[WXBH-Discuss] Studio to Antenna Communication

[Cory R]

John,

  I did not send the heartbeat script with it.  I'm currently going to
rewrite the entire thing because it lacks structure.  It's been
sitting on the backburner in my mind for a day or two now and since
I've had the chance to think about it more in depth.  I'll post a
better working version once I've worked out most of the kinks and made
the actual script alot more effecient.

  The script itself basicly runs a ping command against a set
machine's host address.  It will run two counters, one counts the
amount of dropped ping requests and one that counts up to 30 replies
to restart both counters.  If the dropped counter hits 30 before the
restart counter does it will switch to a technical difficulty
announcement and either a preconfigured playlist or dynamicly
generated playlist untill the first counter hits 30 again then it'll
switch back to the stream coming from the studio.

  Like I said though, I'm not likely to post a copy of the script up
untill I've got a few kinks worked out.  Will probably be another week
or so before I have a fully working copy of the script to submit to
the group for reviewing.  I won't be able to give my 100% to the group
because I've got too much going on right now.

  To simplify things we may be able to skip the script all together
(although it allows more robust of responses to outages by keeping up
with the schedule) by just creating a playlist with multiple instances
of the stream on it (say 5) and setting it up to buffer five minutes
ahead of time (not sure if this is even possible) to keep broadcasting
disterbances to a minimum.  The idea situation would be to have the
antenna and the studio in the same location and to skip all of the
communications between the two.

  Another thing about the communications between the two or even just
to internet radio there will have to be a pipe dedicated to
broadcasting going out of the brick house seperate from normal access.
 I don't know what the brick house has/will have, but if there is a
dsl or cable connection to the internet there will need to be a
dedicated amount of upload and download to keep streaming going
without hickups.  This can be done rather simply but, it's another
thing we may have to keep our heads up about in the near future.

  Apologies to anyone who may think I'm coming off strong or trying to
push the group in a single direction, I'm only doing what I do best.
Getting things done.

Cory

On 5/19/06, John Hicks <johnlist at gulfbridge.net> wrote:
>  Cory R wrote:
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > I'd like to say hi one more time.  I met some of you last tuesday.  I left
> > saying I'd get to work on some things well, I did exactly just that.
> >
> > The connectivity/heartbeat script is working with a few small kinks I need
> > to work out.  I'm not too sure who to send this too so I'll send it to
> > everyone on the discussion.  I need to find a substitute for playing back
> > the stream to the broadcasting equipment on the other end, currently the
> > script is using xmms-curses to play back mp3 files/streams.
> >
> > I've also done a bit of technical planning (although I'm not sure who I
> > need
> > to submit this to or talk to about it) for two different types of
> > communications between the studio and the antenna location. One type would
> > be point to point communications, if we had line of site to our
> > broadcasting
> > equipment.  A small chart of how the system would work can be found at:
> > http://lucsociety.org/~cory/wxbh_ptp .  Another form would be over either
> > DSL, equalized phone lines, or a dedicated line.  Each solution has
> > different positives and negatives effecting each.  DSL would end up being
> > the cheapest route to take but it has no gauranteed uptime.  Equalized
> > phone
> > lines might be an ok way to go but it'll end up being more expensive than a
> > DSL line (from what I've looked into) and wouldn't sound too great.  A
> > dedicated line such as a t1 would be an idea solution for this but, it's
> > price will end up being anywhere from $350-$600/mo and would experience no
> > downtime at all short of equipment failure.
> >
> > Hope this helps and sorry if I've emailed this to the wrong list.
>
> Hi Cory!
>
> First off: Congrats on first post!!
>
> Thanks for the quick work. We all need to follow your example.
>
> Regarding who to send stuff like this:
>
> It's fine to post it to the list. We are in the process of forming a
> technical committee (and I'm sure you're going to be on it). As we get
> more organized we may have multiple lists or set up a system to allow
> posting data on the website. In the meantime, post away to this list.
>
> Regarding your script:
>
> I'm not sure if you meant to post your script here. (It didn't make it.)
> The list system is currently set to strip attachments. You can post it
> here as straight text.
>
> You can educate me (and others) a bit on just what a
> "connectivity/heartbeat" script is. I know a few of us may have been
> involved in the earlier Shoutcast streaming that BrickHouse did. But
> most of us are new and could use a primer.
>
> Regarding the point-to-point configuration:
>
> It's important to be aware of all the possibilities and have a good idea
> of their relative cost. Until we have a budget (and know our antenna
> location), we won't be able to make a decision on that.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> John
>
> John
>
>
> --
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