Project:EMFM

Wouldn't it be awesome if EMF camp had a event radio station? Yes, yes it would be incredibly awesome. So lets make one

Aims and Objectives

EMFM would serve to provide information about EMF Camp, including upcoming events, talks and workshops, news about recent happenings at the camp, as well as local and national news that is of interest to the people attending the camp and the local community.

We would also aim to provide content of interest to the attendees of the camp, including live and pre-recorded discussions about current issues around technology, security, privacy and digital rights and freedoms. We may also want to provide educational content to broaden the horizons of the listeners.

EMFM would aim to be as transparent as possible, letting anyone who's interested in radio and broadcasting see how the radio station works, and letting them get involved in running it during the camp. Editorial control will be required to some extent to ensure we don't breach our license(s), but will not be hidden from those wishing to contribute content.

Content

What do we want to broadcast?

• Recorded talks
• Live talks?
• Interviews
• Discussion & talk shows
• Music (from real live musicians and/or DJs?)

Licensing

Item	Qty	Cost	Total
Ofcom S-RSL Application Fee	1	£400.00	£400.00
Ofcom typical S-RSL Daily Rate	3	£70.00	£210.00
PPL Short Term Radio Daily Rate	3	£35.00	£105.00
PRS/MCPS 3-day Discount Rate	1	£222.74	£222.74

If we only play royalty free/creative commons music, we wouldn't need to pay for PRS/PPL/MCPS licenses, potentially saving us a bit of money. But would we want to limit ourselves like this?

Financing

We need to make money (as well as prove to Ofcom that we can pay the bills).

Merchandise

• FM Radios
• FM Radio kits?
• Clothing

Advertising

Do we want to sell out?

Donations

Can we either reduce costs by having kit donated or have donations to pay for equipment?

Implementation

Accommodation

Where are we going to go?

Power Supply

We will need to get a mains feed in and distributed to power all the equipment in the studio - and ideally some UPS to make sure we don't drop off air if there is a power outage.

• Can probably get away with a single 16A circuit for everything
  • Would be easier as no grounding issues between equipment
• Will need some power distros (PDUs or even just a few 6 gang extension leads
• Laptops have built in UPS! So good for backup playout automation in case of power failure

Networking & Comms

Network connection, telephone lines

Acoustics?

How much do we care about the acoustics of the studio?

• Probably not a lot - as long as it's not bad enough to make speech unintelligible
• Makeshift acoustic treatment can be arranged if it's really really bad
• Anything we need to sound polished and nice can be recorded in a studio ahead of time.

Transmission

Processing

Software or hardware?

FM Transmission

A transmitter usually helps.

If we can't source a FM transmitter, we can probably hire all the kit required from Transmitters R Us for £595 + VAT for 2 weeks (or £494 for just 1 week). Or the exact the same kit from Radiquip for £246.88 for 2 weeks.

The kit comes with:

• BW Broadcast 50W FM Transmitter
• BW Broadcast FM Processor (which having used them are pretty decent sounding once you've set them up)
• BW Broadcast RDS encoder (As it happens 'EMF CAMP' is exactly 8 digits, which is the limit for RDS programme ID)
• Matched folded dipole and 25M feeder cable.

Pretty good little setup and does everything we need and reasonably good value too - good alternative should we be unable to have anything donated.

Online Streaming

We will need to run the FM output into a recorder of some kind anyway (due to license requirements) so we may as well stream it too!

Software

• Linux/Windows OS
• Icecast2 Server(s)
• Darkice Source Encoder(s)

Hardware

• Normal ATX PC that can take a PCI card
• M-Audio Delta 44 has which has 4 inputs - we can use 2 for streaming and 2 for FM Rx logging
  • I can probably source one that's currently not in use - User:naxxfish

DAB?

You can get event slots on some DAB muxes, we'd need to hire space at the mux and get some sort of codec, and some sort of transmission method (IP or ISDN, maybe microwave link)

Really expensive, and not so easy to sell radios at the site to pick it up.

Studio

Furniture

We need some desks to put equipment on, and chairs to sit on. Unless we want to enforce standing up presenting, that is!

Monitoring

We need to hear what we're outputting!

• I think it's a fair bet to say most people who will be presenting will have their own headphones?
  • If not we can hire some DT100's from Radiquip
  • Or buy some Sennheiser HD-201's - they're only £16 from Dolphin Music , they're alright - not brilliant but sufficient.
• Monitor speakers, not absolutely required but useful for confidence checking
  • If we can't source any, we can hire from Radiquip

Mixing

We need a mixer to mix the microphones + playout and other audio together to broadcast

• If we can't source a broadcast mixer for free, you can get an Alice Series A mixer from Radiquip for £164.06 for a week
  • These console are old, but solid (CSR has one which has been running for at least 15 years with no major faults) - [User:naxxfish]

Microphones

Condensers ideally. Also need stands.

• We should get condenser mics with shock mounts.
  • AT4033's are fairly standard issue, but I've heard good things about Behringer C1's - if we bought them, they can be used for another project after the camp?
  • If we can't find condenser mics for free, Radiquip for £30 each per week.

• Anglepoise stands are ideal, as you can move them about easily without making handling noise
  • If we can't find stands for free, Radiquip have some for £9.38 per week, with G-clamps for attaching to desks

Outboard

Gate/Compressors would be good for the mics, plus a limiter on the output of the mixer.

• I can probably hire some dBx 266 (dual gate/compressors) from Kent Tech for fairly cheap - User:naxxfish

Playout

Some potential solutions for free PC based playout, Windows or Linux based.

• Rivendell
• Digiplay from Radio Warwick
• Jazzler
• ZaraStudio

Not free but cheap

• DARP - clone of P Squared Myriad
• mAirlist

Outside Broadcasts

We might want to broadcast live from outside of the studio (and gain audience participation)

• UHF mic/belt pack tx + IEM? (depends on range required)
• Broadcast RF Tx/Rx?