-Original Message-
Date: Wed, 28 May 2014 11:38:23 -0500
From: Alan Smith
To: rivendell-dev@lists.rivendellaudio.org
Subject: Re: [RDD] Log Edit problem or Chair to keyboard interface issue?
> Interesting...I thought about playing around with Xming for remote Xsessions,
> but since I am still a newbie, I just went with vnc to bring up the entire
> desktop. I can see some benefits of Xming, and > that is something I would
> love to tinker with if I can get a "round tuit" which seems to be in short
> supply these days.
I use Xming through SSH tunnels using putty-link (so often through the
Internet). It is slow, especially pulling up the "Markers" screen in
rdlibrary. It is nice to have only the applications window(s) on your desktop
instead of an entire other desktop as with normal VNC solutions. The staff
likely thinks these things are native local applications as I have separate
icons for each that auto log in and display the applications.
That said, my "version 2" system (yet to actually be commissioned) has a
separate VNC session for RDairplay (in a tightly fitting 1024x768 display),
then another "production" session that has a normal XFCE window manager
desktop. You can always bring up the RDairplay session inside the "Production"
session if you want.
Another wild thing I am currently doing (on both existing and "version2"
systems) is instead of remoting an existing X-session with X11vnc, which I
previously found I get poor remote VNC performance with, I instead start a vnc
session for Rivendell upon system boot, under a "Rivendell" user, then edited
the settings for that user's display manager login to instead of starting a
normal X-session with a window manager and widgets, it instead simply runs
"vncviewer" for the local X session for that login on the local machine. I get
really good remote access performance this way and local performance is just
fine too. Added to that if X11 ever crashes (but never does), the rdairplay
session would continue and you only have to log in to reconnect to it.
> I am not too crazy about databases either, but no matter how you slice it,
> Rivendell is the BEST bang for the buck automation system, period!
I agree. Noting that nothing is perfect, I was surprised to see that the
feature set of Rivendell compared with expensive "high-end" broadcast playout
systems. I then leveraged the power of the Linux backend (and my own knowledge
of it) to extend features further so that the whole studio air chain resides
neatly in a 4' equipment rack that also includes a Presounus VSL1818 outboard
sound engine, a BT audio switcher, EAS equipment, a subaudible tone decoder
(would love to find a Linux software solution for this!), a remote broadcast
CODEC, and a large UPS with extra battery banks and room for a complete backup
Rivendell CPU (the "version2" currently in my office) that swaps in easily.
>I am sure there are pro's and con's of each way of doing things. One of my
>biggest fears with Rivendell though is a corrupted database beyond repair.
>You would have all this audio in /var/snd all >perfectly fine, and no way to
>make use of it [i know, backups, backups, and MORE backups!]. With our
>current system, I can rebuild its entire cart library in less than 5 minutes.
I have had good luck using the RML command to do a snapshot backup of the
database every night. I then rsync it across the Internet to a "backup" system
in another city (my office) that also keeps in sync with /var/snd such that it
can actually go on air quickly during a complete studio failure (or a studio
move, as recently happened), since our STL to the Transmitter site is Internet
based.
> Don't get me wrong; I'm still LOVING Rivendell. I find it very intuitive,
> extremely easy [once you get past the Linux stuff], and very well laid out.
Yes once set up for them, I found common radio staff members quickly master
day-to-day duties of it.
>In my testing, I've not had a single RDAirplay crash, and I have never had
>issues with log chains.
Yea I'm thinking I have something wrong with an rdlibrary entry that crashes
RDAirplay every time it happens to get scheduled. I just don't know how to
troubleshoot it. The funny thing is that by simply restarting RDAirplay, that
same log loads and plays just fine.
> But I am just doing a music format for now-no satellite automation yet.
> Although currently, they are running a fairly large amount of syndicated
> programming, and no satellite receiver,
> so all the voice tracks for those shows are downloaded via RDCatch, which has
> worked extremely well.
Sounds a lot like us, also no satellite syndication as the community this
station serves is too small to be able to get very good terms of service from
them. We do have some syndicated programming that I have either RDCatch nicely
downloading from the Internet or Linux backend shell scripts getting via cron
tasks, what RDCatch can't
