Help PHP Scheduling Solution or similar required asap!!

[tomupton]

The situation is i have a client who is going to be doing live streaming, and pre-recorded shows. At the moment I’m relying on the Auto DJ feature built into centova cast to stream music 24/7. I’m manually transferring music from our main media server into the Auto Dj Folder on a different server, then generating a normal playlist that plays this music. All music is played randomly which is perfect.

 

To give you an idea of what I’m doing. The media server is a Windows Server and the Centova Streaming server is on a Linux server. The good news is, because both servers are in data centres, the uploading of mixes takes hardly any time. The transfer is done via FTP.

 

With the Auto dj side of things, im not too concerned when certain mixes are played etc.

 

The main thing to take into consideration here is the length of the tracks. We are not streaming music singles, but dj mixes which are anything between 60mins long, to 2 hours.

 

The problem I am facing is the following and I’m in desperate need to find a solution

 

The current client is up and running on my server and the streaming is working perfectly. I’m currently using Icecast as the main streaming source. For example I have 2 different things that happen on my website, these are as follows:

 

1) Live Djs – Simple, these guys connect to the icecast server, take over the auto dj stream, and once finished the auto dj stream kicks back in again.

2) Pre-Recorded Shows – This is when I require certain mixes to play at specific times. For example a mix to play at 6pm GMT on a Saturday. Once the mix has finished, the auto dj kicks back in again.

 

This is where the problem starts. As mentioned above, most of the dj mixes are anything between 60mins to 120mins long. After speaking to Centova, they have explained to me that if an Auto DJ track is playing, the scheduled stream will not kick in until that current auto dj mix has finished. So in theory if an auto dj mix started at 5.55pm on a Saturday, the scheduled stream would not start until 6.55pm (obviously with the auto dj mix being 60mins long) Thus meaning the scheduled stream would not play on time.

 

I’m looking for a solution here to make sure my streams are played on time, and on the correct date. What can you guys suggest for me to combat this problem?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Tom

[countrywesterndj]

1- Centova Cast Auto DJ is not like SAM or a scripted program that runs in your broadcasting software. It is a 'canned' application and tweaking it is not an easy task.

 

2- Are you prepared to pay for a PHP programming solution, or just want some free advice. Because the solution involves a lot of PHP programming and interfacing with the Centova API and I can't see anyone who would do all that work for free.

 

3- That's why people use things like those Auto DJ"s ... it's a lot cheaper than paying for programs like SAM, OTS, etc. The down side is they aren't as flexible as you would want them to be to customize.

[tomupton]

Thanks for the speedy response mate. Below are my replies. I hope this helps.

 

1 - Im aware Centova Cast is an off the shelf app. I would say 98% of the features it has are fantastic. The main probs i had though is with the scheduling side of things as previously mentioned in my previous post :-(

 

A number of months back someone mentioned to me about setting up a cron job to run every 5mins to check the scheduling. This is a bit beyond me tho! haha

 

2 - Certainly im prepared to pay for a solution, but obviously getting something for free would be an advantage. I was hoping that someone may have a solution they are using already that may suit my requirements. Other than that im happy to go down the custom coding route as long as i can find someone who is confident developing an app like this, or an API.

 

3 - Previously i was using SAM to schedule all my shows. The prob behind this was that it was ran from a spare pc sat in my flat. Everything i needed to schedule a show, i had to create a pal script that would initiate SAM to connect to my icecast server, start the playlist, then once the track had finished disconnect and let my AutoDj within Centova take over. This solution worked, but involved alot of time setting it up each day scheduling and downloading the shows to my server at home.

 

I hope this helps ;-)

 

Regards

Tom

[countrywesterndj]

The CRON job would do nothing but run a scheduled task. The task still would have to be programmed to interface with Contova Cast.

 

As you say, the SAM thing involved a lot of work. The same thing as the programming you require.

 

I'll just back out and hopefully someone will have a solution that works for you.

[tomupton]

Thanks for all your help mate!

Regards

Tom

[MixStream.net]

Here's something you might find interesting, try getting a trial from them: http://shoutautomation.com/

 

I believe they have a good scheduling system.

[tomupton]

This looks perfect, ive just gone and tried to setup a trial account but they seem to be having issues with their website, and there are broken links everywhere.

 

Any idea's how i can get in touch with them?

 

Thanks for point these guys out mate

 

Tom

 

Here's something you might find interesting, try getting a trial from them: http://shoutautomation.com/

 

I believe they have a good scheduling system.

[wsimkins]

The website is now repaired and we added a full support ticket system. Sorry for the troubles mate.

 

Wes Simkins

Shout Radio Services

www.shoutautomation.com

[BWorld]

Thankyou for the update!