You will need at least three laptops:
- One dedicated to running the stream back to the studio.
We don’t recommend trying to use the streaming laptop for other web-browsing purposes during the broadcast. - One for web-browsing (IRN, Inrix, Email screen etc.)
- One for playout (Rivendell) with a music library and copy of our imaging.
You will also need a reliable internet connection for the stream. WiFi tends to be unreliable, even if you have a good signal strength, you will tend to get occasional drops. If at all possible, use a wired network connection.
Run a speed test (www.speedtest.net) on the actual connection you will use for the streaming laptop: your upload speed must be at least 0.4Mbps, or you are likely to lose connection regularly. Also, look at the graph of speed throughout the test: if it is very variable, then you are likely to have more problems than if it is consistent:
The streaming laptop
You will need to install some software called Opus-Transmitter. The Windows ZIP file for opus-transmitter is hard to find online, so ask Engineering for a copy.
Ask Engineering for the details of the mountpoint and password to connect to.
Ensure the Audio Device that’s selected is the Mixing Desk’s source and ensure the Connect at startup checkbox is NOT checked (this is safer, but means you’ll have to reconnect manually if the streaming laptop crashes). Leave Stream Infos blank. Click Save Settings.
Ensure the audio levels from the mixing desk peak in the orange area of the audio levels meter. If they are too high/low, change the Main Output from the mixer.
To connect the stream, click the green Up arrow on the main display.
Note: As soon as you click the green Up arrow, you will be live on the Remote fader in the studio. If SAM (overnight playout) or any pre-recorded programme is playing, you will completely override it, and your output will be heard instead. If IRN is playing, you will be mixed with the IRN feed, so you need to ensure IRN is disabled when you are broadcasting.
The delay to the transmitter is typically between 1.5-2 seconds, so you need to allow for that delay. (ie if you want to do a local news read at 16:00, starting with the intro jingle which is 12 seconds long, you need to connect your feed and fire the jingle at about 15:59:46).
The web-browsing laptop
Travel news
Access to the travel news from Inrix does not require VPN access, but you will need to request a password from Engineering.
News
To access IRN net newsroom, you’ll need two things set up on the laptop: VPN access and a hosts file entry.
If you don’t already have VPN access, you’ll need to ask for an OpenVPN certificate file. You may also need engineering help to install it on your computer.
Once you have the VPN set up and connected, you need to change your computer’s hosts file.
Note: After changing your hosts file, any future requests for www.irn.co.uk on your laptop will be routed via the VPN, so if you aren’t connected to the VPN, any requests for IRN content will fail.
Windows computers
- Click the Windows icon
- Type ‘notepad’
- Right-click on Notepad and click ‘Run as administrator’
- If you are asked whether to accept changes to your computer, click Yes
- Go to File->Open and change ‘Text documents (*.txt)’ to ‘All files (*.*)’
- Open the file at C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts
- Add the following on a line at the end of the file
10.105.56.1 www.irn.co.uk #IRN via C105 VPN - Save the file
Mac computers
- Open Finder
- Click Applications in the sidebar
- Click Utilities
- Click Terminal
- Type sudo nano /etc/hosts then press Enter
- Enter your Administrator password
- Add the following on a line at the end of the file
10.105.56.1 www.irn.co.uk #IRN via C105 VPN - Hold down Ctrl and type O to save
- Hold down Ctrl and type X to exit
- Reboot the laptop
Checking the hosts file entry worked
While you are connected to the VPN, open a web browser and go to http://www.irn.co.uk/NetNewsroom.aspx
If the hosts entry worked, you’ll see NetNewsroom as if you were in the studio
Email screen
To access the email screen from outside the studio, there is a special address you can use for remote access. You don't need the VPN. Request details from Engineering.
Chrome bookmarks
It is assumed that you know how to sign into Chrome, but ask Engineering if you don’t. Crucially, when signing in with the station's identity, ensure all settings for syncing data except bookmarks are off. You should only sync bookmarks, else there’s a risk your passwords, credit card details, browsing history etc, could be synced to the studio computers.
The playout laptop
This section applies if Engineering have supplied you with the Outside Broadcast laptop for your event
Rivendell setup
Before turning on the playout laptop, ensure the external harddisk is connected and powered on.
The rduser password is also rduser.
The playout laptop automatically starts Rivendell on boot.
The content of the external harddisk is an exact copy of what was set in the studio when it was last synced. That means, you can log into Rivendell, see your cart walls, and play any tracks that were on the studio computers at the last sync. If anything has changed in the studio since the sync, you won’t be able to use it.
IRN clips are automatically synced to the harddisk every 15 minutes, provided the playout laptop has an internet connection.
Note: On OBs, we only have the one playout system, which is Rivendell. That means you don’t have MAirList for advert play lists, so you’ll need to ask Matt for the advert schedule and play each advert separately. If the advert doesn’t already exist in Rivendell, you’ll need to import it first.
Importing files to Rivendell
Remember audio files must be in Wave (.wav), MP2 or MP3 format. Other formats cannot be imported.
Via Dropbox
If the Rivendell laptop has an internet connection, you can put reports in the Cambridge 105 News Team Reports folder in Dropbox. They should appear within approximately 15 minutes.
Importing files by putting them on the studio fileserver won’t work at Outside Broadcasts. You need to upload audio files to the Rivendell laptop directly.
Via USB stick
The easiest mechanism may be to put the audio file on a USB stick and import it into Rivendell. This is the most likely to work regardless of network setup, but also means you need physical access to the Rivendell laptop. Do not try to import a file while Rivendell is playing another track on-air.
If you aren’t used to finding files on Linux systems or using rdlibrary, I’d strongly recommend testing this before you need it.
- Start rdlibrary (this isn’t the same program as the main Rivendell player)
- Click Add
- Choose an appropriate group for the audio file (‘Temp’ might be best)
- Enter the title for the clip
- Click OK
- Click Import
- Navigate to the USB stick location containing the audio. A USB sick is likely to be at /media/[STICK NAME]/
- Click Import
- Click OK
The file is now available to be added in the main Rivendell window.
Via a local network
Note: This method is unlikely to work on public networks, like in hotels. It requires a trusted local network to be setup.
To use a local network, you’ll need the IP address of the Rivendell machine on the local network, which is liable to change every time the machine reconnects to the network. Finding the IP address can be a difficult exercise on an unknown network like hotel Wifi. You’ll also need an SFTP client client such as Filezilla installed on the web browsing laptop.
Start the SFTP client, and connect using the following details:
Server: sftp://[Rivendell machine’s IP address]
User: rduser
Password: rduser
Upload the file to /home/rduser/dropbox/temp (for TEMP category – other categories as applicable)
The file will be available to play in Rivendell within a couple of minutes.