[livesupport-dev] Playlist import support
  • Vote Up0Vote Down importimport
    Posts: 0Member
    Hello!

    As I could understand - there's no way now to import text- or xml-formatted
    playlist into scheduler?
    Am I right?
    It's really important for me - since we use PowerGold and RadioAdsPro for
    scheduling music and commercials on our stations.

    Vasily

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  • Vote Up0Vote Down importimport
    Posts: 0Member
    Yeah, this would be a pretty useful feature. Having a separate playlist scheduler application that is used to automatically compose playlists seems to be the most popular way. I'm really not completely familiar with radio automation yet but I guess it would mean LiveSupport would need to support the established radio automation concepts such as carts, clocks and the log. (?)

    What kind of smart playlist features are currently planned, is there any kind of a description available for the feature set?

    Personally, for now I'd be happy to be able simply find a way to import m3u from the various DJ playlist apps currently available for Linux (Gjay, BPMDJ..) since those are the closest things to a radio playlist scheduler that GNU/Linux has. Are the playlist files easy to find and edit by hand in LiveSupport?

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  • Vote Up0Vote Down importimport
    Posts: 0Member
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    Hi,

    I was hoping one of the developers would answer the question about what's
    required to interface with LS's playlists. I'm still hoping they'll come
    in with greater detail. It's a very good question, and that its
    implementation won't be too painful. In the meantime, here's what I can
    tell you:

    For one thing, the scheduler daemon has number of XML-RPC methods that may
    be called by any other application. They're all documented at this
    address:

    http://livesupport.campware.org/public_html/doc/xml-rpc_doc/html/hierarchy.html

    In addition, if you don't know about it, there's a pretty large amount of
    technical documentation available at this address:

    http://livesupport.campware.org/public_html/doc/

    In my own layman's understanding, one of the first things PowerGold (or
    some other playlist-generating program) will have to know is whether the
    files exist in the StorageServer. Then I presume a small script could
    transform PowerGold's XML output into a LiveSupport-compatible SMIL 2.0
    file. (SMIL 2.0 being the format LiveSupport uses for its playlists).

    It's definitely an interesting idea, and is, in my own layman's opinion,
    probably doable. We'd certainly welcome this kind of addition.

    As for our own smart playlists, they're being worked on and are scheduled
    for LS 1.1, later this fall.


    Hope this helps,


    douglas


    =============================================
    Media Development Loan Fund
    =============================================
    Douglas Arellanes
    Head of Research and Development
    Center for Advanced Media--Prague (CAMP)
    Na vinicnich horach 24a/1834, 160 00 Prague 6
    Czech Republic
    Tel: + 420 2 3333 5356, Fax: +420 2 2431 5419
    Mobile: +420 724 073 364
    http://www.mdlf-camp.net
    http://www.campware.org
    =============================================
    http://www.mdlf.org
    =============================================




    antti.salminen@netikka.fi
    08/20/05 11:23 AM
    Please respond to livesupport-dev


    To: livesupport-dev@campware.org
    cc:
    Subject: [livesupport-dev] Re: Playlist import support


    Yeah, this would be a pretty useful feature. Having a separate playlist
    scheduler application that is used to automatically compose playlists
    seems to be the most popular way. I'm really not completely familiar with
    radio automation yet but I guess it would mean LiveSupport would need to
    support the established radio automation concepts such as carts, clocks
    and the log. (?)

    What kind of smart playlist features are currently planned, is there any
    kind of a description available for the feature set?

    Personally, for now I'd be happy to be able simply find a way to import
    m3u from the various DJ playlist apps currently available for Linux (Gjay,
    BPMDJ..) since those are the closest things to a radio playlist scheduler
    that GNU/Linux has. Are the playlist files easy to find and edit by hand
    in LiveSupport?



    --=_alternative 0056DF58C1257065_=
    Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii"



    Hi,



    I was hoping one of the developers would answer the question about what's required to interface with LS's playlists. I'm still hoping they'll come in with greater detail. It's a very good question, and that its implementation won't be too painful. In the meantime, here's what I can tell you:



    For one thing, the scheduler daemon has number of XML-RPC methods that may be called by any other application. They're all documented at this address:



    http://livesupport.campware.org/public_html/doc/xml-rpc_doc/html/hierarchy.html



    In addition, if you don't know about it, there's a pretty large amount of technical documentation available at this address:



    http://livesupport.campware.org/public_html/doc/



    In my own layman's understanding, one of the first things PowerGold (or some other playlist-generating program) will have to know is whether the files exist in the StorageServer. Then I presume a small script could transform PowerGold's XML output into a LiveSupport-compatible SMIL 2.0 file. (SMIL 2.0 being the format LiveSupport uses for its playlists).



    It's definitely an interesting idea, and is, in my own layman's opinion, probably doable. We'd certainly welcome this kind of addition.



    As for our own smart playlists, they're being worked on and are scheduled for LS 1.1, later this fall.





    Hope this helps,





    douglas





    =============================================

    Media Development Loan Fund

    =============================================

    Douglas Arellanes

    Head of Research and Development

    Center for Advanced Media--Prague (CAMP)

    Na vinicnich horach 24a/1834, 160 00  Prague 6

    Czech Republic

    Tel: + 420 2 3333 5356, Fax: +420 2 2431 5419

    Mobile: +420 724 073 364

    http://www.mdlf-camp.net

    http://www.campware.org

    =============================================

    http://www.mdlf.org

    =============================================









    		antti.salminen@netikka.fi

    08/20/05 11:23 AM

    Please respond to livesupport-dev


    		       

            To:        livesupport-dev@campware.org

            cc:        

            Subject:        [livesupport-dev] Re: Playlist import support






    Yeah, this would be a pretty useful feature. Having a separate playlist scheduler application that is used to automatically compose playlists seems to be the most popular way. I'm really not completely familiar with radio automation yet but I guess it would mean LiveSupport would need to support the established radio automation concepts such as carts, clocks and the log. (?)



    What kind of smart playlist features are currently planned, is there any kind of a description available for the feature set?



    Personally, for now I'd be happy to be able simply find a way to import m3u from the various DJ playlist apps currently available for Linux (Gjay, BPMDJ..) since those are the closest things to a radio playlist scheduler that GNU/Linux has. Are the playlist files easy to find and edit by hand in LiveSupport?






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  • Vote Up0Vote Down importimport
    Posts: 0Member
    antti.salminen@netikka.fi wrote:
    > Yeah, this would be a pretty useful feature. Having a separate
    > playlist scheduler application that is used to automatically compose
    > playlists seems to be the most popular way. I'm really not completely
    > familiar with radio automation yet but I guess it would mean
    > LiveSupport would need to support the established radio automation
    > concepts such as carts, clocks and the log. (?)
    >
    > What kind of smart playlist features are currently planned, is there
    > any kind of a description available for the feature set?

    There is no definitive feature list yet, but keep the suggestions
    coming, and we'll incorporate as many as we can.


    > Personally, for now I'd be happy to be able simply find a way to
    > import m3u from the various DJ playlist apps currently available for
    > Linux (Gjay, BPMDJ..) since those are the closest things to a radio
    > playlist scheduler that GNU/Linux has.

    That's not quite as simple as it sounds, because LS playlists can only
    refer to audio files in the LS storage, i.e., all the mp3 files in the
    m3u playlist would need to be imported first -- but only if they are not
    in the storage yet, to avoid duplications. This would be a useful
    feature, though, so we'll try to figure out how to do it.


    > Are the playlist files easy to find and edit by hand in LiveSupport?

    They are stored in a postgresql database, and they should not be edited
    by hand. The playlists are stored internally in an XML format (not
    SMIL; it only gets converted to SMIL before playback) which in theory
    could easily be exported to and imported from text files -- but how
    would this be useful?

    Ferenc

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  • Vote Up0Vote Down importimport
    Posts: 0Member
    At 20:23 22.08.2005, you wrote:
    >>Personally, for now I'd be happy to be able simply find a way to
    >>import m3u from the various DJ playlist apps currently available
    >>for Linux (Gjay, BPMDJ..) since those are the closest things to a
    >>radio playlist scheduler that GNU/Linux has.
    >
    >That's not quite as simple as it sounds, because LS playlists can only
    >refer to audio files in the LS storage,

    we should also think the other way around. a suggestion for a
    possible solution (the developers should comment on the feasibility -
    and i should learn how to spell feasibility...):

    - LS works on a linux server
    - the linux server runs samba and becomes visible in the windows network

    then:
    - files can also be *added to media library* in windows programmes
    such as winamp ia samba
    - winamp can generate playlists from files added to the LS library
    and for m3u inclusion:
    - playlists generated in e.g. winamp can be read into LS since they
    refer to absolute file positions in the samba network. they will be
    basic though as SMIL does far more than m3u

    and the other way round:
    - playlists generated in LS can be exported to simple m3u playlists
    - these can be read by other audio players
    - the advantage: the skilled storage and search of LS
    - future advantage: the smart playlists in LS
    - future advantage: the ad management in LS



    Micz Flor - micz@mi.cz

    content and media development http://mi.cz
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    http://www.campware.org -- http://www.redall.de -- http://suemi.de
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  • Vote Up0Vote Down importimport
    Posts: 0Member
    Quoting Ferenc Gerlits :

    > There is no definitive feature list yet, but keep the suggestions
    > coming, and we'll incorporate as many as we can.

    Do you have a basic design in mind yet though? Smart playlists kind of sounds
    like it's inspired by the database music player apps and I just read an
    interesting little blog entry about implementing a radio station in iTunes.
    (http://www.codepoetry.net/archives/2005/01/15/doityourself_smart_radio_station.php)

    OTOH, I've been looking at the music selector apps for the traditional radio
    automation systems and they have a rather nice if very tradition attached
    system in place.

    Maybe a very flexible system with the possiblity to refer to pretty much any
    clip information and include multiple criteria appealing but how would that
    work out for nested playlists?

    I'd also like something to ensure that the station never goes off air even if I
    am not able to schedule something. Some sort of a default template...

    > That's not quite as simple as it sounds, because LS playlists can only
    > refer to audio files in the LS storage, i.e., all the mp3 files in the
    > m3u playlist would need to be imported first -- but only if they are not
    > in the storage yet, to avoid duplications. This would be a useful
    > feature, though, so we'll try to figure out how to do it.

    Yeah, that occurred to me afterwards. But like Micz said, adding the LS files to
    the player application could kind of work? I'm really not so much after m3us
    though, it was just the first thing I thought about as a possible solution to
    my pains with trying to construct schedules for a station intended to be
    running 24/7. I've pretty much decided it calls for some sort of automated
    scheduling though so I need to look at the APIs mentioned if I am to do it with
    1.0 I suppose...

    > > Are the playlist files easy to find and edit by hand in LiveSupport?
    >
    > They are stored in a postgresql database, and they should not be edited
    > by hand. The playlists are stored internally in an XML format (not
    > SMIL; it only gets converted to SMIL before playback) which in theory
    > could easily be exported to and imported from text files -- but how
    > would this be useful?

    I was actually wondering about whether it would be easy to have a program modify
    the information when I wrote that. As for the usefulness of an import/export
    function - I don't know. I can think of some possible scenarios involving
    multiple LS installations but having a m3u import/export together with the
    files would be even better.

    -Antti

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  • Vote Up0Vote Down importimport
    Posts: 0Member
    On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 12:27:10 +0600 Vasilii Alferov wrote:
    > Hello!
    >
    > As I could understand - there's no way now to import text- or xml-formatted
    > playlist into scheduler?
    > Am I right?
    > It's really important for me - since we use PowerGold and RadioAdsPro for
    > scheduling music and commercials on our stations.
    >
    > Vasily

    Hi,
    excuse me, please, for delay,

    There will be import of m3u playlists very soon,
    but you can use '-l' switch of import.sh script now - it allows to
    specify pathname of file with newline-separated list of absolute
    pathnames of audioclips - it's something near to m3u playlist.

    Tom

    --
    Tomas Hlava
    th@red2head.com

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