It’s important to know that, in order for Live365’s licensing to cover you, listeners must connect via the Live365 player and not directly to your stream or via your radio page with Airtime Pro. 

To do that, you need to direct your listener page to connect via the Live365 player. We will show you how to do that in this tutorial through the relay feature in Live365. So let’s get that set up. 

Step 1:

Once you’re logged into your Live365 station, you’ll want to click on Sources and navigate to the Relay page. 

Step 2:

Next, we need to get our stream address for Airtime Pro. To do that you’ll want to click on Settings, then Streams, then scroll down to where you see the stream URLs. Right-click the HTTP stream and copy it to your clipboard. It’s important to use the HTTP stream to make sure that Live365 gets the metadata. Now that we have our relay data, go ahead and paste that in and click Save.

Step 3:

Next, because of how Live365’s relay feature works, you’ll need to navigate to Auto DJ and enable it. 

Live365 will only relay a stream while the Auto DJ is active, so make sure that this is turned on.

Step 4:

Navigate to your Live365 overview page, and you should see the metadata for the track that you’re playing through Airtime Pro.

That’s it! Now you’ve got Airtime Pro sending audio and metadata to your station on Live365 and you’re all done. 

If you’re more of a visual type of person, we’ve prepared a video for you:

The post Covering Licensing: Streaming Your Airtime Pro Station Via Live365 appeared first on Airtime Pro.

Radio stations are facing the same problems affecting offices worldwide: how to continue operating in a time of extreme social distancing. Several college radio stations have had to suspend broadcasting altogether with the closure of their campuses. Others have been forced to rely more on automated programming and archived shows. 

The Show Must Go On

As challenging and difficult as this situation may be, the show truly must go on. Radio is a tried-and-trusted medium with a long history and crucial role in keeping the public informed during times of crisis. Thankfully, with the modern technology we have at our disposal today, DJs can easily set up an improvised remote studio, produce their shows from home, and continue to play an important role in their communities while maintaining their safety. (see our step-by-step guide: “How to Start an Internet Radio Station From Home”)  

Doug Arellanes (disclosure: Doug was a Sourcefabric co-founder and our director of innovation for 7 years),  quickly set up a makeshift home studio to do both his show for Radio 1 in Prague and to continue his radio broadcasting class at Anglo-American University after its campus was closed.

Many of his students have dispersed to their home countries, but they’ve continued their “AAU Audio and Redefining Radio” class and weekly Sound Bricks Radio  show uninterrupted from Prague, Moscow and Los Angeles using our Airtime Pro internet radio software, utilising its built-in Rocket Broadcaster live broadcasting functionality, along with Microsoft Teams for video conferencing and Skype.

Since Airtime Pro is hosted in the cloud and can be run remotely from any web browser, correspondents (or, in this case, students) from all over the world can log in and contribute, making it an ideal online radio platform for far-flung contributors even in normal circumstances. And that is especially true in today’s environment, where quarantines are becoming the norm and DJs and most other workers are highly advised to work remotely if possible.

Airtime Pro: Built for Remote Broadcasting

As Doug points out in “Broadcasting From the Cloud, While Living in the Cloud”, Airtime Pro was designed from its inception to provide continuous radio broadcasting for decentralised groups operating under duress. The original specs for Airtime Pro were, in fact, written by Robert Klajn, the legendary Belgrade-based radio engineer, who was tasked with the difficult job of keeping Serbia’s Radio B92 on air during the Milosevic regime of the 1990s.

The students working on Sound Bricks Radio have created a new show in response to the crisis, called “Covid Call-in”, in which they take calls from the public and report on efforts in their various locations to combat the epidemic. According to Doug, “Airtime Pro’s ability to switch between live and pre-recorded shows is crucial in my student’s ability to create their own shows from home, then upload them for scheduling and playout.” 

He’s also written another post on Medium, “Integrating Skype Calls into Streaming Radio, Robinson-Crusoe-style”, explaining how he set up his limited home studio to incorporate Skype calls into Airtime Pro live broadcasts.

Doug is also using that live-call Skype setup in his show on Radio 1, where only a small engineering staff remains in place and most of the nearly 100 DJs have also had to resort to broadcasting from improvised home studios.

Radio’s Important Role in Bringing Communities Together

The coronavirus pandemic will present many challenges in the days ahead, but as far as radio goes, we’re seeing that stations and DJs are quickly learning to adapt and have more than enough technology to avoid any interruptions or information gaps. 

We’re also seeing a lot of people get involved with radio for the first time in an attempt to help inform fellow citizens and bring their communities together. Radio has always been an ideal medium for building closer ties within communities. And with internet radio broadcasting software such as Airtime Pro, it’s never been easier to set up a station and begin contributing right away.  

If you don’t already have an online radio station, sign up for our free 7-day trial, which requires no credit card.

*All photos and illustration courtesy of Doug Arellanes.

The post Airtime Pro: Built for Remote Broadcasting During Times of Crisis appeared first on Airtime Pro.

In this blog post we will show you how you can become a street reporter using a live broadcast app on your phone and our internet broadcasting software Airtime Pro. We have also created a simple video that walks you through the steps on-screen.

But the very first thing to do is set up our Airtime Pro Internet radio station. (Here’s a video which shows how to get on air with Airtime Pro in under two minutes). If you already have a station you will just need to log in.

Setting up your station

Once you’re logged in to your station, live broadcasting is a snap. All you need to do is set up live broadcasting following these easy steps.

You will need to open the Airtime Pro interface. Once inside the navigation panel, click on “Settings,” then “Streams.” 

Under the “Live Broadcasting” section, check the box that says “Auto Switch to Live DJ.” By clicking this box, you’ll enable anyone with credentials, a mobile phone and a livestreaming app to live broadcast to your station. In other words, what this feature allows you to do is turn your friends and colleagues into roving reporters, and to bring live, mobile broadcasts to your listeners.

Once you have the “Auto Switch to Live DJ” box checked you need to set up your live broadcasting app. For this demo we’ve used the free Cool Mic app for Android. There are other apps that can be used on both Android and IOS devices, such as BroadcastMySelf. We’ve included links to both apps in the video description. 

Connecting Cool Mic to Airtime Pro

In the Cool Mic app, you need to enter your Server name. The Server name is a combination of Airtime Pro’s “Host” and “Port” number, separated by a colon (:), as seen here. 

Next, enter your your live broadcasting username and password from the “Master Live DJ Connection Details” and then your Airtime Pro “Mount” name.

You can find all of these details in the Airtime Pro Master Live DJ Connection Details pane, which is on the “Streams” page of your Airtime Pro station.

After you input those details, you’ll need to set the Audio codec in Cool Mic to Ogg/Vorbis.

Finally, you should change the Quality Level setting in the app. The default is 0.1; switch this to “Maximum Quality” of 1. Please note that the maximum quality of your phone stream will depend on your cell-phone ISP connection quality. If your live broadcast is choppy or dropping, you should lower the quality/encoding bit rate until it becomes stable.

Live broadcast

With the configuration complete, you can start live broadcasting, using your mobile phone as a Mic. 

To begin, tap the “Start Livestream” button on the app. 

As soon as you do this, your Airtime Pro station will switch from “SCHEDULE” programming to “LIVE”.

When the live broadcast is over, all your field reporters need to do is hit the “Tap to Stop” button and your station will return to its scheduled programming.

Now you’re ready to take your show on the road. 

There you have it. It’s never been easier to broadcast live and on the go with Airtime Pro. To get started with your own internet radio station, sign up for a free, no-risk 7-day trial.

The post Live Broadcast from Anywhere with Your Airtime Pro Station and Your Phone appeared first on Airtime Pro.

Earlier this year we teamed up with “WBCN and The American Revolution” — the landmark feature documentary that tells the story of WBCN-FM, Boston’s underground, radical radio station and its influence on the culture in the late 60s and early 70s — to offer 10 free online radio stations to contestants who wrote in telling us how they’d use a station to contribute to their community and, thus, change the world.

Helping us select the winners is the film’s director, Bill Lichtenstein, who began working at WBCN at the tender age of 14, in 1970. We are proud to be associated with Bill and his important film, which has already received extensive press and critical acclaim, being called “epic”, “magical” and “possibly the first film to tell the true story of the 1960s”.

We’ve included each winner’s name along with a short description of their  world-changing radio station. We’ll aim to check back with them in a year to see how their stations are progressing. So, congratulations to our 12 winners, and many thanks to all those who participated.

And the winners are….

• WGAC, Good American Collective: Programming that is diverse but focuses more on other people, places, and things rather than today’s focus around who’s hosting the show. An internet radio station that works with and builds community through entertainment, events, and promotion.
• ogturnup fm: Premiering new albums and interviews with the artists, focusing on a mostly German-speaking audience in Europe and beyond.
• Pallavi Radio: A south Indian Malayalam community-based radio station in Melbourne, Australia. with talk shows, the  latest Indian music and local news and traffic update as well.  
• London Live: London was once at the forefront of live music-making, with hundreds of music venues in the metropolitan area. Today, there are ever fewer opportunities for bands and solo artists to get themselves heard in a “live” situation, in front of an audience. We want to re-invigorate the London (and UK) music scene with this station, for the audiences and performers. 
• iPandA Radio Worldwide, Inc: A non-profit rock station in Indianapolis supporting suicide prevention with a daily playlist called i*n*d*y*, standing for “I’m not done yet”. This playlist/idea is the core of our mission in giving hope to those going through the roughest of times.
• Alabama Jams: Showcasing the little guys, playing the original new music by artists that are working a couple jobs and playing the small gig at night, keeping their dream of being heard alive. And, I do live shows from a local venue to help bring awareness to the artists. My station won’t have produced audio commercials, so as not to take away from the music.
• Sound Travel Radio: A non-commercial online radio station based in Kharkiv, Ukraine, whose main objective is coverage of Ukrainian and international underground and experimental music in all its stylistic and geographic diversity. Additionally, we’d research and support various independent cultural projects, including building a community of cultural activists from all over the country who could present their ideas on air.
• Música Independiente: Currently 96% of the music being created never gets played on regular FM radio, and most bands go unsigned. Música Independiente Mi Radio was born to discover and bring awareness to local independent musical talent and hopes to expand its online reach to every country in Latin America, providing all of these undiscovered and incredibly talented artists a platform to be heard.
• World’s Random Freedom Network: WRFN is determined to run 24/7, year-round for the purpose of giving the world content that reflects the diversity of hearts, minds, ears and voices of the United States, thus Making America Whole Again. Currently, I am able to broadcast only (I am just one person) my three-hour weekly show, “Make America Groove Again,” which is popular enough to warrant expansion. I plan to add more music, spoken word and interview sessions along with PSAs.
• Diamondback Days: We would like to start an online radio station for our community and our school. Students would learn important technology skills and the art of communication, while providing a much-needed service, news and entertainment to the citizens of our area. 
• Radio Sidney: Our station will give voice to those in our community who are not represented in public discourse, especially seniors, youth and First Nations. We have already started our station, but have a long way to go. Over the past nine months (since our broadcasts started) we have engaged the community in a few meaningful ways. For example, in our municipal election last year we provided feature interviews with all of the candidates except for one. We were encouraged by comments from voters such as, “your interviews really helped me make my decision”.
• Radio JUJU: The culmination of the diverse strands that art entity BRUD and artist Aditya Mandayam have attempted to weave together over the last year: the human body as synthesiser; the collective voice; queer synthesis, and psychonautics. Many early electronic musicians were (queer) women. As a curator and musicologist, Mandayam’s work has dealt with identifying, naming, and foregrounding this overlooked phenomenon.

The post Announcing the Winners of Our Airtime Pro ‘Change the World’ Contest appeared first on Airtime Pro.

Interviewing a guest? Broadcasting a concert? Covering a sports event? Anytime you want to broadcast live on your Airtime Pro station, you’ll be able to do it with just one click, thanks to our seamless new integration with Rocket Broadcaster.

What is Rocket Broadcaster? It’s an application – a streaming audio encoder – that takes sound from your computer and either sends it to a server (usually for a streaming service such as Icecast or SHOUTcast) or sends it to another application: in our case Airtime Pro.

The third-party app (currently for the Windows operating system only) is now fully integrated into Airtime Pro, so first-time users will no longer need to go through the cumbersome task of manually configuring the live broadcasting software to connect to their stream. 

In fact, we have built in a shortcut to Rocket Broadcaster right in to the Airtime Pro interface. So any time you want to go live on your station-you can now open the Rocket app with a single click.

Ready to dive in?

To get started, we’ve added a new “Set up Live source” button on the top right corner of the Airtime Pro interface. 

Click this button, and you will be taken to the help menu (pictured below) and prompted to choose your live broadcasting software of choice. Select the “Live broadcast with Rocket Broadcaster” link and you will be guided through the download process. 

The first time you go through the setup process, you will need to download the Rocket application by clicking “No, I don’t have it, I need to install it.” Then you can go back to Airtime Pro and click “Start Rocket.” Then it will be automatically configured for your stream.

What if I’m not on Windows?

If you are using an operating system other than Windows, you will find detailed instructions on this help menu for downloading, configuring and using other live broadcasting software (BUTT, Nicecast (Mac only), SAM Broadcaster and Mixxx) by clicking “I have broadcasting software.”  A detailed guide for downloading and using Rocket Broadcaster is also available in our help center. 

Developing a lively on-air personality is one of the best ways to make your radio show stand out from the competition. With this integration, we’ve made it as easy as possible to broadcast live on the air. Happy DJing, Airtimers!

With this integration, we’ve made it as easy as possible to broadcast live on the air. In the video below, our friend Mike Russell of MRC Creative shows you how it’s done. Happy DJing, Airtimers!

 

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