Several Q's: upgrades + liquidsoap funkiness, timeline, UI config
  • Hi all,

    We're in big time need to replace our old Campcaster 1.2 broadcast
    system and are currently testing Airtime 1.8.2 running on Ubuntu lucid
    - 10.04.2 LTS. As I've mentioned, our setup is such that the broadcast
    PC is inside of a shack by the broadcast tower and accessing it
    requires some planning so I've got keep this in mind when thinking of
    upgrades. So far, 1.8.2 is working really well and we're shooting to
    have 2+ more weeks of testing before swapping out the system, assuming
    we don't run into any major problems (none so far).

    1. I'm curious what has come of no "on air" / liquidsoap problem
    myself and others are (were?) having. I did the update to 1.8.2 and I
    believe I still ran into this issue and manually replaced the
    liquidsoap binary with the one I built from the SVN (git? can't
    remember) branch. I don't mind doing this but I read that upcoming
    versions will rely on a newer version of liquidsoap to support new
    features. My concern is that I'd like to prevent the possibility of us
    getting "silence" during our broadcast time if I'm not able to
    complete a future update for whatever reason.

    2. I'm also curious what the timeline is for these releases. I thought
    someone mentioned it on the forums but my searches are not finding it.
    We are desperate to replace 1.8.2 and, while I would prefer to wait
    for 1.9 as having human-readable file storage is something I'd prefer
    to have, I don't think we can hold off much longer.

    3. Finally, I was wondering if something could be done about cosmetic
    issues. I'm noticing the following:

    - Is it possible to configure what metadata is shown on the media
    browser's columns? For our needs, Track # is not very useful. We'd
    prefer to see Genre and possibly Year.
    - Is it possible to save settings for the pulldowns? The "Show n
    entries" pulldown always resets to 10 after browsing away. And the
    weekly calendar view always resets to 30-minute intervals. I would
    like for these to remember their settings.
    - This might be hard to explain but when building a playlist, it seems
    the drag & droppable area is smaller than it appears. That is, I can
    drag and drop files into the playlist but, as the list grows, I was
    initially dragging them to the bottom where it seemed that it didn't
    work. Here's a screencast showing what I mean when I try to drag the
    6th file:

    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456541/Screencast/Airtime-drag_drop %20playlist.mov

    From the way the inlined frame appears when the 6th file is
    recognized, it looks like the area is smaller than one initially
    thinks. Perhaps, an outline can be added to the frame?

    That's all I can think of for now. Thank you again for all your
    effort. Everyone at WGOT-LP is eternally grateful to you all.

    -e
    --
    Ed Porras
  • 5 Comments sorted by
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Paul BaranowskiPaul Baranowski
    Posts: 389Member, Administrator, Sourcefabric Team
    On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 3:45 PM, Ed Porras <
    airtime-support@lists.sourcefabric.org> wrote:

    > **
    > 1. I'm curious what has come of no "on air" / liquidsoap problem
    > myself and others are (were?) having. I did the update to 1.8.2 and I
    > believe I still ran into this issue and manually replaced the
    > liquidsoap binary with the one I built from the SVN (git? can't
    > remember) branch. I don't mind doing this but I read that upcoming
    > versions will rely on a newer version of liquidsoap to support new
    > features. My concern is that I'd like to prevent the possibility of us
    > getting "silence" during our broadcast time if I'm not able to
    > complete a future update for whatever reason.
    >

    Hi Ed -
    All the problems that I can remember with the ON AIR light were from
    incorrect configurations. We've done a lot of work to prevent
    misconfiguration and we I havent heard of this happening recently.


    2. I'm also curious what the timeline is for these releases. I thought
    > someone mentioned it on the forums but my searches are not finding it.
    > We are desperate to replace 1.8.2 and, while I would prefer to wait
    > for 1.9 as having human-readable file storage is something I'd prefer
    > to have, I don't think we can hold off much longer.
    >

    1.9.0 will be out in approximately 3 weeks. Every release comes with
    upgrade scripts that will take you to the next version.




    > - Is it possible to configure what metadata is shown on the media
    > browser's columns? For our needs, Track # is not very useful. We'd
    > prefer to see Genre and possibly Year.
    >

    It's not currently possible. These features has been requested before:
    http://dev.sourcefabric.org/browse/CC-1986
    http://dev.sourcefabric.org/browse/CC-2382

    Please vote on those issues if they are important for you.




    > - Is it possible to save settings for the pulldowns? The "Show n
    > entries" pulldown always resets to 10 after browsing away. And the
    > weekly calendar view always resets to 30-minute intervals. I would
    > like for these to remember their settings.
    >

    No, it's currently not possible to do that.
    I created a ticket for this:
    http://dev.sourcefabric.org/browse/CC-2436


    - This might be hard to explain but when building a playlist, it seems
    > the drag & droppable area is smaller than it appears. That is, I can
    > drag and drop files into the playlist but, as the list grows, I was
    > initially dragging them to the bottom where it seemed that it didn't
    > work. Here's a screencast showing what I mean when I try to drag the
    > 6th file:
    >

    I created a ticket for this too:
    http://dev.sourcefabric.org/browse/CC-2437

    Thanks for the feedback!

    - Paul

  • On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 4:41 PM, Paul Baranowski <
    airtime-support@lists.sourcefabric.org> wrote:

    > **
    > All the problems that I can remember with the ON AIR light were from
    > incorrect configurations. We've done a lot of work to prevent
    > misconfiguration and we I havent heard of this happening recently.
    >

    Hi Paul,

    I'll try restoring the original liquidsoap tonight to see what happens and
    will let you know.


    > 1.9.0 will be out in approximately 3 weeks. Every release comes with
    > upgrade scripts that will take you to the next version.
    >
    >
    Thank you. We're also very much looking forward to some of the other future
    features such as remote-recording so I definitely want to keep up with
    upcoming releases.

    -e
    --
    Ed Porras | http://www.digressed.net/

  • Ed,

    Since you are interested in 1.9.0, why not try out beta1?
    http://sourceforge.net/projects/airtime/files/1.9.0/1.9.0%20 Beta%20Releases/

    Beta2 will be out next week, and we could use all the help we can get to iron out any issues. This beta also has updated Liquidsoap binaries, so hopefully things will be working for you right out of the box Smile
    Airtime Pro Hosting: http://airtime.pro
  • On Jun 23, 2011, at 5:02 PM, Martin Konecny wrote:
    > Since you are interested in 1.9.0, why not try out beta1?
    > http://sourceforge.net/projects/airtime/files/1.9.0/1.9.0%20 Beta%20Releases/
    >
    > Beta2 will be out next week, and we could use all the help we can get to iron out any issues. This beta also has updated Liquidsoap binaries, so hopefully things will be working for you right out of the box

    Hi Martin,

    I would like to but I'm prepping this machine for installation at the tower and already have things set up to use the apt packages. Our 3 schedulers are testing playlists on and off so I'd prefer to keep downtime to a minimum now.

    Could you tell me:

    1. To switch from the 1.8.2 apt install to this beta, would I have to do a remove of the apt package?
    2. What happens with the DB if I remove it? Does it delete the contents in postgresql?
    3. How will airtime handle the update of the stor directory? Will it update the current files or leave those alone and proceed only with new uploads?

    I was currently trying to work around the masked filenames in stor by maintaining our own directory and using import with linked mode but perhaps I should abandon that plan and count on the changes in 1.9. BTW, we don't upload from the airtime interface; we use Dropbox and the PC handles the importing of files.

    My main issue is we're set to install the PC on the 10th of July and I would prefer not to have to arrange for a follow up visit to oversee an update.

    Thank you,

    -e
    --
    Ed Porras
    http://www.digressed.net/

  • Vote Up0Vote Down Paul BaranowskiPaul Baranowski
    Posts: 389Member, Administrator, Sourcefabric Team
    On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 5:53 PM, Ed Porras <
    airtime-support@lists.sourcefabric.org> wrote:

    > **
    > On Jun 23, 2011, at 5:02 PM, Martin Konecny wrote:
    > > Since you are interested in 1.9.0, why not try out beta1?
    > > http://sourceforge.net/projects/airtime/files/1.9.0/1.9.0%20 Beta%20Releases/
    > >
    > > Beta2 will be out next week, and we could use all the help we can get to
    > iron out any issues. This beta also has updated Liquidsoap binaries, so
    > hopefully things will be working for you right out of the box
    >
    > Hi Martin,
    >
    > I would like to but I'm prepping this machine for installation at the tower
    > and already have things set up to use the apt packages. Our 3 schedulers are
    > testing playlists on and off so I'd prefer to keep downtime to a minimum
    > now.
    >
    > Could you tell me:
    >
    > 1. To switch from the 1.8.2 apt install to this beta, would I have to do a
    > remove of the apt package?
    >

    You should test out 1.9.0 on a separate machine. Do not try to test it on
    the same machine as production.



    > 2. What happens with the DB if I remove it? Does it delete the contents in
    > postgresql?
    >

    Yes.



    > 3. How will airtime handle the update of the stor directory? Will it
    > update the current files or leave those alone and proceed only with new
    > uploads?
    >

    When our upgrade scripts are ready, they will automatically upgrade your
    "stor" directory to the new structure.

    - Paul