[rfu-automation] Re: Automation Software

[Andrew Ó Baoill]

My understanding of what we need from any system we move to:
- Ability to play from a looped/random-play playlist on an ongoing basis
- Ability to schedule "play from this folder" at fixed times and on  
delay ('after track finishes') basis. [This is how we play IDs,  
podcasts, promos, PSAs]
- Ability to play from webstreams for fixed periods of time [Radio  
Bilingue, WRN]
- Easy to use - our volunteers need to be able to learn and operate  
the system without much training or technical background

We currently use mp3 and webstreams. We may want the ability to play  
WAV, ogg, etc.

Desirable:
- limiter/compressor, or similar, to ensure standard volume range on  
audio while unattended
- Free [close to free may be feasible]
- Web/internet interface, so we can add/remove tracks remotely, and  
hopefully modify the scheduled events without needing to be on-site.  
[Zara isn't good for this - at present we need to use RDP clients to  
add content to folders, and can't change the scheduled playlists.]
- It would be useful to be able to use this both for automation and  
as an in-studio audio-control system. [We haven't made use of Zara's  
abilities in this regard, or its ability to present weather, etc., on  
screen, which would make this a useful interface for volunteers -  
particularly if we could easily integrate IM / mail].

The Google solution appears to be 'pay for play', so to speak [they  
ask you to talk with them before giving more details about the system  
- always an indication of high prices.]

Campcaster seems appealing, but I'm not sure of their ability to  
schedule regularly-repeating content [play War News Radio every  
Monday at 4:30], to draw 'random track(s) from folder' instead of  
named tracks, or some similar existing functionality. It does appear  
to be attractive for generating in-house news content, a medium- to  
long-term project of mine.

I don't have time to examine the other options at present myself -  
perhaps someone else could give some short reviews?

Andrew

On 2 Aib 2008, at 12:00, rfu-automation-request at lists.chambana.net  
wrote:
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>    1. Automation Software (Noel L. Vivar)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2008 01:41:29 -0500
> From: "Noel L. Vivar" <nlvivar at gmail.com>
> Subject: [rfu-automation] Automation Software
> To: "Tech WRFU" <rfu-tech at lists.chambana.net>,	"WRFU Automation"
> 	<rfu-automation at lists.chambana.net>
> Message-ID:
> 	<c3649b070804012341y482b9a31j3dbce56620bea529 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Just in case we ever think about moving away from ZaraRadio for our
> automation software, Here's a list of RoboDJs that I've found over the
> years:
>
> ZaraRadio
> http://www.zararadio.com/index.php?centro=main.php&lang=en
>
> Google Radio Automation
> http://www.google.com/radioautomation/index.html
>
> Campcaster
> http://www.campware.org/en/camp/campcaster_news/
>
> Rivendell
> http://www.rivendellaudio.org/
>
> Soma Suite
> http://www.somasuite.org/
>
> Page that collects a bunch of OSS automation pages
> http://ross.sourceforge.net/
>
> Broadcast Power
> http://www.bp2x.com/
>
> MediaBox 404
> http://www.mediabox404.org/Main_Page
>
> ARAS
> http://aras.sourceforge.net/index.html
>
> AutoRadio
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/autoradio/
>
> JRadio
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/freeradioj/
>
> SongCue
> http://www.songcue.com/
>
> We would also want to fix all the gain problems with the MP3 files
> that we have. Here's something that I found for that...
> http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/
>
> -- 
> Noel L. Vivar
> 505 East Clark Street, Apartment 24
> Champaign, Illinois 61820-4420
> mobile.630.740.5775
> Noel L. Vivar
> 655950143
>
>
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> End of rfu-automation Digest, Vol 24, Issue 7
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--
Andrew Ó Baoill
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  
- -
Inst. of Communications Research, U. of Illinois
Communications / Participatory media / Political action
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  
- -
andrew at funferal.org / baoillo at uiuc.edu
aim: funferal at mac.com
+353-87-241-7003 / +1-(217) 384-3142
http://funferal.org / Galway, Ireland / Urbana, IL, USA