Automate 24/7 Stream for a scheduled Playlist

[bcoyle]

Greetings from Chile: I'm helping a friend to run a scheduler for his small TV Channel. Actually he is working with VMIX and playlists. I think it's possible to create a better opensource solution with OBS with a small home server. I have read some forums and videos, for example openbroadcaster (i like this project), or Castr (not free, maybe as a backup when electricity is off could be affordable) but the installation and guides are not fully available. I hope I can receive some orientations from your experience. Very interesting your channel (DCCATV).

Thanks in advance and sorry for my english!

Please tell me more about what you are trying to do?

 

[bcoyle]

Hello:
Put it simply: How to automatize a playlist with some ads for continuous streaming, in other words to use OBS with a software like Instaplayot or Marsis Playout

For considering: I think that the whole question behind this thread is to obtain affordable solutions for small creative channels. The solutions does exist, but only big networks can pay that. I have learned IMHO that the content is the most valuable think for the future of small TV channels, but spending thousands of dollars for a software is out of the budget.
If you are working on a affordable solution for linux, believe me, many people out there will support that idea and pay a reasonable price.

Thank you for your interest in asking

Casttor can do all that, it's just that it's a window program. It is written using Visual studio. I agree with you about the need for small stations and is why i'm going thru the beta process now to share with people. I think you have to decide whether it's worth it to you to deal with windows. Cast-tor is what you want.

 

[kkstyle]

I would be happy to try it, when will you release the program?

 

[bcoyle]

I would be happy to try it, when will you release the program?

Hi, I'm bill. The program is in beta test right now. Could you tell me what you have planned or whether this is general interest. You can DM me if you wish to keep your answer private.I will need contact info etc. This is not open source yet and is a windows only program. It does work well. Here is the current test channel - sort of retro tv. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP0cpeiC6i8

 

[bcoyle]

Hello:
Put it simply: How to automatize a playlist with some ads for continuous streaming, in other words to use OBS with a software like Instaplayot or Marsis Playout

For considering: I think that the whole question behind this thread is to obtain affordable solutions for small creative channels. The solutions does exist, but only big networks can pay that. I have learned IMHO that the content is the most valuable think for the future of small TV channels, but spending thousands of dollars for a software is out of the budget.
If you are working on a affordable solution for linux, believe me, many people out there will support that idea and pay a reasonable price.

Thank you for your interest in asking

Hi. I'm curious. Would linux users not use a windows solution even if it was the solution to their problems. Just curious. I do understand that having to have an extra computer / expense might not be possible

 

[Imbar]

Hi .... this is interesting
I did some experiments and managed to create an integrated system using RadioDJ as an automation system and use OBS to visualize all the items that played. This becomes possible since RadioDJ can play MP4 files. To do this, I write some script to give orders to the 'OBS command line' a local files path reference from RadioDJ to the 'Media Source' in OBS.

 

[bcoyle]

Hi .... this is interesting
I did some experiments and managed to create an integrated system using RadioDJ as an automation system and use OBS to visualize all the items that played. This becomes possible since RadioDJ can play MP4 files. To do this, I write some script to give orders to the 'OBS command line' a local files path reference from RadioDJ to the 'Media Source' in OBS.

I've seen radiodj before and it seems like a powerful app and importantly, supported. I guess my question is about the script you write. Is this a one time script or do you have to write/update this script each time you wish to use it? Also, is linux use, part of the "this is interesting" comment. Sometimes when many people are talking, it's hard to tell whos comment you are refering to.

 

[bcoyle]

@everyone Well, everything is going good with the casttor project. We have a new 'real' user located in Maine. This is a 6 town cable channel setup with 9 active channels using casttor, 6 government town meetings etc, 3 community access channels. This is in addition to the channel running in the netherlands for the past year. The saco river project (maine,usa) replaced commercial equipment costing 100k and a maintenance contract costing 20k annually with 9 computers, each running a copy of casttor and obs for their 9 channel system. I was told that the project cost was 28k total. I was also told that the programming time went down from 8 hours per week to 30 minutes for the 6 government channels. I love hearing that.

 

[bcoyle]

I would be happy to try it, when will you release the program?

Hi . you never answered. is there a problem?

 

[bcoyle]

Complete automation playlists would be the BEST professional add-on to OBS. I run a TV channel, and I need to play commercials from time to time, like a playlist of commercials, choosed randomly inside a major playlist of the program videos. A scheduled playlist that would fit time exactly would also be a dream. How to do that in VLC ? We could automate VLC and send it to OBS.

did you ever work it out?

 

[from1975]

ffplayout works really well. 24 playlist, live ingest, ads, DSK.

 

[bcoyle]

ffplayout works really well. 24 playlist, live ingest, ads, DSK.

I'm curious. How long does it take to set up a weeks worth of (NEW) programing. I imagine you can cut and paste previous playlists, but how much work does it take to set up a new playlist. Do you plan to share with others? I found that with my program, it's taking more timeto share and train then working on the code.

 

[from1975]

Check for yourself:

ffplayout:

ffplayout

python/ffmpeg based playout

ffplayout.github.io

frontend (playlist editor):

// ffplayout

ffplayout Frontend ffplayout frontend is a web GUI is for managing ffplayout engine and it depend on ffplayout-api. The Interface is mostly made for 24/7 streaming. Other scenarios like streaming in folder mode or playlists with no starting time will work, but is not shown correctly. For a...

ffplayout.github.io

also you can use REST API (https://ffplayout.github.io/ffplayout-api/) and build your own editor. Playlists are simple JSON files.

And some features:

• have all values in a separate config file
• dynamic playlist
• replace missing playlist or clip with a dummy clip
• playing clips in watched folder mode
• send emails with error message
• overlay a logo
• overlay text, controllable through messenger or ffplayout-frontend (needs ffmpeg with libzmq and enabled JSON RPC server)
• EBU R128 loudness normalization (single pass)
• loop playlist infinitely
• remote source
• trim and fade the last clip, to get full 24 hours
• when playlist is not 24 hours long, loop filler clip until time is full
• set custom day start, so you can have playlist for example: from 6am to 6am, instate of 0am to 12pm
• normal system requirements and no special tools
• no GPU power is needed
• stream to server or play on desktop
• logging to files, or colored output to console
• add filters to input, if is necessary to match output stream:
  • yadif (deinterlacing)
  • pad (letterbox or pillarbox to fit aspect)
  • fps (change fps)
  • scale (fit target resolution)
  • aevalsrc (if video have no audio)
  • apad (add silence if audio duration is to short)
  • tpad (add black frames if video duration is to short)
• output:
  • stream
  • desktop
  • HLS
  • null (for debugging)
• JSON RPC server, for getting infos about current playing and controlling
• live ingest
• Multi Channel

 

[bcoyle]

Check for yourself:

ffplayout:

ffplayout

python/ffmpeg based playout

ffplayout.github.io

frontend (playlist editor):

// ffplayout

ffplayout Frontend ffplayout frontend is a web GUI is for managing ffplayout engine and it depend on ffplayout-api. The Interface is mostly made for 24/7 streaming. Other scenarios like streaming in folder mode or playlists with no starting time will work, but is not shown correctly. For a...

ffplayout.github.io

also you can use REST API (https://ffplayout.github.io/ffplayout-api/) and build your own editor. Playlists are simple JSON files.

And some features:

• have all values in a separate config file
• dynamic playlist
• replace missing playlist or clip with a dummy clip
• playing clips in watched folder mode
• send emails with error message
• overlay a logo
• overlay text, controllable through messenger or ffplayout-frontend (needs ffmpeg with libzmq and enabled JSON RPC server)
• EBU R128 loudness normalization (single pass)
• loop playlist infinitely
• remote source
• trim and fade the last clip, to get full 24 hours
• when playlist is not 24 hours long, loop filler clip until time is full
• set custom day start, so you can have playlist for example: from 6am to 6am, instate of 0am to 12pm
• normal system requirements and no special tools
• no GPU power is needed
• stream to server or play on desktop
• logging to files, or colored output to console
• add filters to input, if is necessary to match output stream:
  • yadif (deinterlacing)
  • pad (letterbox or pillarbox to fit aspect)
  • fps (change fps)
  • scale (fit target resolution)
  • aevalsrc (if video have no audio)
  • apad (add silence if audio duration is to short)
  • tpad (add black frames if video duration is to short)
• output:
  • stream
  • desktop
  • HLS
  • null (for debugging)
• JSON RPC server, for getting infos about current playing and controlling
• live ingest
• Multi Channel

from your handle, were you born in 1975?? lol. From working on my own app, I can tell you spent a lot of hours in design and implementation. I am facing the gethub doc trail problem and am currently at a loss. I'm starting from beginning and facing the gethub learning curve. "casttor" is currently in beta test. I have 3 main testers now. One is a news station in the netherlands (running for a year and a half), 2, a 6 township gov channel in Maine and a reku channel that we are going to livestream. Its a fully based GUI, but alas windows only. Casttor is "show" based which means that a show contains all the videos,promos, add, bumpers, overlays etc. I noticed a line in you doc about stability and I totally agree. For a program that needs to run 24/7, it can'tCRASH. Thank you for sharing. We can talk more if you like. I'd like to hear more about some of the technical problems and how you solved them.

 

[from1975]

from your handle, were you born in 1975?? lol. From working on my own app, I can tell you spent a lot of hours in design and implementation. I am facing the gethub doc trail problem and am currently at a loss. I'm starting from beginning and facing the gethub learning curve. "casttor" is currently in beta test. I have 3 main testers now. One is a news station in the netherlands (running for a year and a half), 2, a 6 township gov channel in Maine and a reku channel that we are going to livestream. Its a fully based GUI, but alas windows only. Casttor is "show" based which means that a show contains all the videos,promos, add, bumpers, overlays etc. I noticed a line in you doc about stability and I totally agree. For a program that needs to run 24/7, it can'tCRASH. Thank you for sharing. We can talk more if you like. I'd like to hear more about some of the technical problems and how you solved them.

Yes, I was born in 1975. What's your deal?

ffplayout isn't mine. I just shared the link with with you 'cause I see you struggle with playlist editor.

 

[bcoyle]

Yes, I was born in 1975. What's your deal?

ffplayout isn't mine. I just shared the link with with you 'cause I see you struggle with playlist editor.

Didn't mean to ruffle your feathers. I'm older than you anyway. Just being social. Want to thank you for your response , which is about helping other people in the community. I actually thought you were the author. I just thought it would be interesting to talk "tech talk" to the author. Sorry again

 

[from1975]

No problem.

 

[bcoyle]

Here is a demo of how casttor can create a month of 24/7 programming, in basically about 20 minutes. I tried to be a little funny with a voice over lead-in intro. I think I need to practice. We are probable in the last round of beta testing. Please comment. It's a 4k video so you will need to watch it on a 4k screen.

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