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Q-SYS Help Document

Last updated on Jan 16, 2026

Latest version of the Help Document .pdf can be found here.

🧳 Version 1.1.2: Here

The Activaire Curator v1.1.2.0 for Q-SYS is a music management plugin that allows users to integrate streaming audio and curated playlists into a Q-SYS ecosystem. It supports up to 128 audio players and features an adaptive UI compatible with various TSC-series touch panels.

Core Functionalities

  • Media Management: Supports both .mp3 (MPEG Layer III) and .m4a (MPEG-4) audio formats, though support for .m4a is restricted to older QDS versions (v9.10.* and below).

  • Offline Resilience: Includes a "Cached Tracks" property (1 to 200 tracks) that stores audio and artwork locally to ensure uninterrupted playback during internet outages.

  • Audio Control: Offers adjustable crossfade effects (time and type) to transition between tracks smoothly.

  • Scheduling: Features a built-in Schedule Builder that allows users to program up to five daily segments or "injectables" per stream.

User Interface & Integration

  • Adaptive Design: Reconfigures its UI resolution automatically based on the selected Touch Screen model (e.g., TSC-101-G3, TSC-70-G3).

  • Control Pins: Provides extensive control pins for integration, categorized by individual streams, scheduling, and overall system status.

  • Setup: Requires a pairing code generated from the Activaire website to initialize the connection and synchronize account streams.

Maintenance & Troubleshooting

  • Automatic Cleanup: A background flow runs every 10 minutes to remove expired cached tracks and artworks, managing local storage efficiency.

  • Diagnostics: Features an integrated Event Logger with adjustable severity levels (Error, Warning, Normal) and a Debug Print console for real-time network and function call monitoring.

Important Considerations

  • Format Selection: While .m4a offers roughly 3x better compression compared to .mp3, it is only supported in Q-SYS Designer versions v9.10.x and earlier.

  • Cleanup Buffer: The plugin's cleanup flow runs every 10 minutes. Your storage must have enough overhead to accommodate new tracks downloaded during that 10-minute window before the old ones are purged.

  • Common Assets: All plugin instances share a single "PlayablesArtworks" folder for station/playlist icons, which typically occupies about 20 MB for 2,000 items.

Audio Storage:

Disk Space Calculation Formula

The plugin generates a "unique suffix" for folders to allow multiple instances to run without interfering with each other's cleanup flows.

  • For .mp3 format: Storage $\approx (5.05 \times (N+1) \times Z + 20)$ MB

  • For .m4a format: Storage $\approx (1.55 \times (N+1) \times Z + 20)$ MB

  • What the letters mean:

    • N (Cached Tracks): How many songs you want to save in advance for each stream.

    • Z (Active Streams): The number of different music areas (zones) playing at once.

    • $ +20$: A flat 20 MB added to cover the images (artworks) for all your stations and playlists.