Metadata from internet radio

[wilbo]

Hey all. The last few days I've been a little obsessed with getting our HD2s and 3s looking better. I spend a lot of time listening to them, so I'd like to know the title/artist/album. We use Rapid4 on our two main stations for album art and metapub integration. No one here seems to care about the HDs, so that means I get to experiment with them the most. So here's how this all works:

- On our HD channels, we rebroadcast internet radio steams coming in off our Barix exstreamer 110s and 500 (if anyone has a better solution that these I'm all ears. Maybe some super reliable windows program??)
- Some of these have ad insertion and legal IDs, so I handle the switching between our SAS Rio Bravo audio router and use contact closures from the Barix exstreamer 500 to fire off the audio.
- One of them goes through our Omnia 9 for processing since we had an extra core, one goes through breakaway one, and another goes through stereo tool (I can attach my AAA presets for both if someone needs it)
- To grab metadata from these streams, I use the attached python script. I am NOT a programmer. I've copied and pasted snippets and massaged them together until they started working semi-reliably. The script writes the resulting title/artist/album to an ENCO xml file
- PADapult grabs the resulting xml file, formats it, and sends it off to the HD radio importer. If anyone has a good idea on how to eliminate this piece of software, I'm all ears. The less parts to this rube-goldberg machine the better I'll feel.

Check out the attached python script. It would have saved me a few days if someone had posted something similar, so I figure if I have this problem, other people probably do too.

 

[Radio Bob]

How clean is the switching on the Barix? When you break away from the stream is it late making the switch or late getting back?

 

[secondchoice]

If you choose to a Microsoft "reliable" program, do not make the mistake I once made: remember to turn OFF the auto update function.

 

[wilbo]

How clean is the switching on the Barix? When you break away from the stream is it late making the switch or late getting back?

It's very clean. It might have to do with our providers giving us enough low to no audio in the leadup to their beds in the clock. The only time something has been late is during a network switch failure (this is a much larger problem though), or if both of our NTP clocks fail (haven't seen this yet, but I've lost NTP on some equipment due to network switch issues).

If you choose to a Microsoft "reliable" program, do not make the mistake I once made: remember to turn OFF the auto update function.

Just in time for Windows 11 to be mandated soon, I got Windows 10 massaged to be very reliable. I have some computers that have been running non-stop for several years. One of them handles the audio processing. That being said, I'm interested in Rivendell, and will hopefully start dipping my toes into the Linux radio automation world soon

 

[Kelly A]

That being said, I'm interested in Rivendell, and will hopefully start dipping my toes into the Linux radio automation world soon

The good thing about Rivendell is it's open source. The bad news about Rivendell is it's open source. I get that there is a decent amount of crowdsourced support, but crowdsourcing comes too close to Wikipedia. Putting station income on the line because you're curious about a roll your own automation, doesn't do station ownership any favors. What if you get hit by a bus, or can't work?
Want to play with it at home? Great! I'll pay a little more in support contracts in all my stations to get my spots playing again—the cost of doing business.

 

[wilbo]

Yeah, that's the conclusion I've come to in the past 45 minutes of research. I know of a few engineers in much smaller markets who use it successfully, but I imagine that they have more time to play with something that experimental. And at this point, I'm pretty much locked into the Dante ecosystem for the foreseeable future, which does not have any Linux compatibility unless you get weird with AES67 drivers.

 

[Kelly A]

Yeah, that's the conclusion I've come to in the past 45 minutes of research. I know of a few engineers in much smaller markets who use it successfully, but I imagine that they have more time to play with something that experimental. And at this point, I'm pretty much locked into the Dante ecosystem for the foreseeable future, which does not have any Linux compatibility unless you get weird with AES67 drivers.

By the looks of your previous comment, you're running a Dante plant with Enco DAD automation? That's a pretty solid combination. Just keep your firewalls updated, and make sure your network hardware is actually made by the manufacturer on the label (not grey market). Or, run your on-air network physically separate from any workstation that can get to the Internet.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking open source like Rivendell. Where it shines is smaller public stations and home streaming/LPFM automation.

 

[wilbo]

By the looks of your previous comment, you're running a Dante plant with Enco DAD automation? That's a pretty solid combination. Just keep your firewalls updated, and make sure your network hardware is actually made by the manufacturer on the label (not grey market). Or, run your on-air network physically separate from any workstation that can get to the Internet.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking open source like Rivendell. Where it shines is smaller public stations and home streaming/LPFM automation.

It's alright. There's a lot to do before I'm 100% happy with it. I have not been impressed with ENCO DAD, but maybe I just got spoiled running DJB, OMT, and WideOrbit at other places. We're not splitting atoms here, I just want things to run with as little of my batch programs and python scripts as possible.