Campcaster 1.1 Released
Never heard of Campcaster? Here's the elevator pitch: Campcaster helps you run your radio station. Do automated broadcasting and live studio playout in one system: schedule your broadcasts from the comfort of your own home with the Campcaster Web component, or do dynamic live shows with the Campcaster Studio desktop application.
What's the big deal about this release? We'll cut to the chase: Campcaster 1.1 is the first release that is stable and feature-complete enough to be used in production systems. Indeed, the Campware implementation team will be helping to roll it out to multiple radio stations in Sierra Leone later this month. Other major radio stations are starting to adapt Campcaster to their needs: Austria's Radio Orange is adapting the playout system to work with it's digital archive, while in Hungary, a network of independent radio stations is integrating Campcaster's storage server into its IKRA project, a generic public website engine for radio stations.
"Awesome! Where can I get it?" you ask. The first thing you should know is that Campcaster only works on Linux. We recommend Ubuntu Dapper or any other Debian-based system.
If you have an Ubuntu or Debian system, then just click here for installation instructions. Otherwise, click here to download.
Read on for a detailed description of all the fancy features...
Major features of Campcaster:
- Live, in-studio playout. Campcaster Studio enables station personnel to play out both individual sound files and playlists such as advertising blocks or entire programs.
- Web-based remote station management. Authorized personnel can add program material, create playlists, and schedule programming all via Campcaster's web interface.
- Automation. Campcaster has a scheduler function that enables users to set playlists for playback at a date and time of their choosing. Playlists can be played back multiple times.
- Playlists. Campcaster allows users to create playlists that can be either played on-demand in the Studio or in automated mode. Playlists can be nested inside each other, so for example, a playlist with a block of ads can be inside of a playlist with a music program.
- Centralized archives of station program material. Station personnel have a searchable, browseable central archive that is accessible both in the office and via the web.
- Solid, fast playback. Campcaster uses the popular Gstreamer multimedia framework for clean, reliable, fast playback.
- Program sharing. Stations can share both playlists and files with a designated, centralized 'network hub.' This enables the creation of 'virtual radio networks' connected via the Internet.
- Search-based backup. You can backup all station archives at the click of a button, or only backup certain files based on search terms, so that backup files can be made of only a certain program or of all files created by a certain user.
- Localization. Campcaster is multilingual and supports Unicode. It also is very easy to create language localizations.
- No restrictions. Multiple instances of the Campcaster Studio program can access the same archive on the office network, and there are no worries about hardware dongles or keys limiting access on multiple PCs. The joy of open-source!
- Innovative design. Campcaster's user interface – the product of Parsons School of Design's “Design and Communication” program - introduces a number of innovations, including the 'Scratchpad', a list of recently-used files and playlists.
- Open, extensible architecture. Stations are free to extend and alter all parts of the Campcaster program code, which makes extensive use of XML-RPC APIs.
- about_campcaster.rtf - "About Campcaster" info sheet
- campcaster_1.1_press_release.rtf - Campcaster 1.1 Press Release
Comments
| Campcaster |
| Posted 2008-07-29 11:13:09 by anncooms@yahoo.com |
| Would this be possible with campcaster? To split the job of scheduling programs for a CR station, between several off-site operators, who would use web access to material (both local and satellite) stored in a central location, for rebroadcasting. Did I get that right? Ann. |
| radio |
| Posted 2008-08-05 05:56:28 by hokyu@optusnet.com.au |
| 9395.3FM |
