AccessCaster 3.0.0

AccessCaster 3.0.0

AccessCaster has its own window

AccessCaster 3 is a Windows app. The web page is replaced by a Windows window: a tree of categories on the left and the chosen page on the right. F6 moves between them, Alt and 1 to 9 jump to a category, and Ctrl and Tab move between pages, or between tabs on a page with tabs. F5 reads the category from the desk again. Remote access has gone with the web page, so nothing outside this computer can reach AccessCaster, and it no longer needs a firewall rule. Installing over an earlier version offers to remove the one it added.

Closing the window keeps AccessCaster running

Your shortcuts and announcements keep working from the notification area, and opening AccessCaster again brings the window back where you left it. To have closing the window quit instead, turn off Keep running in the system tray on the App settings General page. If the desk is part-way through something, such as a restore, Quit tells you and waits.

AccessCaster tells you when there is a new version

Once a day, or as often as you choose, AccessCaster checks for a newer version and shows a Windows notification if there is one. Nothing is installed until you choose. Press F12 in the window, or use the tray menu, to hear what changed, then choose Install now, Skip this version or Later. Installing closes AccessCaster for a moment, then starts it again on the new version and tells you so. It only contacts updates.slightperception.com, and refuses any version that is not signed as ours.

App settings, on Alt plus 8

Everything about AccessCaster itself, rather than the desk, is in one place: announcements, keyboard shortcuts, starting at sign-in, saving these settings to a file, and updates. Help moves to Alt plus 9.

Install the desk's firmware updates

When RODE has a new firmware version, the Device page's Hardware section offers to install it. AccessCaster backs the desk up first, then lets the desk download and install the update and restart, and tells you the version it comes back on. It takes about five minutes, and the desk's setup screens may then need someone sighted.

Wifi: scan, join and disconnect

Scan for networks lists what the desk can see, and choosing one asks only for its password. Disconnect leaves the network the desk is on; joining it again needs the password.

The desk's state in the status bar

The spoken summary at start-up is replaced by the window's status bar, which lists only what needs your attention, such as a mute, a pad left on or a card nearly full. Read it with NVDA and End, Insert and Page Down in JAWS, or Narrator and backslash.

One clip warning

The level warnings are replaced by one switch on the Announcements page, Warn when the main mix clips, which says Main mix clipping when the main mix reaches full scale.

Holding the encoder mutes what it controls

A long press of the encoder mutes the channel or monitor it is on, including a channel chosen with its channel button, and the announcer says so.

Announcements start sooner

A moving fader's levels are heard while it moves, not only where it stops. Restoring a backup no longer reads out every level it puts back. Recording's sound can be speech, a tone or nothing.

SMART pads: restore only the pads

Pad maintenance can put back just the pads from a backup, leaving every other setting alone. A factory reset now keeps a backup of the factory pads, so they can come back later.

Auto gain and the level check are quicker

Auto gain says each instruction before its start tone, and each take is 15 seconds instead of 30. The level check starts and stops without a delay, and says quiet when the channel goes quiet.

Troubleshooting in the help

A new help topic answers questions such as my desk has stopped responding, I can't hear a channel, and my screen reader has gone silent.

Changes made elsewhere are spoken

When something changes on the desk's touchscreen or in RODE's app, AccessCaster says what changed, in one sentence. While RODE's app is open, it saves them up and says them when you come back to AccessCaster or close RODE's app.

The window keeps up with the desk

Pages update by themselves when something changes on the desk, so you no longer need F5 to see it.

Using RODE's app at the same time

AccessCaster tells you when RODE's app opens, and keeps up with what it changes. A new help topic in Troubleshooting explains how the two work together.

When no desk is connected

The window's title says no desk connected, and pages that need a desk tell you why they are empty instead of showing controls that cannot work.

Bank shortcuts skip empty banks

The bank keys step only through banks with pads on them, and never into the system bank.

A failed shortcut is heard with announcements off

It plays the failed sound, so you know it did nothing.

The clip warning comes back after an audio drop

If Windows loses the desk's audio for a moment, Warn when the main mix clips starts working again on its own.

Wifi scanning on firmware 1.7.7

Scan for networks lists what the desk can see, instead of sometimes saying there are none.

Unit is now desk

Everything AccessCaster shows and says calls it the desk. Your saved settings and shortcuts are unchanged.