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What it is
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Basicaly, Seismic LIve Upgrade Projekt is a helper app that centralizes the information you need to broadcast in MP3 stream format. It also helps you announce your broadcast on your own website, by automaticaly creating the links to our favourite live MP3 broadcaster; live365.
As I figured out during my own trial and errors period, there's a few step to follow when you want to broadcast from your Mac. This app's goal is to simplify this process a bit. It lets you:
- connect with a broadcaster that will help you relay your MP3 stream to your potential listeners,
- centralize the information you need to quickly access or launch the various elements needed to put together and quick broadcast stream.
- announce your stream on your own Website and dynamicaly update that information, without having to use a full suite of Web design* and FTP applications to do so at every broadcast.
- create a dynamic link on your web site that will automaticaly launch your listener's MP3 playback application, and then route it directly to the high bandwith chanel on live365 that's realying your broadcast.
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How to do it
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Simple answer: launch the app and figure out the fields and what they do with the balloon help. Be carefull at each step, as this application can also turn a valid web page into something nobody will be able to browse.
Long answer: Check out the stuff below, as this might save you some sweat in the long run.
Sooooo...
- Find a brodcaster, ie someone who's willing to relay the live MP3 stream coming from your Mac to your potential listeners. I have long wanted to stream my own audio feed from my personal Mac, but I soon realize what kind of bandwith was needed to serve well multiple listeners That's when I discovered live365. Now that someone takes better care of that part than I possibly , it leaves me with the part that I'm best at; creating content.
To do this, launch Seismic Live Upgrade Projekt and click on "Activate". This will take you to the Member's section of live365 where you will apply for a "channel". Don't worry, it doesn't hurt. It's free. And best of all, it's fun! One good thing about registering is also that you can see what everyone else is broadcasting too. That's when you realize how much fun all this can be.
Once your account is activated, carefully take note of the IP and port number live365 will asssign you. You'll need to paste them both in this application's "Radio" tab as well as in your broadcasting app later on.
- Open the Preferences tab by clicking on the left-hand side arrow. This will reveal the essential parameters used in this app.
- Go to the "Radio" Tab
- If you haven't already done so. Download an MP3 broadcaster. For the moment AMP radio does this job just fine and I strongly recommend it. Install it and try it once as a playback application. That way you can verify that your connection and your basic setup is ok. Amp Radio™ can be found at http://www.subband.com
- Once that is done, click on the "Radio" button (the one in that tab). Please indicate where your broadcasting application is located on your system.
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Dynamicaly updating your broadcast link page:
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The principle of this fetaure is that you specify a document on your website that announces your broadcast. If you click on the "ON/OFF the air" button (in the topmost right hand corner of the window) the application will FTP the appropriate template page on your server, so that it replaces the said announce page.
Say you have a page named Index.html where listeners will go to find the link to your broadcast. You then specify one ON and one OFF page that will be used to replace index.html, according the state of your button. As you might have guessed, it gets renamed to the name of your choice (as specified in the topmost field of this tab) in the process.
These template pages can also can contain tags defined by you. These will be replaced by whatever text you specify, the next time you update the state of your broadcast (by clicking the ON/OFF the air button). See next section to know more about those tags.
If you wish to use this feature, do the following:
- Click on the "Announce" tab in the Preference section.
- Fill the appropriate fields to indicate where you wish to put your announce .html page on your server.
- Click on the "Doc ON" button to specify which document template gets sent to your server, in order to replace your announce page.
- Click on the "Doc OFF" button well you get the point :)
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online help
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Announcing your broadcast
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People will be able to link to your broadcast by one of three ways.
you give them live365 URL so they can look you up in the lists
you provide them the ip and port number of your broadcast so they can enter it in their radio app
you put a meta playlist document on your site containing these coordinates and you link to it from a page on your site.
If you prefer to use one of the first two ways, skip to the next section.
If you chose the meta playlist solution:
- Enter the name you wish to use for that meta playlist document. It should end in .PLS
- Enter the IP and port number you have been assigned by your broadcaster.
- Send the the meta document to your server by clicking on the Send button. The meta playlist is also sent automaticaly if you include the following tag "autolink= " (without the quotes) in your pages. If you do, this tag's text will be replaced by a hyperlink to your meta playlist, the next time you update your announce page.
The meta playlist gets sent in the same folder as your announce page. |
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Using tags to easily edit the content of your announce pages:
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As said earlier, in the process of sending the page to the server, the appropriate document gets renamed and filtered. Tags of your choice are then replaced by something more meaningful to your listeners.
If you do not wish to use these functions. Simply don't include any of these tags (that you can see in the Tag2 tab) in your template pages.
If you wish to use this feature, do the following:
- Go to Tag1 tab:
- Use the supplied tags or change them for your own. As long as you use a string with no space it that uniquely indetify the text to replace. This replace function is not case sensitive ie : artistFetaured= is is the same as ARTISTFEATURED= .
- Put the text you wish to replace these tags with in the fields right below the tags themselves.
- Go to Tag2 tab:
- If you use the autolink feature, replace the text in the topmost field with something meaninful to your listeners.
- Preview the resulting URL that will go to exactly replace the autolink= tag in the announce page.
- Copy the preview tags from the last field, so you can paste them in your template pages to make sure your tags match exactly and are proprely replaced.
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All is set, now what?
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- Click on the top leftmost led/indicator to launch your browser and go to your broadcast activation page.
- Click on the second button to bring-up your broadcasting application. You will probably need to manualy configure it too just once (consult your manual).
Once your broadcasting applications pops-up a message that you're connected to the broadcaster, you're ready to tell the world what's your channel.
- Click on the rightmost indicator/led. It should blink to indicate negotiation with the server is in progress.
When it stays a steady green, all is fine. Your specified document will then have been replaced by the "Doc ON" template (and renamed and all its tag filtered in the process).
- Simply double-check your page to make sure that everything is ok.
- A red led or a led that stays blinking means that some sort of problem has occurred when updating your page. Check all your settings and try again.
- To stop announcing your broadcast on your web site, simply click again on the "ON/OFF the air" indicator led. The document there will then be replaced by the Doc OFF template (and any tags replaced in the process if any).
enjoy!
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