Open Source North 2018 – Whitehorse Yukon

Open Source North 2018 – Whitehorse Yukon

Open Source North Event – Whitehorse Yukon Mar 23, 2018

A couple of like minded fans of open source and broadcasting are putting on an event in northern Canada’s Yukon Territory. We will have a meeting space to spend the day networking and learning more about how open source works with broadcast. This opportunity is for broadcast stations, regulators, funders, coders, and anyone interested what we are doing. Some of the topics we are learning and discussing;

Carcross Tagish First Nation government’s use of open source in the modern world, Emergency Alert broadcasting with CAP, New Safety Code 6 regulations from ISED, Coding, fundraising and OB Module Development. We will put on soft tech demos during a provided lunch.

There is no charge to attend this event. We have a group rate for hotel accommodation and discounted airline vouchers. Please contact us to RSVP, more details or suggestions.

https://openbroadcaster.com/open-source-north


OpenBroadcaster supports Axia Livewire RTP protocol

Jan 23, 2018 – OpenBroadcaster releases open source software to provide Livewire\RTP support with Axia Audio over IP (AoIP) consoles. This exciting added functionality presents the opportunity to easily field, deploy and integrate standalone OBPlayer into the AoIP broadcast chain with CAP EAS emergency alerts. This innovation builds on the suite of web-enabled general software and automation appliances with online media libraries, community play lists, multi-station scheduling and streaming.

OBPlayer sends a multicast RTP stream that appears as a channel on Axia AoIP consoles. The outgoing digital stream from the console station is ingested into our systems, sent to an Icecast server where a BARIX unit at the transmitter site plays out on radio. This means the stream is 100% digital from OBPlayer to console, up through STL (Studio Transmitter Link) to the Barix exstreamer at the transmitter site.

* Solid state fanless infrastructure reduces station clutter, AC power loads and hardware failures
* Web friendly 100% digital audio on a quality Axia platform for a cleaner signal path
* Easy to integrate additional studios and equipment with Livewire, RTP and Ravenna protocols

https://openbroadcaster.com/openbroadcaster-supports-axia-livewire-rtp-protocol

Axia Obplayer

Photo Credit www.archbould.com

Rob Hopkins and Bill Polonsky with Axia QOR.16, OBPlayer and Axia DESQ


 Alert Player updates to support Python 3

Standalone alert players and media players with Ver4 player code will display a red message in dashboard advising to update to newest Python code with a link to upgrade. Existing alert players may consider doing nothing and continue using old code that is fully compatible with CLFG 1.2 for emergency alerting and CRTC compliance.

We do however advise transitioning to newest Ver 5 series image for better performance and stability. To update, login to your account with Instructions and rescue image.

https://openbroadcaster.com/account/user-downloads


New Sound Exchange Reporting Tool

A sponsor has come forward from the US with a network of LPFM stations that is working with us to create a tool to create XLS formatted royalty and performance reports for Sound Exchange. We are expecting to have this released into our open source code end of March 2018 for all to use.

Select types of reports for periods of Player/Station, Save filter settings of report for reuse, Export to CSV/XLS, Print to PDF, headers formated to SX specifications, Commercial Ads and PSA affidavits to include to sponsors and NGO, Per user\group access to self generate or view reports, Extra Fields to support Sound Exchange requirements


Version 5 OBPlayer Production Code

Supporting Open source by fully releasing our updated player code to the public on Github

https://github.com/openbroadcaster/obplayer


Featured Modules

What’s Playing


By default, observer includes a handy module to give a snippet code to embed in your site or Face Book page showing the current Show and Track playing on a player or channel

http://support.openbroadcaster.com/Server/#whats-playing


Supported Devices

A list of equipment manufacturers and protocols our systems are known to work with.

http://support.openbroadcaster.com/Accessories#supported-hardware


Stats on defective units

Zero. We have not had reports of hardware failure for any alert player boxes deployed in the field.


Tech Tips

Fallback Media in Player

Fallback media enabled? (not applicable for standalone CAP Alerting) In the player dashboard under sources, enable and place media into location specified as Fall Back Media. Player auto scans sub folders created to separate audio, image, video media. Fallback media directory items are played at random, all items will be played before any media items are played a second time. Default is 15 Seconds for image display.

OBPlayer loads Fall Back Player on startup, checks to see whether something is playing or about to play. If nothing is playing and nothing is about to play, because of missing or corrupted media, a missing DPL or blank schedules obplayer has the intelligence to locally play from the “Fall Back Media” directory so no dead air.

CFET is set up with Alan Parsons music in Fall Back directory, so if we hear anything by them, tells us something is up with player. Been a while since I heard Alan Parsons 🙂


Server Deploy Tool

What is wrong with my server install? Configured properly? Is PHP working?

Setup observer, login to GUI as admin user, open a new browser tab

 

http://support.openbroadcaster.com/Server/#updates-and-new-features


MYSQL Server issue – Strict Mode

By default, MySQL 5.7 is much “stricter” than older versions of MySQL. That can make your application fail. To temporarily fix this, change the SQL_MODE to NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION (same as in MySQL 5.6):

https://www.percona.com/blog/2016/10/18/upgrading-to-mysql-5-7-beware-of-the-new-strict-mode/

Update: We have a fix in the latest server code for this issue including enabling “short tags”


Icecast\Shoutcast Streaming

OBPlayer streaming output supports Icecast as well as Shoutcast media servers, both music and video images.


 Newest Developer Partners

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Interested in building new applications? Creating custom enterprise installs? Adding support for your broadcast hardware?

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