KALX Live Digital Remote HowTo

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Contents

[edit] Overview

A digital remote is the process of recording and encoding into an mp3 stream in real-time at a live music show and conveying that digital audio stream back to the air studio at the station where it can be played into the board and sent out over the air.

[edit] What to bring to the venue

[edit] Need

  • Laptop (I've been using a PC but there should, theoretically be software out there for Mac)
  • Laptop power cable
  • 100' Ethernet Cat6 cable (this lives in the remote cabinet at the station)
  • Small stereo mixer (assuming that Kendra has one that we can use) (Hopefully it looks something like this
  • Cable to connect the output of the mixer to the mic-in/line-in of the laptop. (this would most likely be a male-stereo-1/8th-inch to 2-male-rca cable with 2 adapters on the end of the rca plugs that turn them into male-1/4". I've assembled one of these cables and it's located in the RPU cabinet with the compressor.)
  • 2 long instrument cables (male-1/4-inch to male-1/4-inch) or mic cables (female-XLR to male-XLR) to connect the venue's board's output to two input channels on our mixer. It might be good to bring some of our 1/4-inch extension cables incase we can't setup near to the venue's board.
  • A talkback mic (used to forward announce/back announce bands and make with the general banter)
  • Either the stereo mic or 2 mics (this is to gather the sound in the room since, most likely, the drums and bass won't be mic'd by the venue.
  • Microphone cables for the mics (this will either be 3 XLR cables or 1 XLR cable and the fancy stereo mic cable)
  • Mic stand or stands
  • Release forms for the bands to sign
  • Headphones with both 1/8th" and 1/4" plug

[edit] Nice to have

  • Flashlight
  • Power extension chord (in case you have to setup somewhere not near a wall plug)
  • Power Strip
  • Gaffers tape to tape down cables
  • Compressor and 4 male-male 1/4-inch cables

[edit] What to have at the station

  • Laptop
  • Laptop power cable
  • Other 100' Ethernet Cat6 cable (this lives in the remote cabinet at the station)
  • Cable to connect the laptop to the air studio's Aux In (this would most likely be a male-1/8th-inch to 2-male-rca cable)

[edit] What software does each laptop need

[edit] At the Venue

[edit] At the Station

  • Winamp 5.x
  • An instant messenger client (AIM, gAIM, MSN Messenger, etc.) This is to communicate with the DJ back at the station

[edit] What software does the server need

[edit] How to Set Everything Up

[edit] At the station

  • Run the 100' Ethernet cable from the computer room (next to the news studio) into the Air studio. In the computer room, plug it into one of the jacks under the table. If there isn't one free, borrow a connection from one of the computers (make sure to plug the mac back in when you finish the show)
  • Setup your laptop in the air studio and plug it into the other end of the ethernet cable.
    • Configure your TCP/IP stack as follows 
IP Address: 169.229.148.69 -- if there's a conflict change the last # to something in the 65-91 range
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.192
Router / Default Gateway: 169.229.148.65
DNS: Primary : 128.32.136.9 Secondary : 128.32.136.12
  • Test your network connectivity by trying to browse to www.google.com or www.yahoo.com
  • Plug the male-1/8th-inch to 2-male-rca cable into the headphone jack on your laptop.
  • Plug the other end of the cable (with the 2-male-rca plugs) into the Aux In located just below the keyboard of the DadPro
  • You can bring this signal up on the Aux In channel on the board.
  • Launch your IM client and connect up with whoever is at the venue
  • Launch Winamp
  • You should now be getting the stream and can pot it up on the board and hear it.

[edit] At the venue

  • Pick a spot and try to find a table or something to set your laptop and the mixer up on. You'll want to be near the venue's sound board and also near the internet connection.
  • Run the 100' Etherenet cable to the venue's internet connection and plug it into their router or switch or hub
  • Plug the other end into your laptop and power it up
  • Setup the mixer and connect the main out to your laptops mic-in/line-in. Using the 1/8th-inch to 2-rca to 2-1/4" cable
    • If you're using a compressor set this up between the main outs on the mixer and the mic-in/line-in on your laptop using 1/4" cables.
  • Run your mic cables and setup mics and mic stands. Plug them into input channels on your mixer
  • Run instrument cables to the venue's board and connect to some output (Aux out/sub master out/whatever they tell you to connect to). Connect the other end to 2 input channels on your mixer
  • Hook your headphones up to the mixer and test each input source to make sure you're getting a signal
  • Once you've confirmed all of your inputs are working :
  • Launch Winamp
    • Go to "Options..." "Preferences..."
    • Go to "Plug-ins" "DSP/Effect"
    • Select "Nullsoft SHOUTcast Source DSP v1.9.0 [dsp_sc.dll]" and a window will popup
    • In the "Shoutcast source" window that popped up :
      • In the "Output" tab in the "Output configuration" section set the following values :
        • Address : if you're using Gene's server then put "cementhorizon.com" otherwise put the domain name or IP address of whatever server you're using
        • Port : 8000
        • Password : kalxliverocks
      • In the "Encoder" tab set the following values :
        • Encoder Type : MP3 Encoder
        • Encoder Settings : set this to the highest value that the bandwidth at the venue will support. See Determining Encoder Settings
    • If you go to either the "Main" or the "Input" tab you can see the levels coming into your laptop from the mixer. You can affect these with you laptops built in volume control for your input.
      • Either click your speaker icon in the lower right corder of the Windows taskbar, or go to the "Start..." button and choose "Run..." then type in "sndvol32" and click "Ok"
      • Once in the Windows sound mixer go to "Options..." "Properties..." and choose "Recording" in the "Adjust Volume For" section. Now you'll be able to see the input volume for your mic-in or line-in.
  • Once the levels look good, in the "Output" tab click connect and connect to the server
  • Contact the DJ at the station (over Instant Messenger) and ask how the signal sounds and see if everything is working.

[edit] On The server

I've been using a server that I host out of Oakland. We are welcome to use this in the future, just let me know ahead of time and I'll turn on the Shoutcast service the evening of the show.

  • Configure the server (sc_serv.conf) with the following settings : 
MaxUser=2
Password=kalxliverocks
PortBase=8000
PublicServer=never
  • Confirm that neither an external firewall in front of the server or an internal firewall (e.g. iptables) is blocking port 8000 or 8001 inbound.
  • Run the shoutcast server either in the background on in a screen shell. This is to prevent the shoutcast server process from stopping if the connection drops out momentarily. 
# either run :
./sc_serv &
# or run :
screen
./sc_serv
  • At this point you'll see something like this : 
*******************************************************************************
** SHOUTcast Distributed Network Audio Server
** Copyright (C) 1998-2004 Nullsoft, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
** Use "sc_serv filename.ini" to specify an ini file.
*******************************************************************************

Event log:
<03/19/06@08:58:12> [SHOUTcast] DNAS/Linux v1.9.5 (Dec 27 2004) starting up...
<03/19/06@08:58:12> [main] pid: 24421
<03/19/06@08:58:12> [main] loaded config from sc_serv.conf
<03/19/06@08:58:12> [main] initializing (usermax:2 portbase:8000)...
<03/19/06@08:58:12> [main] No ban file found (sc_serv.ban)
<03/19/06@08:58:12> [main] No rip file found (sc_serv.rip)
<03/19/06@08:58:12> [main] opening source socket
<03/19/06@08:58:12> [main] source thread starting
<03/19/06@08:58:12> [main] opening client socket
<03/19/06@08:58:12> [main] Client Stream thread [0] starting
<03/19/06@08:58:12> [main] client main thread starting
<03/19/06@08:58:12> [source] listening for connection on port 8001
<03/19/06@08:58:14> [sleeping] 0 listeners (0 unique)

[edit] Determining Encoder Settings

The encoder settings that the person at the venue will encode the stream at, depends on the available upstream bandwidth on the venue's internet connection. Here is how to determine what to set the encoder settings to.

  • Determine the available upstream bandwidth at the venue.
    • Once your connected up to the venue's internet connection, in your browser go to http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
    • Choose "San Franciso" and run the test. You'll end up with 2 numbers, a "Download Speed" and a "Upload Speed" both measured in kbps. The number that matters here is the "Upload Speed". That's how much bandwidth you have to work with.
  • Choose an encoder setting that is less than the available upstream bandwidth. For example :
    • If the bandwidth test showed that you had 128kpbs for "Upload Speed" you'd want to choose either 96kbps Stereo or 112kbps Stereo for an encoder setting. You wouldn't be able to use 128kbps because if the bandwidth ever fluctuated the signal would drop out. We always want a little margin of error.
    • If the bandwidth test showed that you had 300kpbs for "Upload Speed" you'd want to choose either 128kbps Stereo or 192kbps Stereo for an encoder setting. At or above 128kbps is going to be fine for any show so don't worry about pushing it much above that.
  • Test it out, begin encoding at that speed and ask the DJ back at the station if the stream is cutting out or if it sounds good.
  • Note : If you're using Gene's server there won't be an issure for bandwidth because I've got 1.5mpbs upstream and downstream. If you're using another server, make sure to test the bandwidth (upstream and downstream) on it to make sure that you can both push your stream to the server and the DJ can pull the stream down from the server.
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