Karaoke Forums

Hey guys.. I need opinions. I need to know what your favourite remote request system is and why.

I've burned through all of the options I see available to me. Am I being too judgy, or is this an untapped market that desperately need attention? I know the pros and cons. Local WLAN solutions = bad connections and usually program specific and blind (3 people could put in "Picture" and I'm completely unaware until it happens) or they are server hosted, which without location services can potentially result in singers sending in requests at the other end of town an hour before they arrive at the venue.

Or else they don't require login information and I could potentially have 6 different "Chris' " without being able to tell who is who.

SongbookDB - I love this for the most part, and Shawn is a pleasure to work with. However, the final product feels unpolished... especially if we dive into the apps. The price is too high for me for an unpolished-need-to-make-due kind of solution.

Luv2sing - In theory, I like this, however the clunky "Log in - then search for DJ before making a request" isn't very user friendly... a work around is to copy past a previously logged in URL and use that as a link. The interface has become veeeerrrryy slow on phones these days. Free, but frustrating.

KaraQ - My interest is there. And I have hummed and hawed about the ethics we all face with this solution. "Is the forced bump-bribe a good idea?" Jury is out for now, but I haven't ruled it out. This is the type of polished solution I want though.

Esongbook (KSF) - I actually haven't tried this yet and has earned my interest... however theres a video that is broken, and it looks like the site hasn't been taken care of in some time. Same price as Songbook DB. Questions arise.

MyCornerBar - Free. Clunky. Android App still exists. Apple App is gone. Can't do it.

KaraokeDJ.com - This is the solution I want. It uses a QC code to be at the venue, but still requires account info to manage songs and seems to keep it simple for the drunk patrons. Sadly, no email responses and a seemingly broken signup page.

Lastly, I'm still running JK2.0 with a license for Remote Request. I could be doing this for free, however the interface is beyond bad... All the functionality is there though. Everything is HTML, and ny web coding skills aren't up to snuff. I would have to hire a pro costing me some serious $$ to put it to my standards. The only trouble is, is I'm faced with the "Picture" problem listed above.

What do you think? Do you know of anything else? What's your favourite and why? Why is this market so untapped? Am I missing something?

*Sent while drunk*

-Chris

I use CompuHost's Remote Request System. Once you buy it, there's no monthly subscription. Works with a kiosk or a smart phone. It's great and my customers love using their phone to search my song library and sending in their song requests.

Please note: It is an add on for CompuHost. Meaning it only works with CompuHost, which you should be using anyway since it's the best karaoake hosting software out there. Nothing else compares to it. And not only is it the best software, but their customer support is outstanding unlike some of the others which I won't mention names.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

SongbookDB for me

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

SongbookDB
everything i could want, easy use, great Cust Service, customizable.
been with Shaun since first beta testing and will never go away.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

Out of all of those choices I like Songbookdb the best. Super Remote Request Tool for the most part was a good program but I never could get the phone app to work. Luv2Sing doesn't offer kiosk capability period and is way too complicated for a smartphone user who isn't tech savvy to use. Only SongbookDB offers the simple kiosk capability, phone capability, ease of use and can be used as a standalone program or linked to Hoster or Karaoki send the requests into the player without the worry about someone cheating the rotation system that I use. I think that its interface on the app is well polished.
I too was one of the first beta testers for the product. I took a hiatus because of originally not having the integration into a player but was drawn back to the original way that it worked because of its ease of use for my assistant, who is manning my mobile kiosk using SongbookDB in kiosk mode on a tablet.
I just switched over to Hoster, which was my first Standalone program thatI used before I found software with true Rotation management. Now that it has true Rotation management and the integration with SongbookDB, I have returned to it and as long as no other program offers all the features of Hoster and additional features, I have no intention of changing players again.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

SRT 1.0 From Tricerasoft? It had issues but great potential. I ended up using old Motorola Xoom tablets because the formatting on newer smartphones was horrible. It was also a complex setup, and you had to be on the wi-fi network.

I'm using SongbookDB (In stand alone mode) currently and I'm ok with it. I really wish it had some kind of a song double lockout. So if a singer picks a song we played or is in the cue, the singer would be asked to select a new song. At the moment I have to go searching for people to tell them we don't do doubles. Not bad with regulars, but with new faces... not so easy sometimes.

One good thing about SBDB is that you can catch all of the requests and filter out doubles, where as with integrated solutions, you're usually blind to them.

I'll probably end up using it again when I'm ready to go. I just wish I could turn off the rotation feature in the app as I want to use a tablet as a receiver.

what do you mean rotation feature?

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

He must be using the hosting app on his smartphone. That has a rotation feature that the desktop pc version doesn't have. The only reason that I wouldn't use it is because you can't cut and paste the information, you have to type it in. Why make it harder than it has to be. I could manually send the requests into Hoster by just clicking add but I don't. I will allow duplicate songs by different people with a few conditions. 1) there has to be at least time enough for 2 rotations or the original singer must have left. Otherwise no tepeats.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Indeed Danny, I want to use a cheap android tablet as a receiver for requests. I don't mind typing, but I've already got rotation managment.. don't need it twice.

Shaun has a really good product with this. Best on the market so far. I was just hoping someone knew of something I didn't know out there.

You can probably just use the input screen for transferring the requests over to your player. Nothing says that you absolutely have to use the rotation list.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

I use the "Rotation" feature in Compuhost. No matter how many song requests come in the rotation auto rotates perfectly with no complaints from singers.

quite a few times we have over 150 singers in rotation and no issues with the "Rotation" feature.

I haven't found an 'automated' rotation yet that does what I need it to do.

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wow....an 11 hour rotation....

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

considering our shows are 12hrs/day 7 days a week, that would be average, on Saturday nights we get an excess of 250+

I've informed kj's to use the "Rotation" and running smooth since last week. (Had issues with wifi so hardwired kiosks... rotation working perfect even though many previous singers don't get up for a second or third turn, most new singers all get their chance.

Koodos to CompuHost for this very nice feature. $$$ well spent.

wow....18 1/2 hour rotation on staurdays...one song per person

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

That is one feature that CompuHost and Hoster all got right in my opinion. I hate KaraFun's attempt at remote requests, 1) it only works with the streaming library - you can't put your existing library into it, 2) still no rotation management - without it that is way too much work involved to keep the rotation fair, all the other programs put in a rotation management system before even contemplating adding a kiosk or phone app capability. That said, I still prefer SongbookDB and Hoster over all the other options. But to each their own.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

and just what that might me?

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

I insert old in with the new, I will keep couples together. Not all new singers need to be lumped in at one specific spot if they all turn in at different times, etc. Just little things. And i'm sure you will claim i'm not being fair or this or that, but it has worked for me since 92.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

I run a first come first served method of rotation where new singers get to sing in the present rotation and do not hear the name of any singer more than once before they get to sing sing. It's not perfect but I believe that it is the most fair rotation that someone can run. I use the number of times a singer sings verses the number of times that I get to sing to determine whether or not the host is being fair. I guess that it can depend on what software you are using or if you are actually using the rotation feature that may be present in the software. I have a friend who uses RoxBox as his karaoke software and basically does his rotation by placing post it notes in the order of the singer who put in the request. Kind of how I did it prior to getting CompuHost. But then again I went to a sing one bring one format to try to keep it fair. I inserted the new singers between the last new singer and my marker that told me that I was at the end of the rotation. I usually used a different color paper to differentiate between what was the marker and a request. Haven't had to do that since the switch to Compuhost from RoxBox. My booth is a lot neater since I went to using a remote request system for the show.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.