Campware Radio Package HOWTO

A step by step guide to a complete open source solution for a radio station. (Working Version of the Document)

Default scenario

Journalists produce broadcast-ready audio and write content ready for the web on Linux workstations. Radio program is both broadcast via a radio transmitter and streamed to the Internet. The radio station has to meet the legal requirement to keep recordings of its program for a certain period of time.

See the overview diagram below:

Main software Components:

1.Campsite 3.2 or higher (http://campsite.campware.org)
2.Campcaster 1.2 or higher (http://campcaster.campware.org)
3.Darkice 0.17.1 or higher (http://darkice.tyrell.hu/)
4.Ubuntu/Kubuntu Linux 7.04 (http://kubuntu.org)
5.Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) or another sound editor
6.Slony-l replication system (http://slony.info)

Requirements: Darkice currently requires a static IP address.

Hardware setup in our example:

1.Local server
2.Remote server
3.Broadcast workstation
4.Journalist workstation
5.Audio editing workstation
6.Streaming and archiving server

Basic Setup

Step 1: Install Ubuntu or Kubuntu distribution of Linux on the workstations and the servers. We recommend Ubuntu (Gnome) for the broadcast workstation.

Step 2: Install Ubuntu Linux on the two server machines.

Step 3: Add the Campware repositories to your sources.list file on all machines:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Add deb http://code.campware.org/ubuntu feisty main to the file.

Configuring Servers

Step 1: Install Campsite, Campcaster Station, and the Slony-I replication system on the local and remote servers:

sudo apt-get install campcaster-station postgresql-8.1-slony1

Download and install Campsite from here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=66936&package_id=65091

Step 2: Configure database replication for Campsite and Campcaster. The detailed howtos are at:

http://code.campware.org/projects/campcaster/wiki/CampcasterReplication

http://code.campware.org/projects/campsite/wiki/CampsiteReplication

Step 3: Make sure Campcaster and Campsite users and passwords are identical on the local server (we will eliminate this step in the next releases of the Radio Package). To do so in Campsite, login into Campsite (http://IP_or_domain/admin) and add all Staff Users you need, according to this manual entry:

http://code.campware.org/manuals/campsite/3.1/index.php?id=29

To do the same in Campcaster, log in into Campcaster on the local server, at http://IP_or_domain/campcaster/ and go to Station Preferences. More detailed instructions are here:

http://code.campware.org/manuals/campcaster/1.2/index.php?id=44

Step 4: On the local server, configure Campsite for Campcaster integration. Log into Campsite, go to Configure/System Preferences. Follow this manual entry:

http://code.campware.org/manuals/campsite/3.1/index.php?id=208

Broadcast Workstation Configuration

Step 1: Make sure you have Ubuntu running on this machine rather than Kubuntu (Campcaster Studio is a GTK application and our target desktop environment is Gnome)

Step 2: Install Campcaster-studio by typing: sudo apt-get install campcaster-studio

Step 3: Configure Campcaster to work in a two machine scenario. Follow these instructions:

http://code.campware.org/projects/campcaster/wiki/TwoComputerSetup

Journalist Workstation Configuration

Your choice of Ubuntu (Gnome) or Kubuntu (KDE) will depend on the preferences and capabilities of your radio station staff. In our experience, journalists used to Microsoft Windows react better to KDE. N.B. There is no requirement to run Linux on Journalist workstations, because all Campware Radio Package functionality is accessed through a browser (Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer). Step 1: Install Audacity sound editor or any other open source sound editor that you deem is appropriate for the technical level of your radio journalists. To install Audacity, do the following:

sudo apt-get install audacity

Audio Editing Workstation Configuration

While standard Ubuntu or Kubuntu install should do the trick, you may want to consider the Ubuntu Studio distribution for this workstation, especially if your sound engineers are more demanding. The distribution features the most advanced audio (and other multimedia) tools for Linux, as well as JACK , the low-latency audio server (the great advantage of Ubuntu Studio is that JACK comes preconfigured).

You can download Ubuntu Studio from http://ubuntustudio.org. If you already have a (K)Ubuntu install, all you would need to do is add the Ubuntu Studio repositories. The easiest way to do the latter is to run these 2 commands from the shell (Terminal or Konsole):

sudo su -c 'echo deb http://archive.ubuntustudio.org/ubuntustudio feisty main >> /etc/apt/sources.list'
wget -q http://archive.ubuntustudio.org/ubuntustudio.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add - && sudo apt-get update

After that, you should install the ubuntustudio-audio and the ubuntu-studio-audio-plugins metapackages.

sudo apt-get install  ubuntustudio-audio  ubuntu-studio-audio-plugins

The applications that get installed that are of most interest are Ardour (http://ardour.org), a digital audio workstation software and Jack Control, the graphical user interface for the Jack server (http://jackaudio.org/).

Streaming and Archiving Server Configuration

Step 1: Install DarkIce live streamer.

sudo apt-get install darkice

To configure DarkIce for streaming and archiving, please refer to the Darkice man page (type man darkice in your console). Useful instructions and examples are found also in its sample configuration file at /usr/share/doc/darkice/examples/darkice.cfg (this is the location if you install it from Ubuntu packages; if you compile from sources, it may be in a slightly different place). You should then copy it somewhere (eg, into your own home dir), and edit it (for hints about how to edit the config file, one needs to read 1. the config file itself; 2. 'man darkice'; 3. 'man darkice.cfg', the last one being the most detailed one, with useful example scenarios. Once you start darkice, you should specify the location of the config file. If you had copied it to your home directory, then you should type:

sudo darkice -c /home/yourhomedirectory/darkice/darkice.cfg

Campsite Templates

You will need to create two sets of templates for Campsite. Besides the templates for the public web site (see Campsite manual for more detail http://code.campware.org/manuals/campsite/3.2/), you will need to create a separate set of templates that will create text suitable for on-screen reading in the studio. EXPLAIN IN MORE DETAIL AND ATTACH SAMPLE TEMPLATES

Importing Your Audio Archive into Campcaster Storage on the Local Server

Campcaster comes with mass import script that allow you to migrate your entire audio archive into its storage server (Campcaster currently supports MP3 and Ogg-Vorbis formats). Before you move on to that, however, it is a good idea to tidy up your metatags, as this is much more easily done in a specialized software such as EasyTAG than later through Campcaster's web interface (we intend to change this in the future). Once your metatags are nice and tidy, run the mass import script:

sudo /opt/campcaster/bin/campcaster-import --copy <yourmusicdirectory>

In case you are tight with disk space, you may want to run the script with the --link option, which will not make a copy of your files but will rather create symbolic links to them. The option given in the above example is a safer bet.

Sample Workflow

(Sample staff: Journalist, Program Editor, Announcer/Host, Studio Engineer)
The Journalist logs into Campsite on the local server, adds her report as a new article in Campsite. She types in the text, adds the photos, and attaches the relevant audio files she had prepared in Audacity (e.g. soundbites or the whole report) to the article and saves the article. She sets the status of the article to Submitted. Program Editor logs in into Campsite, inspects and edits the article and the audio files, saves the changes to the article (audio files need to be edited externally) and sets the status of the article to Published. The article is then available on the stations website (replication between the local and the remote server is done automatically in the background) and its text is available for on-screen reading to the Announcer/Host in the studio. The attached audio files are available to the Studio Engineer for playback.