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? Not very good for a DJ who might roll up and want to do a quick set.
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
We would want to have the following key capabilities:
- Provide live broadcasting throughout the event
- Have a digital playout system to play pre-recorded audio
- Run an overnight unattended automated sustainer service
- Allow presenters to record segments off air using the studio for later playout?
- Broadcast on FM to cover as much of the site as possible, and surrounding area
Accommodation
Where are we going to go?
Physical Space
Ideally, we need two separated areas for studio and engineering, to keep all the noisy equipment away from microphones.
Power Supply
We will need to get a mains feed in and distributed to power all the equipment in the studio and engineering - 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
- We need an Internet connection to stream, and get news and other info from the outside world
- Ideally wired - for reliability's sake.
- Telephone lines might be nice, but not an absolute requirement
- Can be VoIP (in fact, it'd be easier and cheaper to interface if it was)
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
Audio processing is a requirement to ensure that we don't over modulate and/or sound crappy and break our license. It also means our desk operators don't need to be super perfect to make the station sound good.
- Software or hardware?
- For FM we will want a dedicated FM processor really - which normally come with RSL transmitter hires, or can be obtained quite easily from the same place.
- We might want to do different processing on the stream, in which case we might need a secondary processor
- This could be software - if the processing/encoding PC falls over, so will the stream so it doesn't really matter!
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
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
To provide live broadcasting, we need a broadcast studio.
If we really can't find any studio equipment (not particularly likely!) Radiquip hire out a full studio setup for £621.88 for 2 weeks with (almost) everything you need.
Furniture
We need some desks to put equipment on, and chairs to sit on. Unless we want to enforce standing up presenting, that is!
- HSS do furniture for fairly reasonably rates, plus (fairly unreasonable) delivery.
- Depends where you are though!
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.
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)
- RF Tx/Rx packs?
- IP Codecs?
- Anyone know of some software that sends bidirectional audio we could run on a laptop over wifi?
