Q. Who is eligible for a Friends of Walney Radio Presenters Account?
A. Friends of Walney Radio Presenters accounts are aimed squarely at those who's prime interests lay within the Barrow in Furness area, and Walneyites in particular. Occasional programmes which deal with other localities are not a problem; but if they make more than a small percentage of what you want to publish please consider taking out a similar account elsewhere.
Q. I fancy doing a programme that duplicates a theme that is already dealt with in one of WalneyIsle.co.uk's own programmes - is that ok?
A. Absolutely. I'm by no means a professional, and if you'd think you can do a better job of covering one of the existing topics than I, then by all means get stuck in!
Q. Is creating a a programme a complicated process?
A. Obviously I think not... at the most basic level all you do is upload a single audio file and write a short description of it before clicking a sigle link to make it available to the public. However - the system also allows for the creation of feature length programmes through serving several audio files one after the other in a pre-determined sequence - and the use of this feature obviously requires a certain amount of forward planning if the best results are to be had.
Q. Is uploading the files a slow process?
A. It certainly can be - especially if you want to create reasonable quality musical content of any great length. All low-end (512K and 1M) broadband accounts (i.e the fastest connections currently available on Walney) typically offer upload speeds in the region of 256K. At that kind of speed; a 1/2MB (5,000KB) mp3 file takes approximately 3 and a half minutes to upload - and represents 10 minutes of music-quality air time or 20 minutes of speech-quality air time. A half hour music programme would therefore take a minimum of 10-12 minutes to upload - the same length of time as one hour's worth of speech. For broadband users Radio Free Walney is eminently possible; whereas if you are still on a 56k modem the best that you can hope for is that those upload times would be in the region of 10 times greater, and listening to even medium quality 64kbit music programmes would not be possible.
Q. What "bit rate" should I use?
A. It depends on the content of your files;
- For straight forward speech, such as story telling, announcements, and poetry, I would suggest that 32000Hz 32-40 kbit Mono files (which can be listened to on both broadband and narrowband conenctions) are more than adequate. But if, on the other hand, you are thinking about producing dramtic radio plays, you may consider the ambience produced by sterophonic files to be of greater importance than lowering the quality of the audio to the lowest common denominator.
- For musical content - 40 to 48kbit 32000Hz Mono is particularly useful for narrowband listeners - but 64kbit 32000 to 44100Hz Mono or Stereo produces noticable improvements in sound quality. For best results however I like to use a combination of bit rates... for example in the "Meet The Ranger" programme - the music files are all 96kbit 44110Hz stereo. while all phone-in sections are a relatively high 64kbit 32000Hz mono so as not to overly degrade the quality of the international Skype phone call.
The problem isn't how fast the files can leave the server, but how fast the average Walneyite can recieve them. In excess of 85% of local Internet users are still on 56k telephone modems, and 40kbit files are about the best they can manage. 40kbit 32000Hz music isn't exactly hi-fidelity - but is worth thinking about if you care greatly about those who are nuts on music but don't yet have broadband.
Of course bitrates higher than 64kbit sound even better again, especially for stereophonic music tracks, but (a) drastically reduces the number of people who are able to listen to them, and (b) means that due to them being considerably larger you may not be able to store as many of them as you would like.
For .wmv video files I would suggest that a combined audio+video bit rate of no greater than 158kbits should be used. This allows for the transfer of reasonable quality 320 x 240 video files via even the slowest broadband connection. If you wish to make a higher quality version of the same video available you should contact the webmaster with a view to having it installed in the High Quality Downloads area.
Q. Speaking of storing files... how much disk space do I get?
A. There are no hard and fast rules concerning the amount of disk space an active member can have. Should the lack of disk space ever become a problem inactive high-bitrate members may be asked to revise the bitrate on their content. Every effort will be made to ensure that frequently accessed and widely respected content is given top priority when it comes to storage space. I'm envisaging that somehwere in the region of 200MB per presenter ought to be sustainable in the long term... but that obviously depends on how many presenters we end up with and to what extent they use their accounts.
Q. How long can I store the files for?
A. How long is a piece of string. WalneyIsle.co.uk is a non-profit hobby site and recieves no financial support whatsoever apart from a meagre income from the google ads and photo-prints which do not even meet the cost of its monthly web hosting fees. Given that that is the case; the entire site's future is insecure to say the least, and no guarantee can be given that the site will still exist in years to come. Having said that; I have every intention of not only maintaining the site in it's current state but also of expanding it at every opportunity.
Q. What if I change my mind and decide not to use my Radio Presenters account?
A. Accounts which have already published at least one programme will remain on the system indefinitely unless complete removal is requested from the e-mail address associated with the account. If, however, an account owner decides (for whatever reason) not to publish a radio programme or upload any files within 14 days of registration; that account will automatically be downgraded to Basic Membership level in order to free up resources which could be useful to someone else.
Q. Are there any restrictions on file content?
A. Yes. The posting of any material which in the webmasters opinion promotes; religious beliefs, agressive or anti-social behaviour, or any form of sexual persuit or activity, is specifically prohibited and highly likely to result in the account in question being terminated without further notice.
Hints of using Friends of Walney Radio Presenters Accounts:-
1. Your username is also your presenters name - so you might want to consider using something like "FishingWithFred", as a username, rather than simply "Fred" - which would give not the slightest inkling as to what sort of content your programmes might hold. Please note that the software only allows alpha-numeric characters in your username.
2. After deciding on a username and registering it - follow the instructions in the e-mail you'll be sent regarding how to activate your new account.
3. When you wish to upload programme content (or listen to any other radio programmes) - simply come to the site and click on the [FRIENDS of WALNEY] link in the right-hand-side column of any page and log in to your FoW account.
4. Once you've logged in... click the "My Radio" link (or simply return to the main site then access the Radio Freee Walney programm listings page if you wish to listen to other peoeple's programmes) and you'll be taken to your File Manager page on which there are various links, including a "HELP" link with which you'll soon become familiar. If you're in any doubt as to what clicking on a link would do - simply hover the cursor over it and a tool-tip will appear to remind you.
You may notice some system files in your web space from time to time as follows:
!PlayList.txt This is your "current PlayList" file. Once you have finished adding tracks to your selection you would confirm the order in which the tracks are to be played prior to publishing the sorted version as a finished programme. Once publishing is complete you may then delete !Playlist.txt in readyness to begining work on your next programme. The only way this file will ever be deleted is if you delete it yourself - though you are of course able to save a copy of it to your own computer prior to re-instating it at a later date (by uploading it as you would an mp3 file) should you wish to put the the current project on hold half way through.
!PlayList.sorted.txt This file is automatically created whenever you use the Sort Playlist page of the Playlist Editor. In a perfect world it would hold the same track entries as !PlayList.txt - but in the order in which you wish to play them - rather than the order in which you chose them. The creation and deletion of this file is completely automatic, but agian but you are welcome to save a copy of it to your computer and re-instate it at a later date (by uploading it as you would an mp3 file) should you wish to put the the current project on hold half way through.
5. You only need to log out after you've done playing if; (a) you want to change users (i.e. work with a different FoW account), or (b), if you're on a shared computer and don't want anyone else to be able to fiddle with your files. One accidental click on the wrong link and every file in your web space would be deleted, so (a) take care who you let play with it, and (b) keep your own backup!
One final word... if you do take out an account and later decide it's not your thing, please do let me know, so that I can make the resources available to others who might make better use of it.
If you have any problems using your Friends of Walney account please don't hesitate to get in touch
Colin.
