Local PD requests my feed be delayed :(

[dkf435]

Sounds like dropping this feed from RR may be in order if no delay, this is one of the reasons that I have not started a feed in my area, the fire department wants one so they can use their smart phones to get pages but lately we have had some power issues and internet connectivity issues and they are not getting all of the pages. The police use analog, digital and encrypted depending on traffic and sensitivity of information exchanged. I know if every tweaker in our town had access to the digital traffic it would be stepped up to encrypted. We have a good network of neighborhood watch people that do send info in and have heard several times when they made a difference and right now nobody including the local paper even has the funds for the digital or renting a handheld from the police department as some other agencies in the area do.

David Kb7uns

 

[APSN556]

Arbitrary variation in delays for different feeds will only serve to confuse the listeners and cause support issues for us and our partners.

Then why is it an option made to Official Feed Providers? More importantly, why is it an option you felt was NEEDED for official feed providers?

 

[dkf435]

You are not supposed to question management practices here, just shut up and send money, this is why I elected not to bring a feed up I have a bank of radios not doing anything. Until it gets secured or a delay not going to happen.

David Kb7uns

 

[MesquiteWx]

Just host your feed privately. I have a feed but it doesn't run through RR/Broadcastify so we can do whatever we want with it without having to answer to anyone. The media player which we use to stream the feed has delay settings or if they are a first responder or LEO we give them the IP to the direct feed without any delay.

 

[MesquiteWx]

Let me know if you decide to host it yourself. I'm looking for a host for a private fire feed that will coincide with the incident alerts I'm currently putting out on Twitter. I think hosting it yourself is the best option. That way you control the feed delay, you can put whatever you want on it, and you make the money from any ads or premium subscriptions you get. Everyone wins.

Good luck,
-AZ

You don't need a host. You can host it yourself from the very computer you're using to provide the feed. Software like ProScan has a built in web server that will allow you to connect to the software externally from a WAN IP address that is port forwarded. You can even use a Raspberry Pi in place of a PC. You would just connect to the feed with the external IP address with the port number. Plug that into a media player that is embedded into your web page and you're set. There are media players with delay settings as we use one for our feed then have the capability to supply the direct feed without delay to those in Public Safety who would like to have it and there are several who do and love it.

 

[APSN556]

Our feed is now privately hosted with Broadstream software. It was a breeze to setup, and will stream up to 5 feeds separately. A player with a delay however is something I didn't know existed! Can you tell me what player it is? Right now our feed is not available to the public. That is, until I can find a delay option! Thanks!

 

[MesquiteWx]

It is called Wimpy Player. There is a setting in the script that allows you to set the delay of the audio.

 

[2guntom]

Wow! This sucks!
I mean, dangit Bobby...

(No reference to anyone named Robert here, just a gratuitous "King of the Hill" reference...)

I've been a feed provider for a while now. I started because I couldn't run my computer and listen to the scanner at the same time; the computer was throwing some crazy RF and it overloaded the scanner. I was able to run a scanner in my office at work, and subsequently feed it through an older computer there. The results were good because that put the scanner in the middle of town for good reception; then , I could listen, on my home computer.

Later came the new Narrow Band compliance stuff. Not everybody upgraded at the same time. This produced an impossible volume setting situation; some stations became very quiet while others remained as loud as ever. I even got an email from RR because they thought my volume was too quiet... Funny, even today there are STILL some agencies/offices/units that are operating non-compliant radios around here...

In 2011, a series of tornadoes decimated part of the county; we NEVER get tornadoes here. My little scanner feed was a big hit! a whole lot of people were using it, and some were government agencies because there radios weren't doing the job. It was really nice to offer something back to the community.

Then the dreadful day came when my job kicked me to the curb. I'm not sure if it was because I didn't play golf, didn't drink beer, didn't watch college football, didn't have tatoos, didn't own a motorcycle, didn't lie, didn't cheat, didn't steel, or a particular combination, or even all of the aforementioned, but I was done. And, my scanner feed receive/broadcast site was now gone too.

I lamented for a while and decided to try to bring the feed back online at the house. It took some finagling, but I got it going. It started to evolve as I strove to provide a "quality feed". The feed was awarded its very own computer dedicated solely to the feed itself. For fun, to be as "hi-tech", "low budget", and redneck as I could get, I added a video feed too 2guntom's Links: Greeneville, Greene Co. Police Fire & EMS
This was for my own personal satisfaction; this way I could see what was playing on the scanner behind me without getting up since the scanner in front of me was monitoring other stuff.

Then, I heard the city PD's radios being "worked on". All the sudden the audio quality went WAY down, and city fire did too. The signal quality was so bad that what I could hear, I heard officers and dispatch complaining that they couldn't understand each other.

I did some investigating with a handheld and sampled the quality as I drove around town. IN TOWN was fine, but when I got to the extremes, quality faded quickly. Strangely enough, the very same handheld, inside a house, in the southern part of the county picked up fine. I reside in the northern part of the county, and I should add I am about 10 MILES from the pd and fire transmitters.

This is TN, and there is some terrain issues. But, it did work well, then it didn't. The leaves are not in the trees yet, but when they are, it will get worse (you flat-landers won't understand...)

I moved my antenna, and subsequently broke it. How somebody could make something that cheap... but it turned good because I just couldn't throw it away- I had to "make it" into something usable which got me into making my own antennas

But, before that, I bought 2 new antennas. And, city pd has "worked on" their radios again, once or twice. The reception is marginal.

I have conducted several different experiments with several different radios and different antennas. My largest antenna now receives another police department on that frequency; I have to use the PL tone on my scanner to eliminate it. The signal quality is still questionable.

After reading this thread, it makes me wonder if I have created this problem. That paranoid nerve that runs up through my leg, the one that makes my knee jerk sometimes...

I remember when there was that "cell phone gun" hoax 10 years ago. City PD was more worried about phones than they were real weapons... That's the mentality that makes this thread a reality. A little mis-information, and everybody's fun gets ruined.

My feed is well known.

I hate the thought of my hobby being ruined; I just hate it.

I've got 13 scanners and I'm getting ready to make some more antennas to pull in some different signals...

I'm wondering if I can reverse or possibly delay the inevitable by removing LE from my feed?
Or maybe removing the city fire and PD from my feed?

I've already lost HP because of that new system. I wish I would have realized the extent of the change; I would have bought different scanners a month ago...

Thanks to Chad, even though it's bad news...

 

[APSN556]

1) The feeds are already delayed

2) Arbitrary variation in delays for different feeds will only serve to confuse the listeners and cause support issues for us and our partners.

Then why is it an option made to Official Feed Providers? More importantly, why is it an option you felt was NEEDED for official feed providers?

I'm still anxiously awaiting a reply to this question... Mr. Blanton?

 

[webstar22]

I'm still anxiously awaiting a reply to this question... Mr. Blanton?

Will likely never come he doesn't believe people are allowed to question what he does.

 

[dkf435]

Just keep sending the money.

David Kb7uns



With all these radios listed below I have plenty to devote to a dedicated feed but it will not be on here with this mindset

 

[blantonl]

I'm still anxiously awaiting a reply to this question... Mr. Blanton?

Please see my post here:

http://forums.radioreference.com/2169432-post9.html

 

[blantonl]

Then why is it an option made to Official Feed Providers? More importantly, why is it an option you felt was NEEDED for official feed providers?

It functions as an incentive to get more official providers on Broadcastify which benefits all of us. We've seen a HUGE uptick in interest from public safety agencies that want to use our platform to connect with the public due to this policy, and while it takes a long time for local government agencies to push something like this through, I can assure you that we'll see a LOT more agencies join broadcastify in 2014.

With that said, trust me when I tell you that we know what we're doing here, and, we greatly value your feedback. Translation: sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. Or get off the ride if you don't like what you hear and see from us.

Lindsay

 

[Spitfire8520]

I don't normally get involved in arguments about policy and such, but I have possible suggestion that may apply to issues that involve a public safety agency directly (such as in this case). This suggestion would not apply to feed providers who are attempting to voluntarily put delays.

According to Official Feeds Designation - Application Process, it states "Official Feeds are live audio feeds broadcast and sponsored directly by the agency or organization being broadcast." Would it be an option if the PD in question, in collaboration with the feed provider, declared that they would like to officially sponsor a feed that is being broadcast by an authorized 3rd party (the feed provider) and therefore would allow the feed provider to implement the delay? I'm offering up this suggestion as Broadcastify would stand to benefit from gaining another title to add your list of agencies sponsoring scanner feeds, therefore showing other agencies that they have an option of supporting Broadcastify without having to setup their own scanner feeds. As I see it, it would allow agencies to get the delays they want (if they want it) while allowing you to market Broadcastify with new sponsorships by other agencies who take this route, and somewhat mitigate the potential threat of losing a feed due to encryption or voluntary removal by feed providers.

 

[APSN556]

It functions as an incentive to get more official providers on Broadcastify which benefits all of us. We've seen a HUGE uptick in interest from public safety agencies that want to use our platform to connect with the public due to this policy, and while it takes a long time for local government agencies to push something like this through, I can assure you that we'll see a LOT more agencies join broadcastify in 2014.

With that said, trust me when I tell you that we know what we're doing here, and, we greatly value your feedback. Translation: sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. Or get off the ride if you don't like what you hear and see from us.

Lindsay

Thank you for the response Mr. Blanton. My question then is, what are the benefits of having more Official Feed Providers? If that comes at a cost of loosing most of the unofficial providers due to inability to delay, then it seems not so good. Furthermore, if the end goal is to get as many Official Providers as possible, then wouldn't every single issue you mentioned in the post belowt still be an issue?

We don't allow delayed feeds on Broadcastify unless it comes directly from the official agency sponsoring the feed.

The reason is that there are too many confusing variables involved for the listeners which will cause major support issues for our staff in addition to archive issues. Archives are timestamped and would have to either be time shifted based on the delay or the listeners would have to take into account the delay when searching for an archive. Again, more confusion. And frankly, the archives are very valuable to supporting the business of broadcastify.

Implementing system-wide capabilities to delay feeds would be cost prohibitive as well. It would take an large amount of storage and resources to implement delays for even 25% of our 4000+ feeds. Delays would have to happen on the client (broadcaster) side.

Thanks,

How are these "set backs" no longer "set backs" when on an Official Feed? Again, I appreciate the feedback from you.

 

[blantonl]

I'm closing this topic. This is getting into the realm of my 10 year old daughter continuously questioning why she can't have a sleepover tomorrow night or why she can't wear such and such to school tomorrow. And sometimes the answer just is "because I said so... "