The Radio Package - Functionality Requirements
- First draft - based on a working group meeting at the SummerCAMP 2006 event on 29 July 2006
- Second draft - based on IRC meeting August 25, 2006 (Robert Klajn, Mugur Rus, Paul Baranowski, Frans van Berkel, Ferenc Gerlits, Tomas Hlava)
- Third draft – 2006-08-28 - Suggestion from Robert Klajn added
- Fourth draft – 2006-09-20 – based on the IRC meetings on September 18&19 (Paul Baranowski, Sava Tatic, Holman Romero, Mugur Rus, Zoran Zivkovic)
- Fifth draft - 2006-10-26 - removed "Pause track" functionality from Campcaster requirements (Paul Baranowski)
Overview The use of pirated software among radio stations in the former Yugoslavia is rampant, from the operating system all the way to broadcast management and playout software. Stations are coming under increasing scrutiny from authorities seeking to inspect software licenses, which then creates increased cost as the stations seek to buy software licenses. This then has financial impacts on the stations, affecting their financial sustainability.
The Campware Radio Package intends to provide radio stations in the former Yugoslavia with a complete solution utilizing open source software for:
- operating system
- office productivity
- audio editing and production
- newsroom management
- broadcast playout and automation
- website management, including audio-on-demand
Where possible, existing software packages will be utilized, with a focus on the specialized tools created by the Campware iniatiative (http://www.campware.org). Alterations to some packages will be necessary, and will be described in greater detail in this document.
Deadlines
- 15 November 2006 – All software components delivered
- 01 December 2006 – Implementations begin
- 01 December 2006 – Software delivered, implementations begin
- 31 March 2007 – Project ends
Use case description The project will seek to address the needs of a range of radio stations both large and small. For the purposes of this document, two types of representative stations will be described. They include Antena M, a national network of stations in Montenegro, and Radio Skala, a leading local station based in Kotor, Montenegro.
Antena M has:
- 100 employees
- 2 main studios
- ~10 PC workstations for preparing audio
Radio Skala has:
- 10 employees
- 1 studio
- 6 PC workstations for preparing audio
Most of Radio Skala's Windows installations are pirated, but they use a paid copy of the Jazler playout system. Other software, such as Vegas or SoundForge for audio editing and Microsoft Office, are pirated.
News plays an important role in both stations, and an improved system of newsroom management is one of the project's goals. In such a system, journalists would be able to
- write scripts
- edit scripts
- combine scripts with recorded material (actualities) for rehearsal and possible playout in smaller stations
- search and browse a central audio archive for the station
- search and browse a network archive (for radio network affiliates)
- add recorded material to a central archive
- play out recorded material for broadcast
- add recorded material to a public website for audio-on-demand and streaming
- schedule recorded material for automated broadcast and reuse
- archive broadcast output for compliance with local broadcast laws and license requirements
- send brief text descriptions of broadcast output via the RDS broadcast standard
Existing software components A majority of the necessary software components already exist. These include:
- the free and open source Ubuntu Linux distribution (operating system), which includes
- OpenOffice (office productivity suite)
- Audacity (sound editing and production)
- various audio production tools for (CD burning/ripping, etc.)
- tools from the Campware initiative, which include
- the Campsite content management system for newsroom management and web publishing
- the Campcaster playout and automation system for managing radio stations' broadcasts and sound archives
- tools from other open source radio initiatives, which may include
- the Darklog system for radio broadcast archiving
- DarkIce, a server for streaming management
- IceCast, a server for distributing of streams
Additional Features Required in Campsite & Campcaster In order for Campsite to work together with Campcaster, some integration work will need to be performed. The following new features are required:
Campsite Components
Because we want to release Campsite version 3.0 as quickly as possible, the following features will be made in an unsupported release named “2.7-unsupported” or some name that indicates it is not for general use. It is intended only for use with those people who want to implement the Radio Package.
- Attach Campcaster audio files to Campsite articles : Allow editors and reporters writing articles in Campsite to access and embed the sound files stored in Campcaster's Storage Server module. A precedent for such work exists in the way the image manager was created for Campsite; in addition, the Storage Server has a documented applications programming interface (API) written using the XML-RPC protocol.
- Upload audio files to the Campcaster database from within Campsite: Editors and reporters should have the ability to upload sound files directly from their Campsite text editing interface into Campcaster's Storage Server. When such a method is chosen, users will be presented with the option to fill out metadata fields describing the sound file.
- Single sign-on: Users should be able to sign in to both Campsite and Campcaster using the same username and password.
- Apt-get Installation and Updates: User should be able to install and update the software using apt-get.
- Offline editing/Synchronizing Articles with Another Server: Since Internet connectivity isnt that good in some places, radio stations need to be able to create stories on their local intranet and then send them to the main web server (outside of the intranet) whenever connectivity is available. All media from the article must be uploaded to the web server.
- Templates for reading off the screen: Specialized Campsite templates made for newsreaders/presenters who either read the news items directly from a screen or read them printed from paper will need to be created. These special templates will emphasize ease of reading. If reading from the screen, a narrow page design may be useful to allow the reading of the texts while also controlling the Campcaster 'live mode' playout.
Campcaster Components
- Add “Radio Data System” (RDS) functionality to Campcaster: Radio Data System, or RDS, is a standard from the European Broadcasting Union for sending small amounts of digital information using conventional FM radio broadcasts. The RDS system standardises several types of information transmitted, including time and station identification. Research will need to be performed on the input format the specialized RDS hardware requires, and then an output module will need to be written. This is described in feature request ticket #722 (http://code.campware.org/projects/campcaster/ticket/722)
- Audio archiving: A common requirement for radio stations is that they provide a recording of their broadcast for review by the relevant governmental authorities; in Serbia and Montenegro, the requirement is for 8 days. Many stations worldwide still record their broadcasts on to VHS cassettes, which can pose problems because 1) the tapes become damaged with use 2) employees forget to change them 3) stations need a lot of tapes for such a purpose. While there are numerous simple tools that exist that create sound recordings on a scheduled basis, further work may be needed to better integrate such tools into Campcaster and the overall radio package. One such tool to research is the Darklog archiving tool developed by the student radio station at Warwick University in the UK (http://radio.warwick.ac.uk/software/).
- Apt-get Installation and Updates: User should be able to install and update the software using apt-get.
- Single sign-on: Users should be able to sign in to both Campcaster and Campsite using the same username and password.
