RCS's playout product is called Zetta (their older product, NexGen, is also still in use at some stations). This article covers the practical issues we see most often, plus where to get help directly from RCS.
Where to find RCS's own documentation
RCS run their support operation at rcsworks.com/support, with a customer portal called My RCS for registered users, and a tips & tricks page with practical advice from their own support team.
Audio files that won't import or play correctly
Not every audio file plays nicely with Zetta/NexGen straight away — some files need their header data normalised before the library will read them (and their metadata) correctly. RCS provide a dedicated tool, AFC (Audio File Converter), for exactly this. If you're bulk-importing a library, ask RCS support about their library-import utility rather than importing file-by-file.
New hardware (Opto/Source/Relay) not recognised
If you've added new hardware components to a NexGen setup, the application needs a restart on the audio server to detect them. This takes anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes — RCS's own guidance is that it's safe to do this while a song longer than about 3:30 is playing, so it doesn't interrupt the broadcast.
ASI sound card driver version
If you're running RCS's ASI audio hardware, make sure you're on their currently approved driver (check RCS support for the current recommended version, as this updates periodically) — older ASI60xx/61xx cards (revision A–E) need an older driver than newer revision F+ cards, so don't assume the latest driver is always correct for your specific card.
For anything beyond the above, RCS's own support team will need to get involved directly — but if you're not sure whether something is a Zetta issue or a VM issue, contact us first and we'll help narrow it down.
