Hi,
I have to agree that Rivendell can be a good option for student /
college / campus radio. I've talked to people within the student /
campus / non profit radio sector about it and one thing that I do like
to point out - a lot of stations that run on volunteer effort like to
say that a benefit of being involved is that it gives real broadcast
radio experience to the people involved. However all too often I then
hear about the on-air / playout system built on top of things like
Winamp and / or iTunes (or something similar). The reality is I don't
know of any commercial / professional broadcast setting where iTunes,
Winamp, etc is the primary playout engine. Rivendell on the other hand
is a top-notch system used at both commercial and noncommercial stations
around the world.
I too have heard the linux concerns. This is probably the biggest
challenge. A lot of people seem to be cautious of change, even though
lately Microsoft has made major changes in each successive version of
Windows (2000 to XP wasn't a big change, but XP to Vista then to 7 and
now 8 have all involved some significant changes).
For those who are okay with Linux, one area that would help for student
/ college radio would be a web-based system for log-creation and
editing. There was one project I saw a while back looking at this, but
at the moment there isn't a system for this included in the source
(unless I've missed something). There are a lot of situations where a
person will be putting together their radio show while sitting in a
dorm-room (or anywhere for that matter). If the option existed of
logging into a log editor via a web browser to create a log (or edit an
existing log), I think that would go a long way towards greater
acceptance within college radio. Add on to a web-based log-editor a
web-based dropbox for uploading audio (this would be trivial to do - an
upload form that dumps the audio file into a dropbox) and it could lay a
foundation for remote voice tracking.
Just some thoughts,
Lorne Tyndale
> Hello all; I'm just back from a stimulating weekend in New York City,
> addressing college radio students at the annual conference for the
> Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS). One of my workshops - "Run Your
> Entire Station on Free Software" - was accompanied by a weekend-long running
> demo of Rivendell (the RRABUNTU version) on a refurbed HP dual-core computer
> I picked up for $135. The machine was propped up on a table in the common
> area, a short 12-minute looping music & promo log was loaded up (as were a
> dozen or so goofy sound effects and popular movie soundbites on the Panel),
> and a sign beckoned students and advisors alike to click away at anything
> they wanted to.
>
> There were some objections, of course ("No one knows anything about Linux",
> "The IT people wouldn't let us connect this up", "We're happy with Simian",
> etc) but needless to say, folks were interested. Watch for a spurt of
> downloads over the next couple of weeks to addresses ending in "edu".
>
> There are a number of positives to be considered when using Rivendell in an
> academic setting -- not the least of which is that today's youngsters are
> used to free software and apps: First, there's always going to be an
> enthusiastic penguin-head somewhere on campus who can be tapped as a tech
> guru (give him his own copy of RD and a pizza, then watch the fun begin);
> Second, student radio stations cannot always swing thou$andS to buy a
> commercial system and so end up using WinAmp or the iTunes player as their
> audio management system. Knowing that an Open Source pro-level system is
> available, they will be interested; and Third, colleges everywhere have
> pallets full of retired computers from other departments (considered "too
> slow to run Windows"), piled up and waiting for surplus sale or recycling.
> Ask the department in charge if they'd send three of the old junkers over to
> the station for free -- preferably dual-core or better. All that remains is
> the sweat portion: load RD an
d
> music, hook into the LAN and go.
>
> Since I am invited to this conference every year, RD will now be making the
> trip along with me every time. And I encourage any users who read and post to
> this discussion to make a case for it at an educational venue near you.
>
> -AP
>
>
_______________________________________________
Rivendell-dev mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.rivendellaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/rivendell-dev
