software.

Once all versions of Opus have been uninstalled, please right-click on your Start button and select Explore... Navigate to C:\Program Files and look for any folders referring to Illuminatus Opus, Illuminatus Opus Pro, Opus Pro XE, Opus Presenter, Opus Pro 04 or Opus Presenter 04. If found, simply click on the folder to highlight it, then press Delete on the keyboard.

Once all Opus program folders have been deleted, click Start > Run, type regedit and click OK. Double-click on the HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder to display its contents. Double-click on the Software folder to display its contents. Now single-click on the Digital Workshop folder to highlight it and press Delete on the keyboard. Click Yes to confirm the deletion. Now please close the Registry Editor using the X icon in the top-right of the screen.

Now reinstall Opus Pro from the original CD-ROM. Once installed, please launch Opus Pro and click Help > About Opus Presenter > System Information. If your version number reads 04.10, 04.21 or 04.30, please close Opus Pro, then download and install the latest Service Release from:

ftp://ftp.digitalworkshop.com/pub/opusu ... 04_SR4.exe

This should update your Opus Pro 04 installation to the latest version. Now launch Opus Pro 04, create a blank new publication and see if you can replicate the audioissues previously encountered.

Kind regards,

Hi Robin

I previewed the file you posted, and the sounds appeared to work as expected.

Interestingly, when I opened the action panel, I saw the same Synchronise <> that we have been discussing in another matter. See attached file.

Was this the same when you prepared it?

Yes - the angled brackets were empty when I created the publication and I have notified our developers of this issue. However, it does not seem to adversely affect the behaviour of the publication.

Kind regards,