Boards.ie Radio

RE*AC*TOR

With the new indie/alternative forum doing nicely, a thought struck me - how about a boards.ie streaming radio service? 48kbps would probably be a high enough bitrate, boardsies could contribute to it, Boards.ie announcements could be made on it. T'would be fun. The only problem might be the hit on the servers...

Johnny_the_fox

im nearly sure there was going to be a boards.ie radio a few years back... using the music from members bands.

Zombienosh

I like the idea alright.......

garthv

Yeh thatd be a great idea. Maybe a shoutcast server possibly instead ?
Id be more than happy to help out!

RE*AC*TOR

GaRtH_V wrote:

Yeh thatd be a great idea. Maybe a shoutcast server possibly instead ?
Id be more than happy to help out!

Something like that. It would be easy enough to set up I'm sure, but its up to the admins to see if they're willing to take the bandwidth hit.

I could see a now playing section on the front page. Would be a nice feature.

dregin

It might be an idea to ask one of the college networking societies for the use of a server?? It's non-profit like and they can definitely afford more bandwidth than boards.ie servers.

mr_angry

How about a LastFM feed from the Boards Audioscrobbler group?

http://www.audioscrobbler.com/group/Boards%2Bdot%2Beye%2Bee/members

Goodshape

I wholeheartedly support this product and/or service.

mr_angry,, personally I'd prefer to hear tunes by Boards members, as opposed to music that boards members like. I've got enough MP3's for that.

RE*AC*TOR

Goodshape wrote:

I wholeheartedly support this product and/or service.

mr_angry,, personally I'd prefer to hear tunes by Boards members, as opposed to music that boards members like. I've got enough MP3's for that.

Realistically, how many songs are there by boards members? I think playlists, along with orignal music by boards.ie members, and maybe some talk would be the way to go.

I have a tonne of mp3s, but it doesn't stop me listening to the radio, or wanting to maybe hear something new etc.

garthv

Yeh a nice live RSS feed on the frontpage would be handy

mr_angry

Goodshape wrote:

I wholeheartedly support this product and/or service.

mr_angry,, personally I'd prefer to hear tunes by Boards members, as opposed to music that boards members like. I've got enough MP3's for that.

I'm all for pimping music made by members of Boards.ie, but I have to agree with Reactor - there aren't enough musicians here to justify an entire radio stream.

Zombienosh

Yeah reactors idea is good, combined music with promotion and playing of bands or musicians from boards would work well.

Goodshape

Combined would be good, yea.. just so long as it's not swamped by the 'same old sh*t'. But looking at the Audioscrobbler page there does seem to be a nice eclectic mix of musical tastes.

flogen

Sounds like a good idea, and reactor's approach would be best too.

Could certainly be used for announcements and boards.ie info, and perhaps the admins could look into ads too, although I'm not sure if they would like to go there or if the listeners would like to hear that (I'm sure if there were ads it would be in extreme moderation as opposed to every 2 songs)

flogen

Nukem

Sounds like a class idea
Get hobbes to knock out a Firefox plugin then

StupidLikeAFox

Hobbes, your country needs you....

The Corinthian

A nice idea in theory - pity no one has actually thought it through.

Goodshape wrote:

mr_angry,, personally I'd prefer to hear tunes by Boards members, as opposed to music that boards members like. I've got enough MP3's for that.

Do you have the rights to broadcast those MP3’s? If not would you like to stand in for Boards Ltd when one of those artists decides they want royalties?

Additionally how many Boards members’ bands are there and how many songs are you talking about in total? One or two hundred tunes get real old real quick on a 24-hour stream.

dregin wrote:

It might be an idea to ask one of the college networking societies for the use of a server?? It's non-profit like and they can definitely afford more bandwidth than boards.ie servers.

Boards is a private limited company, the only reason it might be non-profit is the same as any private limited company could fail to make a profit. Also, if such a service were hosted on the server of a college society the question of liability and ownership would be left open.

Nukem

ColHol wrote:

Hobbes, your country needs you....

Sweet Jebus - that looks like one of my old teachers in a military uniform *yeuch*
We dont to scare him away *LOL*

Crash

^^what Corinthian said.

Myself Amz and Marclar looked into doing something along these lines once - for one we were way too lazy, but secondly i remember DeV saying something specifically about not using the name "boards.ie" anywhere near it in case they got liable.

RE*AC*TOR

I don't think there will be any liability involved - as faras I know shoutcast and the like aren't really covered by any copyright laws.

Perhaps I'll investigate this, and establish the legality.

RuggieBear

and the quarterback is toast.....

shame.

Aquos76

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

I don't think there will be any liability involved - as faras I know shoutcast and the like aren't really covered by any copyright laws.

Perhaps I'll investigate this, and establish the legality.

That would be great if you could investigate it. I could not see mich of a problem arising from it also. Another forum over in the UK use a simular idea.They use it for announcements and have mp3's playing every other time.

The Corinthian

Leonard wrote:

That would be great if you could investigate it.

I’m glad to see you’re happy to have someone else do the groundwork.

I could not see mich of a problem arising from it also. Another forum over in the UK use a simular idea.They use it for announcements and have mp3's playing every other time.

Why don’t you find out how they did it rather than use hearsay as an example, bearing in mind that the UK is in a different legal jurisdiction?

dathi1

Believe it or not under the Digital Millennium copyright act 2000 any broadcast emanating from a server or computer via any digital codec in this jurisdiction is subject to music rights licensing.http://www.imro.ie/music_users/music-use-online.shtml On state side servers i.e. relay or direct you then become subject to DMA Seasac and soundexchange. They regularly patrol public shoutcast relays and contact the host company and vendor for compliance details.

RE*AC*TOR

Ok so essentially €1,359 annual licence fee.

Never mind.

Hobbes

I appreciate the requests, but I am not sure what plugin would be any point that can't already be done. Shoutcast are PLS files which spawn winamp to point to a stream.

Good rummaging Dathi1, I was kind of thinking you would probably get hassle from the IMRO for having a radio that plays music. Its probably more hassle then its worth.

Thats not to say the radio isn't a bad thing. Even talkshows based on forums might make for reasonable listening.

[edit] Are there not open source/ free alternatives? Also if my memory is correct I recall Zero doing a radio show for a brief time a long long time ago. Mostly quake related.

RE*AC*TOR

With regards the Digital Millennium copyright act 2000, surely this has no juridisdction here. I still appreciate IMRO demands the licence fee - but what relevance is the DMCA?

mr_angry

Hobbes wrote:

Thats not to say the radio isn't a bad thing. Even talkshows based on forums might make for reasonable listening.

Can we invite David McRedmond on?

Evil Phil

Regi looked into this before from the techie side and, allegedly*, broadcasted some drum n' base one evening. Although this may have been off one of Spin's other servers.

*I can neither confirm nor deny this actually happened.

Moriarty

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

With regards the Digital Millennium copyright act 2000, surely this has no juridisdction here. I still appreciate IMRO demands the licence fee - but what relevance is the DMCA?

IANAL, but I'm fairly sure the answer to that is 'none'. It's obfuscation and FUD on the part of imro.

Go here and look through the copyright legislation. That's what applies to Ireland, not the DMCA.

mike65

Nice idea you might be suprised at the amount of music that could be cleared for streaming. Most desktop musos like me are perfectly happy to have anyone play thier stuff! Its not like anyone who does it for fun is going to loose sales.

Mike.

CuLT

Forward the franchise!
Surely a grand is mere pocket money to our wealthy and aloof adiminstration!

Aquos76

The Corinthian wrote:

I’m glad to see you’re happy to have someone else do the groundwork.

Why don’t you find out how they did it rather than use hearsay as an example, bearing in mind that the UK is in a different legal jurisdiction?

If thats the way I came accross, I apolgise. As it was his idea I was just offering some encouragement, thats all.

If there is anything I can do to help, I will gladly offer my help.

robbie1876

Good idea in theory. I think it would only work if it was along the lines of a 2 hour 'boards show', manned by a speaking DJ and with guest appearences from people like admins and mods to chat about stuff. In between, there would be no shortage of volunteers from boards bands to have their music aired.

Initially it should be done as a once-off shoutcast thing, then we can see the reaction and decided if it's worth going to a weekly show, then a daily show if there really is massive demand.

Once you have the permission for the maybe 15 to 20 tracks that will be played during the show, there should be nothing to worry about except bandwidth, which I know nothing about.

Robbie

mike65

robbie1876 wrote:

I think it would only work if it was along the lines of a 2 hour 'boards show', manned by a speaking DJ and with guest appearences from people like admins and mods to chat about stuff.

:eek: You'd never get some off the bleedin' air!

Mike.

The Corinthian

Leonard wrote:

If thats the way I came accross, I apolgise. As it was his idea I was just offering some encouragement, thats all.

Fair enough. I reciprocate the apology.

gandalf

Hmmm I can just see it "The Politics Show" on boards, a phone in show where I can hang up on people instead of banning them. I LIKE IT!

po0k

Aside from the legal/licensing issues, from a technical standpoint, Multicast streaming could be done easily enough.

Asok mentioned something before along the lines of a server which the "DJ" would connect to with a 128Kbps upload, do his/her/their thing and the server takes care of distributing it to the downstream clients. I don't know if it has multiple input support or not. Running a live chat show with anymore than 2 or 3 presenters could be problematice due to most people only having a 128K upstream connection. Actually keeping them all in synch could be an issue.
I can think of a few ways around it, but I'd imagine a suitable solution has already been devised as this issue has more than liekly already arisen.

Do any of the Free Radio forum people know of any details or legal obligations required for boards to host a purely chat/original content show?
As regards boards members' music being streamed, even with their permission (or permission from their record label) would IMRO still have any ground to demand a license fee?

billy the squid

gandalf's politics show could work here

http://www.paltalkradio.com/radioguide.html

a boards.ie station might not work but having a boards.ie radio radio show or two is a good idea.

going back to gandalf's idea, anyone who wished to contribute to the program could do so with the paltalk program.

Its like IRC except that it has voicechat incorporated. the moderator of the room can "red dot" the entire room only allowing those who wish to contribute to speak when their turn to do so comes up.

it would also allow a large number of people to contribute. those that do not wish to download the paltalk program but would like to listen can listen to a relay via either realplayer or windows media player.or winamp.

the program could be recorded and stored either here on boards, or if someone wanted to donate webspace then the show could be stored there, ready for those who missed the programme or programmes to listen to at their convenience.

as for banning a user, if you "red dot" them, meaning they cannot type or talk, and kick them out of the room then they are automatically banned, so you get to cut them off and ban them in one click

Fobia

I like this idea. I think something similar to Syxpak's method would be the easiest to setup initially...

Though originally created for games, Teamspeak (though they seem to have been taken over) and Ventrillo are both good for simple talking and people without +v can just listen, a teamspeak server is run for commentary in all the big qw matches - I think this would be a good way to test out interest etc.

I don't know anything about licensing but bandwidth is the big issue, the server would need to be on a 10meg line or so if many people want to listen in. It would also be cool to talk on #boards.ie while the show is aired, with the DJ's talking on both irc and on the air (RantRadio style)...

Just a few thoughts.

The Muppet

SyxPak wrote:

Do any of the Free Radio forum people know of any details or legal obligations required for boards to host a purely chat/original content show?

There is no obligation to licence internet radio. If the content was 100% original I can't see imro showing much interest either. The real problem is Libel (especially if Gandalf gets his politics show ) and it may be wise to insure against that if this idea were ever to take off.

mneylon

You *could* use Helix which is OSS