tombrennan.org

This page is meant to mirror http://www.kdrt.org/resources/Rivendell.

Introduction

The following packages for Ubuntu differ from the 0.9.80 version of Rivendell as follows:
- Ogg-Vorbis read/write support
- Mpeg read only support
- When using Ogg-Vorbis for the library format mpeg and ogg-vorbis files are copied in (no transcoding). All other formats transcoded to Ogg Vorbis.
- For more details see Compiling Rivendell with Ogg-Vorbis and Mpeg Support

Install Packages

Download and install the Desktop version of Ubuntu. (currently tested with Edgy.) Go do that. Come back here when you’re done.

If using gpio and/or a audio science adapter refer to http://rivendell.tryphon.org/wiki/index.php/Install_Rivendell_on_Ubuntu and install the gpio and hpklinux packages for Ubuntu.

Download and install libhpi_3.05.10-2_all.deb.

Download and install librhpi_0.94.8-0_i386.deb.

Download and install libradio_mad-ogg-0.98.0-0_i386.deb.

Download and install librivendell_0.9.80-0_i386.deb.

Download and install rivendell_0.9.80-0_i386.deb.

Tip: when installing the Rivendell package you will be prompted for a few options. During the install process click on “terminal” so you can see the configuration screens.

Another helpful thing you can do is fire up the terminal and configure debconf. To do that copy and paste the following into the terminal and hit enter.

sudo dpkg-reconfigure debconf

For the frontend choose either ‘gnome’ if you have the regular install of ubuntu or ‘kde’ if you installed kubuntu.
You can also set the priority level. The lower the level the more questions you will be asked when configuring software. More info can be found here.

Next run rdadmin (Applications->Sound->RDAdmin.) It will prompt for a user and password for installing the Rivendell database. Use root for user and leave the password field blank. Before doing this, you might want to read the Ubuntu documentation about setting a password for root in mysql.

Press ‘Ok’ and a dialog should come up saying “Successfully created Rivendell database.”

You’ll then get a login. By default Rivendell adds two users for you, admin and user with no passwords.

At this point you’ll want to read through the Rivendell Operations Guide. You’ll get a feel for the tools included with Rivendell.

Before you are able to record or play audio you have to configure your sound card. Most computers just have one stereo output and one stereo input. However, there are many soundcards on the market with multiple inputs and outputs.

Then setup your jack connections:

If you have only one soundcard with one stereo in and one stereo out then use this.

[JackSession]
Source1=rivendell_0:playout_0L
Destination1=alsa_pcm:playback_1

Source2=rivendell_0:playout_0R
Destination2=alsa_pcm:playback_2

Source3=rivendell_0:playout_1L
Destination3=alsa_pcm:playback_1

Source4=rivendell_0:playout_1R
Destination4=alsa_pcm:playback_2

Source5=rivendell_0:playout_2L
Destination5=alsa_pcm:playback_1

Source6=rivendell_0:playout_2R
Destination6=alsa_pcm:playback_2

Source7=alsa_pcm:capture_1
Destination7=rivendell_0:record_0L

Source8=alsa_pcm:capture_2
Destination8=rivendell_0:record_0R

If you have a card with multiple outputs and inputs try this one:

JACK Session Management
;
;  See the 'JACK.txt' file for details on how this works!
;
[JackSession]
Source1=rivendell_0:playout_0L
Destination1=alsa_pcm:playback_1

Source2=rivendell_0:playout_0R
Destination2=alsa_pcm:playback_2

Source3=rivendell_0:playout_1L
Destination3=alsa_pcm:playback_1

Source4=rivendell_0:playout_1R
Destination4=alsa_pcm:playback_2

Source5=rivendell_0:playout_2L
Destination5=alsa_pcm:playback_3

Source6=rivendell_0:playout_2R
Destination6=alsa_pcm:playback_4

Source7=alsa_pcm:capture_1
Destination7=rivendell_0:record_0L

Source8=alsa_pcm:capture_2
Destination8=rivendell_0:record_0R

Package notes

To add more audio and video playback capability use Easy Ubuntu.

written by tom

A few months ago I thought I would be able to get a radio automation system up and running. After some initial trouble with some bad CD burns I was able to order a CD from the nice folks at Ubuntu.

Campcaster was my first radio automation system of choice. There seemed to be plenty of support (including video tutorials) for setting up and running a station on Linux.

Before I list the problems I had with the program I just wan to say that I have about 15 years of radio experience and about 8 years with radio automation systems. I know what needs to happen at a station and with a station’s automation system.

Here is the list of issues I had with Campcaster automation:

• Lack of Control- There was very little way to control what was getting played out of the system. You can not stop airplay of something and get something else going.
• Scheduling- This is the main problem (for me) in the whole system. There is no integration within the software to bring in schedules (music, traffic) into the system. I was only able to find a 3rd party script that had to run through a command line. The only way to create a schedule for a day was to create a list of audio carts to play out in Campcaster’s web-based browser. This took quite a while on the playout machine. It is essential that 3rd party logs/schedules can get imported into the system.
• To build a log you have to start building the “Scratchpad” song by song. Once you have an hour in a “playlist” you must then schedule that playlist in a day. Then you need to load 24 playlists in a day, 7 days a week. With an average of 15 songs an hour, you can see how this solution would not work in my situation.
• Before a playlist could be scheduled it needed to be “locked”. This is just another step in a fairly repetitious and time-consuming process.
• Audio output- Once the “Studio” program was shut down the audio still played out in the system. There was no process visible on the Ubuntu system I was working on. This makes me feel a little nervous. I don’t like hearing things getting pumped through my PC without seeing any program doing it.
• Instability- After about 60 minutes there would be no audio coming out of the system. Since there was no program to look at there was no way to troubleshoot what went wrong. The playlist that was playing was over 60 minutes long (more like 90 minutes).

Although the promise of an easy-to-install open source Linux automation seems promising, Campcaster just doesn’t deliver.

The next program I will check out and review is “Rivendell” from Salem Radio Labs. This too is a open-source Linux automation system.

written by tom

Like Digg but can never get on the the front page? 

I’ve done some research into radio automation systems. Two of then have struck my fancy. The first involved the use of the Ubuntu distribution of Linux. I have dabbled in Linux before, but with little success. The Ubuntu distro comes with a live cd, which enables you to test drive the operating system without writing any data to your hard drive.

I’ve stumbled into Campcaster, which is built with a very easy installation of Ubuntu. There were three files that needed to get downloaded and then installed using a built-in package installer for Linux. I’ve also found the program called Synaptic that can check for updates. This works like the System Updater in OS X.

The first process in seeing how well Campcaster works will be installing Ubuntu onto my computer, which works on the PowerPC processor.

There is a follow-up posted here.

Try AddPile, user powered news site with a weekly podcast. 

written by tom