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PlayIt Issues

I am wondering if there any PlayIt problems?  My computer has been having issues whereby PlayIt seems to connect and disconnect from the server.  As I watch the PlayIt screen The "On Air" in the top right corner of the screen flashes between On Air and Off Air.  I have changed cables on the computer as well as the ethernet cable and the issue seems to still exist.  I have been able to access the internet  as I am sending this message on the forum .  I haven't changed any settings.


Any suggestions as to the cause?  PlayIt is build 2749.  Computer is Windows 10. 



Thanks

David


Hi David,


In general, if you are seeing Off Air/On Air flickering this would indicate an issue with your streaming server. I would recommend trying another streaming tool such as Broadcast Using This Tool in order to ascertain if the problem is with PlayIt Live or the server.

Hello David,


Jason's suggestion of trying B.U.T.T. is a good one, 


Rocket Broadcaster has a rather nice configuration check feature when you add a stream and depending on the bit rate and encoder you use the free version might suit your needs.


Do you hear "holes" in the stream when listening when "On Air" flickers ?


Depending on the "up stream" (towards the server) bandwidth you have and other usage I also wonder if there is packet loss.


A reasonable indication that it it might be a problem with the upstream link would be to do a Speedtest. If the upload causes PlayIt Live to go "Off Air" it would suggest network congestion to me.


One particular culprit for swamping an uplink is Microsoft OneDrive (or similar) syncing a local folder with "the cloud".  



Also David, may I recommend some form of limiting or processing.


I had a listen in to your stream and there is quite a level variation, the highest levels are clipping but other material is quite quiet.


Depending on budget and whether you always use a mixer in circuit either hardware or software processing might be appropriate.


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 We here at RadioGH use Playit Live to stream all our recorded shows which are either 2 hours or 1 hour long. We were having problems with Playit Live not triggering the next hour but solved this by making sure all progammes run slightly over the 1hr or 2 hour duration.

 However we are still having a problem . The Internet Broadcaster randomly (apparently) switches to off air but shows stop streams in the box. Stopping stream and restarting does not work and a reboot is necessary to get the program running properly.. This may have been discussed before but trawling through the forum I can't find any reference.

We are running Windows 10 with updates disabled by every means possible in Windows. We use a dedicated computer (a Levono Thinkcentre) for Play it live. We switch off the stream and use BUTT for our live streaming because we use another dedicated computer for the live function and we have two studios 80 miles apart using Team Viewer to allow remote switching when necessary.

Any ideas on how to ensure 24/7 uptime on Playit Live (which is a great program and exactly what we want. If we ran Linux we would probably use Rivendell which is similar to Playit Live).

Hello Derek,


From my experience PlayIt Live will run for many weeks without problems. To be fair, it is running a random rotation of songs from a library (essentially a personal jukebox) so not very demanding but it is stable.


I've a couple of Raspberry Pi computers running both Shoutcast and Icecast on my LAN so Playit Live (and Rocket Broadcaster) stream to them and when I listen to the streams I use a phone or tablet.


I've longer term plans of doing something a bit more serious but this is essentially a test system.


By "The Internet Broadcaster" I take it you mean PlayIt Live's streaming plugin and it disconnects from the streaming server (thus showing "off air") but says "stop streams" because you haven't pressed the button to disconnect.


I don't know exactly what the plugin uses to judge "on air" but I disconnected the feed to the two Raspberry Pi computers on my test system earlier and it seemed to take perhaps 10 or 20 seconds to notice (as did the other streaming client).


You could try B.U.T.T. on the Play It Live computer to see if that keeps connected better although I somehow doubt it will.


It might also be worth an experiment with Rocket Broadcaster as well. Rocket is capable of taking two feeds, one from a physical input and the other from an application running on the PC. This might offer a relatively elegant way of changing between the recorded content and live shows.


The problem you have is surprisingly common. 


I have heard of stations that have remote contributions playing using an application which is fed to a mixer fader that is left up. 


The changeover is achieved by the remote contributor starting audio and remotely stopping the playout system by some means (perhaps team viewer).


The end of a remote live reverses the process. 


Once the delay inherent in the links is known, with careful choice of starting and ending material it can sound very natural.


Hello Mark,

Thanks for your comments.

I'm more and more convinced that oir problem here is not actually due to the Playit Software but something external that is causing a computer reboot and therefore switching the off air situation.

My next move will be to use another computer with a clean installation of Windows and only Playit Live added. I still need folders with the programmes we broadcast but that is not atall likely to be the cause of our problems.

I'm actually dithering between using Win7 and Win10 but at this stage I am unsure whether Playit Live has issues with Win7.

I will continue to investigate!. Keeps me occupied if nothing else.

Thanks again for your valuable comments.

I'm fairly certain you haven't found a PlayIt Live streaming bug. 


PlayIt Live is stable for many weeks on both Windows 7 and 10 including the streaming plug in from my experience.


If you have Windows 10 Professional you can get more control of Windows updates but you can also try the tips here:


https://www.techradar.com/uk/how-to/how-to-stop-a-windows-10-update


My tips are


1) Clean but updated Windows 10 install with nothing else configured

2) Have a solid state disk rather than a conventional drive

3) Remove anything that uploads to the cloud (OneDrive & similar)


If you make a new computer with a clean install that has the same account names as your existing you can copy the PlayIt Live configuration.


See http://support.playitsoftware.com/support/discussions/topics/5000094243


You could also think about whether your Internet connection fails.


If you have a "purchased" router rather than a "free" ISP router you can use Think Broadband's "Broadband Quality Monitor" https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality


This is good and keeps a log.


I also use ping monitoring tools if I suspect a network connection (try Ping Info View https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/multiple_ping_tool.html  or iOS Ping Monitor).


You could set a ping monitor tool to try your streaming provider every 10 seconds.

Hello again Mark,

Very helpful stuff here and I thank you for it. I will go through it bit by bit. I'm sure that this is not a Playit Live issue.

I will follow your advice and set up a clean windows installation on another computer with an SSD.

I'll take it from there.

Thanks for your help.

Hi Mark



Apologies for the delay in replying.  I'd forgotten about this question.  I have PlayIt running on a Windows 7 PC.  There is nothing except PlayIt running on the computer.  I use the PlayIt streaming plugin to connect to my server.  I have Breakaway Audio Processor installed.  However, there seems to still be a bit of a bug somewhere as some songs, including the news, still seem low.  I have checked all the audio settings and they seem fine.  Not sure what else to check.  Thanks for assisting.


David

Well David,


Not entirely a fix, but personally I use MP3Gain to make my music have the same subjective loudness (this isn't the same as normalising or similar).


http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/download.php


Someone recently said it triggered a virus alert for them but I've not noticed this with Windows security.


What you could do is analyse a few news feeds and set the MP3 gain target to be similar to the loudness of the news file downloads (assuming it comes as files).


The PlayIt Live audio processing plugin has a decent AGC (I wouldn't use anything else with other downstream processing) and you could also try that.


The two approaches together might come close to fixing things.

 

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