[Hastings Rock] Re: Internet stream

  • From: "Sarah Shirley" <sarah@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <hrock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2020 20:18:33 -0000

** Hastings Rock Radio **

I think we are probably a bit ambitious if we believe that we can fill the schedule up every day for 28 days on an internet based solution. Most internet stations (including the ones I do shows for), just look to do live shows (or even pre-recorded shows) when DJs are available to do them and for the rest of the time their auto DJ kicks in. Either allowing requests or not allowing requests depending on time of day.

The policy on Slammintunes is to jump on air if no show is scheduled and nobody else has already jumped on, but only when there is a gap in the schedule.

We do have to guard against people who want to 'hog' the air as well. For instance, a wall to wall Phill The Bus would do my head in, so it has to be controlled.

Specialist shows, I would suggest, can wait for the re-scheduled broadcast.

I know that there are going to be gaps in the schedule but these are exceptional circumstances, and as I maintain, something is better than nothing.

Sarah

-----Original Message----- From: jon bird
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2020 7:59 PM
To: hrock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Hastings Rock] Re: Internet stream

** Hastings Rock Radio **

In message
<AM6PR09MB44884AA5D44D368E9F05A079D4CF0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.outlo
ok.com>, Andy Gunton <andygunton@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes

Good work Jon.
I think there's a real basis for something that could work here,
although we'd obviously have to sort out the details before committing
to it.
I agree that we should sort out the streaming service asap, in case we
want to use it.

I do have a couple of points/questions though:
  *How many people are going to be able to listen to any internet
    broadcast? I understand it's only 50 at present? We need more
    coverage than that. How much would that cost & is that easy to set
    up?

Assuming the streaming server people are still able to set things up for
us, it's fairly cheap. Last year I think I actually paid for 100
listeners (came to about £7.50/month) but because of the way we split
the bandwidth up (with two different bitrates) in theory that would have
given us 200. I think we could increase this figure once we're under way
if necessary, fairly sure I did that for someone else last year.


  *Is it only DJs in the second category that can use their own music
    for free choices etc? I'm guessing so.

In theory it would be possible for presenters to drag 'n drop audio
files onto the Playout machine, Teamviewer allows for that but it wasn't
something I was proposing to advertise to avoid over complicating
things.

  *As we're only looking to cover the daytime is it worth going down
    the specialist show route? I suggest not & think we should keep
    things as simple as possible & have everything playlisted, with
    free choices as normal. Nick & myself are still working on
    updating the current playlist btw.
  *What are we intending to broadcast when a live DJ is not available
    & for the hours outside of the daytime when we won't be live
    anyway? I'm guessing Robojock wouldn't work.
  *My main concern is the amount of DJs we will have to cover the 28
    days. The last thing we want is to have the same DJs on all the
    time. My fear is that many won't be able to be involved due to not
    having the equipment, but mainly because many won't have the
    space/environment/peace & quiet in their household to do a live
    broadcast. Barking dogs & children playing in the background etc
    don't make for good radio. Let's not forget that many more people
    are at home than normal atm, a situation that is likely to get
    worse before it gets better. Kids are off school & many are
    working from home. I have doubts that I'd be able to do a live
    show for those reasons. Not trying to be negative, just playing
    devils advocate.

I think it would be down for the committee as a whole to decide how
re-arrange the schedule for this, I suspect initially driven by DJ
availability. My initial thoughts are you may want to start out fairly
small scale, say just breakfast and drivetime live and build on that.
Robojock/automation are certainly an option however DJs have been
recording their shows for a good number of years now so we could re-air
some of those (even as a minimum I still have a stack of them on the
server from last year). I also don't see any reason why we should
abandon the specialist shows should people still want to do them. If we
still have the schedule from then, given they are all date/time stamped
it may be possible to air them in a sensible fashion. Simon also raised
the prospect of people pre-recording their shows in advance, with their
own music which is also viable.

I think flexibility has to be the thing here, we're used to working on a
schedule planned out for the next week and I think that is the wrong
approach here. Have a schedule that plans for the worst case - a lot of
automation/pre-recorded stuff but allow DJ's to come along on short
notice and say "hey I can do something between 3-4 today" - let them do
that. Or "I can record something tonight" which can then be slotted in
at a convenient time the following day. It could even be repeated at a
later date. Shake things up a bit, in a way it's quite fun not knowing
what you might hear when you turn on the radio....

--
== jon bird - OAS Software
==  Hastings Rock Radio, IT secondment
==   http://www.onasticksoftware.co.uk/
==    email: hrock@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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