Airtime Infrastructure - Airtime Support Discussions on Sourcefabric Forum

Christian Lange

I struggle a bit with the Infrastructure for Airtime. I'm working here for a small radio. We have one studio and playing music from a network-drive. There is one laptop in the studio that is connected to the mixer and the output is going to the transmitter and to speakers in the studio.

Now we want to change the setup to have a little bit more automation. For example it is nice to have advertisement at the correct time independent of the dj in the studio.

I added a picture of how I understood the setting have to change in an Airtime way of doing things. Is the picture right? Are there alternatives.

On the laptop I would than use something like Mixxx?
Is it right that I need to record the output of the mixer to send it back to Airtime?
What is with the music played by Mixxx -> how do I get information about that for "what is playing" and how a play-counter is increased and other stuff like that?

For me it seems a little bit to complicated. Is there an easier way to setup Airtime for small environment like mine? Are there alternatives on the market that are fitting better my "small environment"?

I'm looking forward for your ideas.

Voisses Tech · Post edited by Voisses Tech at 2016-05-03 14:38:41

Airtime is very robust and should do.

I love Airtime for its stability,reconfigurability and of course its built on rock solid Linux It would be remiss of me to recommend anything else in an Airtime Forum.

You could however search the forum for what others are using.

You could pass all your music through the laptop Mixxx to airtime and you will have the tags
or just look at this post http://sourcefabric.booktype.pro/airtime-25-for-broadcasters/live-shows-with-mixxx/

Christian Lange

Thank you for the reply.

To make this clear I would love to use Airtime or at least I would love to use an open-source-solution. When Airtime is fitting, it is welcome.

Just let us find out if Airtime is fitting. When I understood it right, most of the time our presenters would use Mixxx. They play most of the time music and speak a few things between. How is it with scheduled content. How I presenter knows that in 10 seconds a advertisment starts and when he is speaking he will become offline?

And again to the wire-part. Do I need to record all the output of the mixer with Mixxx or an other Program and bring it back to Airtime or how is it working?

Sorry for this basic questions, but the manual is not really covering this aspects.

Thank you for your help.

Christian Lange

Hello again,

I don't want to appear impatient ;) may be I am....

I think my question is interesting especial for small radios. And small radios are happy to get a open-source solution, especial when they located for example in Africa. Wouldn't it be great to have a manual for such studios where the main points can be clearly described? And such a description would also answer my questions.

When someone can tell me what I should try or how I can continue I would be glad to help also with a step by step description of my work as basis for such a manual.

James Dunn

Christian Lange · Post edited by Christian Lange at 2016-05-17 05:10:10

Thank you James, this is also a nice hint. Maybe I was blind on that eye. Adding Airtime-Output just as another channel is also an interesting idea.

But when I do this, the presenter can also miss times of advertisements or news. Is just the thing that came to my mind.

The other thing. We are a small radio but I know even smaller ones for example in Congo they have just one Laptop, but I'm looking for a "standard" approach also fitting for this kind of stations. Is it advisable to put airtime on the Studio-Laptop? Otherwise I would need at least a second device in the studio (question of power consumption and complexity). Is it at least possible to put it on one laptop? Do I need than 2 usb-soundcards?

Thank you for your help

mrkrotos

Okay, lets just roll back a bit here so we can clarify your needs!

You need to first workout if you run with Airtime Pro (hosted) or self hosted Airtime (can be technically complicated). If self hosted you will need to make sure you have enough bandwidth for your listeners!

You also need to bare in mind that installing and running Airtime yourself can be technically challenging, if you are not a computer or tech type person you may wish to look at the hosted Airtime Pro (https://www.airtime.pro/).

I would also suggest you have a look through the manual as you may get a better understanding of how it works, you don't have to understand the whole manual but, it may fill in some gaps.

http://sourcefabric.booktype.pro/airtime-25-for-broadcasters/what-is-airtime/

mrkrotos

After a quick re-read of your posts, sounds like you are RF only? If so then ignore what I said before.

To answer some of your questions:

"How I presenter knows that in 10 seconds a advertisement starts and when he is speaking he will become offline?"
When using Airtime to schedule adverts etc, Airtime shows you whats playing and whats next. So you can have a monitor in the studio with visual ref for the DJ/presenter

"Do I need to record all the output of the mixer with Mixxx or an other Program and bring it back to Airtime or how is it working?"
If you are doing "live shows" then no, you feed the audio in to Airtime.

"Is it advisable to put airtime on the Studio-Laptop?"
Its possible but not sure I would do it, I would always go for a dedicated machine for Airtime.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

Poll

Top Posters