Airtime 2.5.0 Beta 1 Released! - Airtime Development Discussions on Sourcefabric Forum

Albert Santoni

I'm very pleased to announce that the first beta of Airtime 2.5.0 is now available for download!

This release includes a highly requested new Playout History feature for logging what you've aired, and allows for CSV and PDF export. The playout history format can be customized to comply with the broadcasting regulations in your country, and also lets you see playback statistics on each file and show in your library. This release also includes a fair number of bug fixes and stability improvements (a full list of bugfixes will come later).

Download the Airtime 2.5.0 Beta1 tarball here directly from GitHub.

Change Log:

2.5.0 - October 8th, 2013

* New features

* Playout History feature overhaul.

- custom templates for log sheets.

- ability to manually log an item.

- ability to edit a history item.

- 3 history views: log, file summary, show summary.

- hosts can now view/log their own show history.

* Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander support (PHP 5.5)

* Bug Fixes

* Several important timezone handling improvements

* Rebroadcast shows bugfix

* Reduce likelihood of playout stalls under high memory pressure

* Fixed calendar not loading sometimes

* Fixed webstream disconnections due to Now Playing page

* Prevent admin password changes in demo mode

* Plus dozens of other bugfixes!

Thanks to the entire Airtime team here at Sourcefabric for making this release happen, and we're looking forward to your feedback! We're quickly pushing towards a 2.5.0 final release, for which we've already begun final QA testing.

If you're interested in trying out Airtime 2.5.0 Beta 1, we expect a smooth upgrade to the 2.5.0 final release (no schema changes), though please backup your database before trying the beta just in case. Any feedback on the new release would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks guys!

Albert

Albert Santoni

Albert FR said:

For me this version is more a 2.4.5 than a 2.5
a lot of features needed since a long time ago are always not present...

Yeah, don't worry, the dev team here agrees with you on that one. :)

Thomas: I'm listening to your liquidsoap/streaming concerns. Just out of curiousity:

A) Were you rebroadcasting a stream with Airtime when you got the buffer overrun?

B) Were you also playing back via your soundcard (through ALSA or whatever) during this?

Thanks,

Albert

Daniel James

A deb package of the beta for Debian and Ubuntu is available here:

http://apt.sourcefabric.org/misc/airtime_2.5.0/

hoerich

yeah, playout history looks promising!

Thomas Hackett · Post edited by Thomas Hackett at 2013-10-11 20:27:41

Albert Santoni said:
I'm very pleased to announce that the first beta of Airtime 2.5.0 is now available for download!

This release includes a highly requested new Playout History feature for logging what you've aired, and allows for CSV and PDF export. The playout history format can be customized to comply with the broadcasting regulations in your country, and also lets you see playback statistics on each file and show in your library. This release also includes a fair number of bug fixes and stability improvements (a full list of bugfixes will come later).

Download the Airtime 2.5.0 Beta1 tarball here directly from GitHub.

Change Log:
2.5.0 - October 8th, 2013
* New features
* Playout History feature overhaul.
- custom templates for log sheets.
- ability to manually log an item.
- ability to edit a history item.
- 3 history views: log, file summary, show summary.
- hosts can now view/log their own show history.
* Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander support (PHP 5.5)

* Bug Fixes
* Several important timezone handling improvements
* Rebroadcast shows bugfix
* Reduce likelihood of playout stalls under high memory pressure
* Fixed calendar not loading sometimes
* Fixed webstream disconnections due to Now Playing page
* Prevent admin password changes in demo mode
* Plus dozens of other bugfixes!

Thanks to the entire Airtime team here at Sourcefabric for making this release happen, and we're looking forward to your feedback! We're quickly pushing towards a 2.5.0 final release, for which we've already begun final QA testing.

If you're interested in trying out Airtime 2.5.0 Beta 1, we expect a smooth upgrade to the 2.5.0 final release (no schema changes), though please backup your database before trying the beta just in case. Any feedback on the new release would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks guys!
Albert

Hi folks,

Webstreams still cause 'Buffer overrun' messages which (after 15mins or so) fill up
/var/log/airtime/pypo-liquidsoap/ls_script.log
and start causing PlayOut hickups.

see attached airtime-log

Fresh OS and Airtime
https://github.com/sourcefabric/Airtime/archive/airtime-2.5.0-beta1.tar.gz full-install:
root@ubuntu:~# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise

Cliff Wang

Thanks for the reporting, I'm trying to reproduce that.

Cliff Wang

@Thomas+Hackett,

I have tried to play webstream for 20 mins and I can't reproduce it.

But I did see this overrun before, like 2.4.x. It used to happen during a long time show, for instance 24 hours webstream.

I will run a 24 hours show to catch it.

Reaz Baksh

Hello

I haven't tried this version yet but does it fix the multiple metadata that is sent? Presently I get about 3 to 4 ID per track on both Shoutcast and Icecast.

Thomas Hackett

Cliff Wang said:
@Thomas+Hackett,

I have tried to play webstream for 20 mins and I can't reproduce it.

But I did see this overrun before, like 2.4.x. It used to happen during a long time show, for instance 24 hours webstream.

I will run a 24 hours show to catch it.

I imagine this depends on how the bug from v2.4.x was fixed. For instance, if v2.5's buffer was simply extended then the bug will still be there, it just takes longer to happen.

If someone can perhaps explain why it happened in v2.4 and what measures were taken to fix it in v2.5 then an opinion can be made as to what level of success can be expected. Perhaps buffer overrun happens by design. Or perhaps it's another LS limitation that cannot be fixed. Airtime webstream links seem to be subject to many liquidsoap quirks which make them less functional than your average player.

Voisses Tech

@Thomas Hackett suggest

"Perhaps buffer overrun happens by design. Or perhaps it's another LS limitation that cannot be fixed. Airtime webstream links seem to be subject to many liquidsoap quirks which make them less functional than your average player."

I was hesitant to comment about this,because maybe I was wrong but let me give my 2cents.
I think I read some where that because of the "hop" nature [that is the send and receive communication] of http stream,then http streams are inheritently buffered streams.
The design approach is to buffer some streams ahead that you will have smooth playback.

It is what was done for mobile stream and this has enhance the user experience.

Proof of Concept
If you play anystream in vlc and check the tools==>codec information then you see this information

I do not think its a bug or design by LS but rather an inherent feature of streaming.

VOISSES

I might be wrong but I hope I can be educated some more

Thomas Hackett · Post edited by Thomas Hackett at 2013-10-21 08:17:35

Voisses Tech said:
@Thomas Hackett suggest

"Perhaps buffer overrun happens by design. Or perhaps it's another LS limitation that cannot be fixed. Airtime webstream links seem to be subject to many liquidsoap quirks which make them less functional than your average player."

I was hesitant to comment about this,because maybe I was wrong but let me give my 2cents.
I think I read some where that because of the "hop" nature [that is the send and receive communication] of http stream,then http streams are inheritently buffered streams.
The design approach is to buffer some streams ahead that you will have smooth playback.

It is what was done for mobile stream and this has enhance the user experience.

Proof of Concept
If you play anystream in vlc and check the tools==>codec information then you see this information

I do not think its a bug or design by LS but rather an inherent feature of streaming.

VOISSES

I might be wrong but I hope I can be educated some more

If the problem were a trait of all streaming, then why is it that only Airtime's implementation suffers playout interruptions and has such a hard time resolving a variety of stream URLs where other clients work?

An example of a web player without interruptions (albeit Flash):

http://native.flashradio.info/

Also found that Streamripper (both Windows and Linux versions) does a good job of relaying to a port that can be distributed by Shoutcast using StreamURLs (even ones with keys) that Airtime cannot.

Buffering isn't a bad thing, as long as it doesn't overrun.

Daniel James

Hi Thomas, very little software is bug free, the Flash player you linked to above crashed my Firefox :-)

It is quite possible that some streaming formats can be played better in other players than Airtime does, we support Icecast-style input streams by default. We welcome bug reports from any streams that don't work, and the more detailed the reports are (such as the name and settings of the streaming client) the more likely we are able to fix those bugs.

As for buffering, that is an issue for live relaying because the few seconds of delay which may be acceptable in a desktop stream player are not usually acceptable in broadcast, particularly if they cause dead air.

Cheers!

Daniel

Albert FR

Hi,

For me this version is more a 2.4.5 than a 2.5
a lot of features needed since a long time ago are always not present...

I'm not sure of the "really need interest" of logs templates...

but it's my opinion...

Albert FR

lol @Albert+Santoni !

:-))

Daniel James

Hi Albert B, the new logging features are of critical importance for legally regulated stations, such as FM stations in most countries, which need to provide logs with the exact fields specified by the regulator. This work was sponsored by Canadian station The Scope (http://www.thescopeatryerson.ca/) and necessitates a minor release (2.5.x) since a point release (e.g. 2.4.1) is not supposed to contain new features.

Most of the other work done on 2.5.0 is hard to see because it concerns stability fixes. All the exciting new stuff you can see on the surface is coming up in the major release Airtime 3.0 :-)

Cheers!

Daniel

Thomas Hackett

Daniel James said:
Hi Thomas, very little software is bug free, the Flash player you linked to above crashed my Firefox :-)

It is quite possible that some streaming formats can be played better in other players than Airtime does, we support Icecast-style input streams by default. We welcome bug reports from any streams that don't work, and the more detailed the reports are (such as the name and settings of the streaming client) the more likely we are able to fix those bugs.

As for buffering, that is an issue for live relaying because the few seconds of delay which may be acceptable in a desktop stream player are not usually acceptable in broadcast, particularly if they cause dead air.

Cheers!

Daniel

Hi Daniel, I was trying to say that the players I mentioned do not cause playout interrupts. The fact that Airtime does is the reason why I mention it. The Webstream function is useless as long as respective buffer overrun causes playout interruptions.

Daniel James

Hi Thomas, in general, Liquidsoap relays streams with no problems here. We would like to find the root cause of your issues so that we can fix them. Could you supply URLs for the streams you are relaying please?

Cheers!

Daniel

Thomas Hackett · Post edited by Thomas Hackett at 2013-10-22 00:04:18

Daniel James said:
Hi Thomas, in general, Liquidsoap relays streams with no problems here. We would like to find the root cause of your issues so that we can fix them. Could you supply URLs for the streams you are relaying please?

Cheers!

Daniel

Hi Daniel, Here are some usage comparisons:

sky.fm (pro) -> WinAmp -> Edcast -> Shoutcast -> Airtime -> Shoutcast = works!

sky.fm (pro) -> SR Relay -> Shoutcast -> Airtime -> Shoutcast = works!

sky.fm (pro) -> Airtime -> Shoutcast/Icecast = fails!

For sky see post:
http://forum.sourcefabric.org/discussion/15934/need-help-for-new-webstream-with-listenkeys

Also:
dance.fm -> Airtime -> Shoutcast/Icecast = buffer overrun (see screen shot attached above).

Daniel James

Hi Thomas, it sounds like the issue is that streams added to the Library do not support this particular type of listener authentication at playout time (which seems different from the Icecast method shown at http://www.icecast.org/docs/icecast-2.3.3/icecast2_listenerauth.html). This is perfectly possible since I don't think we ever officially supported relaying of authenticated streams.

I have opened a ticket http://dev.sourcefabric.org/browse/CC-5445 for this bug. If you could let me know which version of Airtime you have tested on (2.4.1?) that would be helpful. Please message me with a genuine authenticated URL that we can use for testing.

Cheers!

Daniel

Thomas Hackett · Post edited by Thomas Hackett at 2013-10-22 08:14:09

Daniel James said:
Hi Thomas, it sounds like the issue is that streams added to the Library do not support this particular type of listener authentication at playout time (which seems different from the Icecast method shown at http://www.icecast.org/docs/icecast-2.3.3/icecast2_listenerauth.html). This is perfectly possible since I don't think we ever officially supported relaying of authenticated streams.

I have opened a ticket http://dev.sourcefabric.org/browse/CC-5445 for this bug. If you could let me know which version of Airtime you have tested on (2.4.1?) that would be helpful. Please message me with a genuine authenticated URL that we can use for testing.

Cheers!

Daniel

sky.fm authentication doesn't take place the way that Icecast page describes I don't think. It's just a string that gets added to the URL the format of which was described in my post. I also had problems with normal streams (from the Shoutcast listings (I'd have to look them up again). Buffer Overrun (e.g. for authentication free dance.fm streams) happens in any case. A bug was registered for 2.4.1. (will try to find it), thus I eagerly tested 2.5. beta but no luck. I mean a bug was found (and fixed), but buffer overrun continued to cause playout hickups.

http://dev.sourcefabric.org/browse/CC-5342

http://forum.sourcefabric.org/discussion/15906/playout-cuts-during-drag-drop-content-http3-buffer-overrun-dropping-0-01s-

http://forum.sourcefabric.org/discussion/15934/need-help-for-new-webstream-with-listenkeys

Albert Santoni

Ok Thomas, so it sounds like for your authentication problem, you think the parameters and values at the end of the stream URL are getting cut off by Airtime? Sounds like we should be able to reproduce that in the lab.

Thomas Hackett

Albert Santoni said:
Ok Thomas, so it sounds like for your authentication problem, you think the parameters and values at the end of the stream URL are getting cut off by Airtime? Sounds like we should be able to reproduce that in the lab.

Yes, the listener key problem should be easy to reproduce.

Buffer overruns are somewhat more critical though since they cause playout interruptions.

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