Close to implementing Airtime at WDRT!
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Todd Fisher WallinTodd Fisher Wallin
    Posts: 26Member
    Hey everyone!

    We finally hired another person at the station so I can get back to this project :-)

    We are very close to switching from Rivendell to Airtime and I would like to have a complete transition by no later than June. All of our needs are currently met for this to happen except for one bug... Preview of FLAC files in the library.

    All of the other things on our list are 'nice to haves' and we look forward to them in the future.

    I would like to send a BIG THANKS! to the entire dev team for working on feature requests and bug fixes while I was not around to annoy you about them. Sourcefabric and this community is a great example for other open source projects.

    Keep up the good work guys...
    Todd
    Todd Fisher Wallin, Operations Coordinator - WDRT-FM Viroqua, WI
  • 9 Comments sorted by
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Martin KonecnyMartin Konecny
    Posts: 1,860Member
    Thanks for the kind words Todd. 


    There are a few potential hacks we've looked into for previewing files that aren't browser supported such as temporarily creating a separate stream in the backend and transcoding the file in real-time to a supported format such as OGG or MP3. However the ROI on this isn't as great as some of the other features we're currently working on. We will revisit this sometime in the future :)
    Airtime Pro Hosting: http://airtime.pro
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Jobe LawnJobe Lawn
    Posts: 55Member
    The Subsonic music streamer project tackles FLAC streaming by realtime transcoding with FFMPEG.
    It works great.

    I fully agree with Todd, all the code output from Sourcerfabric are stunning examples for other OS projects to reach for...  Thanks a lot for keeping it open source!
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Todd Fisher WallinTodd Fisher Wallin
    Posts: 26Member
    For the situation at WDRT I could custom compile a browser with flac support, but would need to enable the preview feature for flac files while browsing the library. They currently show a little lock icon and the pop up menu has 'preview' grayed out.

    I know that java script is being used elsewhere in the ui...

    http://labs.official.fm/articles/2012/06/15/flac-and-aurora/

    http://www.html5audio.org/2012/06/flacjs-and-aurora-decoding-audio-codecs-in-the-web-audio-api.html

    Any thoughts on the above solutions?
    Todd Fisher Wallin, Operations Coordinator - WDRT-FM Viroqua, WI
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Roger WilcoRoger Wilco
    Posts: 784Banned
    Hello! Have you tried giving this a shot yet? Works for me on my Firefox20 from the Mac beta channel. :-B
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Todd Fisher WallinTodd Fisher Wallin
    Posts: 26Member
    Thanks Roger...

    That is the js player that is in the first link in my above post. I originally learned of it from a news announcement on xiph.org last year.

    This could possibly be implemented within airtime as a solution but I am not familiar enough with the code yet to say exactly how, or if it is a good idea.
    Todd Fisher Wallin, Operations Coordinator - WDRT-FM Viroqua, WI
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Roger WilcoRoger Wilco
    Posts: 784Banned
    Hell yeah it is! I mentioned it back in February but nobody seemed all that interested. With a couple of tweaks, it'd make an awesome base for a full-screen iOS web player. :-\"
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Albert FRAlbert FR
    Posts: 1,978Member, Airtime Moderator
    nope
    it is not maintained by last.fm
    and you can do the same today with html5 (only with mp3 and aac for iOS)
    ----
    Je peux le faire ;) [Pour vous] / I can do it [For You] Gnu/Linux & Media Architect
    Co-founder NessRadio.com
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Daniel JamesDaniel James
    Posts: 844Member, Sourcefabric Team
    Hi Todd, a possible alternative is to have Airtime serve FLAC previews as direct downloads i.e. when no browser support is available for the item in question, provide a download when the user clicks on the small icon in the Library. That would leave the user's web browser to open the appropriate player app for the mimetype. Possibly you would have to manually configure those browsers to open VLC or whatever.

    In the short term you could instruct your users to click on the FLAC file and select Download from the pop-up menu - it's not as slick, though.

    The idea that Martin was talking about of transcoding the FLAC to a low-bandwith lossy preview is really the best long-term solution, as it would enable hearing playlist items in context with cue points and fades. Also it would help users maintain library quality while supporting low-bandwidth remote access.

    Cheers!

    Daniel

  • Vote Up0Vote Down Todd Fisher WallinTodd Fisher Wallin
    Posts: 26Member
    I can see your point Daniel. I am doing almost everything over a lan (except emergency backup) but the bandwidth could become a major issue for someone working remotely. I agree that this would most likely be the best long term solution.

    I like the idea of popping open a new browser window, as happens now, and linking to the file when the user clicks... as a temporary solution. This would allow use of the a browser plugin such as vlc or mplayer to play the file right in the new window.

    Todd
    Todd Fisher Wallin, Operations Coordinator - WDRT-FM Viroqua, WI
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