Program or hardware that will run a school TV channel???

[ingeborgdot]

We have our own school TV channel that is broadcast throughout the surrounding area. It has become real popular over the last 3 years. We have a lot of people watching and that is great. The problem for us is that because we have a lot of people watching, they like to know when certain programs are going to be on and I understand that. The problem we have for this is that we have a lot of content and programs and games that may run for 45min, or 90 minutes or even 2 hrs.

 

We have a computer that runs an older program that is totally archaic and that was actually geared for VCR time. It was really made more for a power point type of product. I try to run it on a schedule but it is too time consuming to do so. We run our channel 24/7 and just loop a lot of content to play randomly as much is just student projects and start times are not important.

 

The issue we have is this. Let's say we want to schedule a game for 4pm on Tuesday. The day is not the issue. The issue becomes the time. Let's say a 45 minute program happens to come on at 3:55 and our game is scheduled at 4, that 4 o'clock start time will not happen. It won't start until 4:40. This never used to be an issue with our channel but because it has become so popular people are getting spoiled. So popular after a death of a patron they left his memorial to our network.

 

Is there something out there that is more geared to video and for time schedules. Hardware based? Software based?

 

Does this even make sense? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Edited December 12, 2016 by ingeborgdot

[saint]

You want something broadcast certain videos at certain times ?

[ingeborgdot]

Yes. I can try to get videos to play at certain times but it doesn't always work that way. I think a lot comes to scheduling but I need a different program is what I need. The one I am using dates back to the VCR era.

[GKIye]

Hi Ingeborg,

 

I'm not a professional in video ... I call myself an amateur ... but I did a google search

Honestly there are not a lot of details who can be found about your question

 

I share with you some links ... and I hope they can be useful

Saint knows a lot about several topics, tools etc ... So I hope he knows the right solution

 

Links :

Schedule video by using YouTube : https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1270709?hl=en

A forum item about Youtube scheduling : https://www.minimatters.com/how-to-schedule-youtube-videos-using-youtube-video-scheduling/

At the iTunes store I found a video scheduler app : https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/video-scheduler/id482833959?mt=8

(maybe with some help from a broadcaster you can link this tool to your stream)

A professional business who makes software to schedule and broadcast video : http://www.magicsoft.tv/

(As college you are "maybe" able to get their support for free ...)

 

Hope this was useful

Good luck !

[saint]

You would have to make a "master" schedule of programming to determine which shows you want to play goes in which time slot.

 

Once that is done - you would put each different program into a folder ( Folder a for sports - folder b for news - folder c for students - etc )

( Each program would need to be the same exact time - for program consistency purposes. )

 

Create a bash shell script playlist to match the master schedule you have created

 

The bash shell script playlist should include each folder - and would instruct the video player to randomly select a video to play in each folder

 

Something like this.

( This is for Unix / Linux )

 

Bash Shell Script

 

playlist.sh

 

- - - - - - - - -

 

#!/bin/bash

 

// folder a

cd /home/saint/multimedia/folder_a

vlc $(ls | shuf -n 1)

 

// folder b

cd /home/saint/multimedia/folder_b

vlc $(ls | shuf -n 1)

 

// folder c

cd /home/saint/multimedia/folder_c

vlc $(ls | shuf -n 1)

 

// folder d

cd /home/saint/multimedia/folder_d

vlc $(ls | shuf -n 1)

 

// at the end of the playlist - the script will execute the original bash shell script and start the whole process over again

// change to directory containing the playlist bash shell script

cd /home/saint/multimedia/

./playlist.sh

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

You would need to make the playlist bash shell script executable also.

 

 

At the end of the " broadcast day" - the bash shell playlist file would execute the bash shell script and start over again.

 

To source the video to the transmitter - simply do an audio / video screen capture of the video and feed that to the transmitter.

Edited December 14, 2016 by saint

[saint]

FYI - VLC is a multimedia player.

[radiorob]

If you have a spare computer and some IT skills setup a https://openbroadcaster.com server to manage multiple playout channels. Supports most media types to create a schedule of mixed media, images, slides, video and music. it is open source and used to run community radio and TV sent to a Youtube for distribution if you have the bandwidth. Edited March 17, 2018 by radiorob