matthewdooler / star-broadcaster

Radio playout software

STAR Broadcaster

STAR radio playout software

Attribution

mp3agic - https://github.com/mpatric/mp3agic/tree/master Media icons by Tango - http://tango.freedesktop.org/

• Used under Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 Netherlands license
• https://www.iconfinder.com/icons/118785/eject_media_icon#size=128

star-broadcaster's Issues

Play/Pause/Seek/Eject

Design GUI

Normalise audio on-the-fly

Normalise the volume on playout rather than on import, if possible. This way we can leave the original files intact.

Populate channels automatically from playout queue

Automatically fill in empty channels with tracks from the playout queue, and automatically clear out tracks that have played. Make sure we ignored disabled channels.

Log playback and implement view

Log a list of tracks played, along with timestamps and durations. We could also do very simple stats - such as the number of tracks played each month, or the hours of broadcasting done.

A play should be logged when play is pressed. Ignore loads/pauses/stops, but keep logging new entries every time play is pressed - even if for the same track.

Database should store relative filenames

All the files get stored on a shared directory on the server, and the database stores their relative filenames.

The client has a setting that points to the shared directory from their perspective (may be a mapped drive, or simply a path if on linux). They can then load the file using this and the relative filename.

Support MP3 Playback

Turn channels on/off

People might be overriding one channel with their own input (e.g., keyboard) so they wouldn't want tracks getting pushed onto that channel.

Integrate with the website to get schedule info

This is yet to be developed on the website-end, but I'll provide a REST API to get schedule information.

Output playout logs as txt, csv, json or pdf

Choose tracks from tag cloud of genres

Cores

All Core features should be implemented

Design a logo

We're not adding any more monkeys...............

Fullscreen mode

AutoDJ

Convert WAV files to FLAC

Playout to multiple channels

Playout to any number of audio devices/channels

Store track metadata in database

MySQL running on the storage server

support audio cards/audio interfaces

this may be the most difficult and tricky part

Integration with SRM desk

This is a really really optional low priority feature, but it'd be nice if we could get the Start buttons working with the channels.

Search function

Should be able to search tracks and artists.

Drag track into channel

People might want to drag tracks directly into certain channels

Drag track into playout queue

Play sound

remote control should be over ssh? vnc?

Auto-updater

Application should auto-update when changes are pushed to production.

AutoDJ flag

So that we don't play random rubbish

Support FLAC Playback

Auto-activate AutoDJ

I think these are good criteria:

• On-air silence
• No mouse movement
• Nothing currently playing in a channel

If all of these are satisfied for over two minutes then AutoDJ should kick in. There could also be a timer in the GUI that starts counting down once all of the conditions are satisfied. This should encourage shows to keep the air filled, as they'll lose their playlist if they don't bother having anything playing.

Justifications..

• On-air silence is a great method of detecting inactivity because it's the only way of knowing if people are using the mics instead of the computer. Only problem with it is the 30 second delay, meaning that AutoDJ might come on at the start of a talk show if the previous show left just over 2 minutes ago. But we can just make shows aware of this, and tell them to wiggle the mouse if they see the countdown approaching 30 seconds.
• Mouse movement is important too because we don't want to mess around with stuff when people are setting up.
• It's also important to check that nothing is playing in a channel, as the mouse may be inactive during long tracks. It also addresses the 30 second playout delay.

Applying all 3 of these should give us higher confidence when making the decision to invoke AutoDJ, lowering the required time threshold and therefore resulting in an overall reduction in the mean airtime silence. Overall, we should now never have a period of silence lasting over 2m30s.

We should try to keep all of these configurable though, as we might want to turn one of them off (or if another station uses this, they may have no method of detecting air silence etc).

display clock