Streaming with a PSR-600

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scrotumola

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Is anyone streaming with a PSR-600 with alpha tags, if so, how or with what software? I have WIN500, but I don't think that will work for more than 5 users. I need to be able to support ~50 users through a website hosted on GoDaddy. Ideally, I would like to have something like ProScan, but have yet to find anything like it for the PSR-600. Any suggestions or ideas?
 

IdleMonitor

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Go to http://www.incidentbroadcast.com and use teamspeak, you also have the option there as well of using icecast on there servers as well. If you use the icecast, then you should be able to used the alpha tags option as well.

Which area are you looking at covering?

Is anyone streaming with a PSR-600 with alpha tags, if so, how or with what software? I have WIN500, but I don't think that will work for more than 5 users. I need to be able to support ~50 users through a website hosted on GoDaddy. Ideally, I would like to have something like ProScan, but have yet to find anything like it for the PSR-600. Any suggestions or ideas?
 

bezking

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Here's the thing - GoDaddy can't help you here. You host the server yourself, probably by running software like ProScan on a PC and setting up your router to forward the required ports.
 

scrotumola

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Thank you for your replies. It has given me more to contemplate. Here is a little background on the basis of my inquiry:

I have been approached to facilitate the feed as the county volunteers are dispatched on a single vhf channel patched to a 800mhz esk provoice system. All of the fireground channels are 800 ESK Edacs, non-provoice. Distribution of the costly grant funded 800mhz radios were for apparatus and chief/executive officers only.

Private purchases of said radios are very costly (I could be very derogative about the amount, but choose not to be) and most departments simply cannot afford the exorbitant cost the local M/A Com contractor demands for their product by exclusive contract. If you clear that hurdle, you must gain clearance to use the system from the local committee that oversees the radio system which is not volunteer friendly. The committe then demands a monthly user and maintenance fee, although you volunteer and the system was paid for by a combination of grant money and local taxes. The end result is when an incident occurs, the volunteers not currently on a responding apparatus or on scene cannot instantly keep abreast of the status of the incident as they could if it were handled on a (monitorable) vhf channel.

I am opting to go to my friend's co-lo place and have the scanner work from there. The advantage is onsite redundant high speed pipelines and UPS/backup power, however the site has plenty of RF and an outdoor antenna is not an option. My location has the advantage of elevation and elevation above average terrain, not in a spectrum wide RF splatter zone.

Should I go remote with the co-lo setup, I will need remote control access, such as is offered with ProScan and WIN500 with the PSR-600. The PSR-600 is a must as it trunk tracks ESK and the 996t does not. Are there any other alternative software or configurations that I have not been yet suggested?

Again I appreciate the courtesy of the suggestions and time taken to reply.

~S~
 
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bezking

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You could use a colo to host the software - but you would have to find a way to stream the audio to the server - and colo facilities and dedicated servers are so expensive that you may consider having the local telco run a T1 to your house and do it all yourself.
 

DonS

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Is anyone streaming with a PSR-600 with alpha tags, if so, how or with what software? I have WIN500, but I don't think that will work for more than 5 users. I need to be able to support ~50 users through a website hosted on GoDaddy. Ideally, I would like to have something like ProScan, but have yet to find anything like it for the PSR-600. Any suggestions or ideas?

While Win500 will only support one "connection" at a time, the TCPMux utility on my web site will let you host as many connections as you can handle (bandwidth).

Each connection takes 18.5kbps (18500 bits per second) and about 120kB on the machine running TCPMux. If that's too much for your Internet connection, you could always (as you hinted in your PM to me) run a(nother) copy of TCPMux on one of your friend's co-located machines.

PC #1 (your house/office):
* PSR-500/600 connected to PC via USB and audio cables
* Win500 running, Monitor/Control started, "Server" enabled
* TCPMux running, connected to Win500
* TCPMux port # not advertised

PC #2 (some machine elsewhere in the world (somewhere with high-bandwidth "outgoing" 'net connection)):
* TCPMux running, connected to the TCPMux on PC #1
* TCPMux port # "advertised" to those who will be allowed to listen

PCs #3-#n (further machines elsewhere in the world):
* Win500Client running, connected to TCPMux on PC #2

There's no practical limit to how many instances of TCPMux can be chained together. Each instance merely adds a slight delay to the "downstream" clients.

Here's a PDF that illustrates the above.
 
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n8chb

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Thank you for your replies. It has given me more to contemplate. Here is a little background on the basis of my inquiry:

I have been approached to facilitate the feed as the county volunteers are dispatched on a single vhf channel patched to a 800mhz esk provoice system. All of the fireground channels are 800 ESK Edacs, non-provoice. Distribution of the costly grant funded 800mhz radios were for apparatus and chief/executive officers only.

Private purchases of said radios are very costly (I could be very derogative about the amount, but choose not to be) and most departments simply cannot afford the exorbitant cost the local M/A Com contractor demands for their product by exclusive contract. If you clear that hurdle, you must gain clearance to use the system from the local committee that oversees the radio system which is not volunteer friendly. The committe then demands a monthly user and maintenance fee, although you volunteer and the system was paid for by a combination of grant money and local taxes. The end result is when an incident occurs, the volunteers not currently on a responding apparatus or on scene cannot instantly keep abreast of the status of the incident as they could if it were handled on a (monitorable) vhf channel.

I am opting to go to my friend's co-lo place and have the scanner work from there. The advantage is onsite redundant high speed pipelines and UPS/backup power, however the site has plenty of RF and an outdoor antenna is not an option. My location has the advantage of elevation and elevation above average terrain, not in a spectrum wide RF splatter zone.

Should I go remote with the co-lo setup, I will need remote control access, such as is offered with ProScan and WIN500 with the PSR-600. The PSR-600 is a must as it trunk tracks ESK and the 996t does not. Are there any other alternative software or configurations that I have not been yet suggested?

Again I appreciate the courtesy of the suggestions and time taken to reply.

~S~

Hi,

I have a live internet radio feed myself and my suggestion would be to use the free windows media encoder software on a computer at your home QTH. Unless you want to add a video display with the audio the software to control the scanner has nothing to do with the feed itself and not even needed.
Much confusion is centered around folks thinking the feed has to be uploaded someplace like a server and then others pick it up from there. I most cases that is not true. Everything is generated from your system and the internet just provides a path to get to port on your computer. The bandwidth of your ISP system determines how many listeners can connect to you at a time. (normally with a cable or DSL about 20 folks)

If you need more assistance please feel free to contact me,
I'll be glad to help,

Roger - n8chb email - n8chb@wideopenwest.com

http://www.qsl.net/n8chb/ or http://www.wideopenwest.com/~n8chb/
 

DonS

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I have a live internet radio feed myself and my suggestion would be to use the free windows media encoder software on a computer at your home QTH. Unless you want to add a video display with the audio the software to control the scanner has nothing to do with the feed itself and not even needed.
In his first post, the O.P. asked about streaming with alpha tags. I'm pretty certain that will require software other than (or in addition to) Windows Media Encoder.
 

n8chb

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In his first post, the O.P. asked about streaming with alpha tags. I'm pretty certain that will require software other than (or in addition to) Windows Media Encoder.

Yes UR rite and there also are several ways to to what he is asking.
I just offered one way that I am using and know it works.

73,

Roger
 

DonS

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Yes UR rite and there also are several ways to to what he is asking.
I just offered one way that I am using and know it works.
I believe there are, at present, exactly two ways to stream from a PSR-500 or PSR-600 and include alpha tags:
1. The Win500 server/client scenario I described above.
2. Any of the PC software packages that support the PSR-500/600, running in their "Monitoring / Control" mode, using some encoder (e.g. WME) to capture audio and screen data. Examples of software: ARC500, PSREdit500, Win500, or the program that comes on the CD with the PSR-500/600.

All of these methods require software that specifically handles the PSR-500/600. An encoder like WME is not, by itself, sufficient, since the O.P.'s requirement of "alpha tags" does require some other software that knows how to get those tags from the scanner.

EDIT: after reading a subsequent message, I suppose there's a third way that, maybe, could be done with only WME - a camera supported by Windows pointed at the scanner's LCD.
 
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n5ims

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Thank you for your replies. It has given me more to contemplate. Here is a little background on the basis of my inquiry:

I have been approached to facilitate the feed as the county volunteers are dispatched on a single vhf channel patched to a 800mhz esk provoice system. All of the fireground channels are 800 ESK Edacs, non-provoice. Distribution of the costly grant funded 800mhz radios were for apparatus and chief/executive officers only.

Private purchases of said radios are very costly (I could be very derogative about the amount, but choose not to be) and most departments simply cannot afford the exorbitant cost the local M/A Com contractor demands for their product by exclusive contract. If you clear that hurdle, you must gain clearance to use the system from the local committee that oversees the radio system which is not volunteer friendly. The committe then demands a monthly user and maintenance fee, although you volunteer and the system was paid for by a combination of grant money and local taxes. The end result is when an incident occurs, the volunteers not currently on a responding apparatus or on scene cannot instantly keep abreast of the status of the incident as they could if it were handled on a (monitorable) vhf channel.

I am opting to go to my friend's co-lo place and have the scanner work from there. The advantage is onsite redundant high speed pipelines and UPS/backup power, however the site has plenty of RF and an outdoor antenna is not an option. My location has the advantage of elevation and elevation above average terrain, not in a spectrum wide RF splatter zone.

Should I go remote with the co-lo setup, I will need remote control access, such as is offered with ProScan and WIN500 with the PSR-600. The PSR-600 is a must as it trunk tracks ESK and the 996t does not. Are there any other alternative software or configurations that I have not been yet suggested?

Again I appreciate the courtesy of the suggestions and time taken to reply.

~S~

This sounds like you really have two seperate functions you require. 1) provide the feed (and alpha tags) to the volunteers and 2) be able to remotly control the radio. Instead of a "one size fits all" solution of allowing everyone to control the scanner, how about breaking it into the seperate funtions.

Media encoder (as mentioned in an earlier post) with the audio from the scanner and video the radio software's screen (or a webcam pointed to the scanner display for that matter) should handle the first need. Remote control software on the PC running the software (properly secured, of course) should take care of the second need.
 

DonS

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This sounds like you really have two seperate functions you require. 1) provide the feed (and alpha tags) to the volunteers and 2) be able to remotly control the radio. Instead of a "one size fits all" solution of allowing everyone to control the scanner, how about breaking it into the seperate funtions.

Media encoder (as mentioned in an earlier post) with the audio from the scanner and video the radio software's screen (or a webcam pointed to the scanner display for that matter) should handle the first need. Remote control software on the PC running the software (properly secured, of course) should take care of the second need.

Both requirements can be met with the Win500 + TCPMux solution I described above. The TCPMux utility can be configured to pass data from clients up to the server, or inhibit that data. In fact, this is how I run mine at home. There are two instances of TCPMux running. One is connected directly to Win500 - this one allows upstream data from clients (i.e. "it allows control") and the port # is not advertised. The second is connected to the first instance, does not allow upstream data from clients (no "control of the scanner"), and the port # is advertised on my web page.

I can connect to the first instance, since I know the port #. I can then control the scanner.

The "public" can connect to the second instance, since the port number is advertised. The "public", however, cannot control the scanner.
 

ICP963

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Both requirements can be met with the Win500 + TCPMux solution I described above. The TCPMux utility can be configured to pass data from clients up to the server, or inhibit that data. In fact, this is how I run mine at home. There are two instances of TCPMux running. One is connected directly to Win500 - this one allows upstream data from clients (i.e. "it allows control") and the port # is not advertised. The second is connected to the first instance, does not allow upstream data from clients (no "control of the scanner"), and the port # is advertised on my web page.

I can connect to the first instance, since I know the port #. I can then control the scanner.

The "public" can connect to the second instance, since the port number is advertised. The "public", however, cannot control the scanner.
Another way to do this, if Win500 could put the tag info in the titlebar of the software, a program called EdCast (Used to be OddCast) could pick off the alphatag and stream it to an Icecast server for distribution. The feed provider could still log in to Win500 via remote if needed or could also use UltraVNC to access their desktop for other software as well.
 

scrotumola

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Thank you everyone for your input.

I have contemplated controlling my PSR via VPN or remote program such as the old PC anywhere-you get the idea. The problem I have with that is when I use VPN, my wireless router at home kills all other connections-wired or wireless-and will not autoresolve without a powercycle.

As I continue to investigate this, DonS' suggestion seems like what I want to accomplish, but I am concerned about the 5 minute limit.

Don-- is that limit a default, if so, can it be changed? I write this from my office so I don't have my documentation with me.

Here is another monkey wrench that has been thrown at me(ugh!): A couple of people have inquired if they could monitor the feed by PDA/Smartphone. I know they could if I use windows media encoder, the next question would be 'can I do both the WIN500 feed and windows media feed simultaneously?'

So far I believe Don has the solution, but I haven't ruled anything out yet.

Again all, my gratitude.
 

bezking

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Hey Scrotumola - something like Hamachi would probably be good for that - what are you using now?
 
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scrotumola

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I am not hosting anything (yet) but I do have the latest registered versions of ARC500 and WIN500.
 
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DonS

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As I continue to investigate this, DonS' suggestion seems like what I want to accomplish, but I am concerned about the 5 minute limit.

Don-- is that limit a default, if so, can it be changed? I write this from my office so I don't have my documentation with me.
The 5-minute limit is "artificial". It's a configurable function of my TCPMux utility.

Here is another monkey wrench that has been thrown at me(ugh!): A couple of people have inquired if they could monitor the feed by PDA/Smartphone. I know they could if I use windows media encoder, the next question would be 'can I do both the WIN500 feed and windows media feed simultaneously?'
Yes. I've done that (both WME feed and Win500Client feed at the same time). The only downside is that you need a displayed window on the machine running Win500, so that WME has something to capture. In fact, the only reason Win500's "Separate LCD window" is 320x240 is to keep "Windows Media Player Mobile" happy.[/QUOTE]
 

scrotumola

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The 5-minute limit is "artificial". It's a configurable function of my TCPMux utility.


Yes. I've done that (both WME feed and Win500Client feed at the same time). The only downside is that you need a displayed window on the machine running Win500, so that WME has something to capture. In fact, the only reason Win500's "Separate LCD window" is 320x240 is to keep "Windows Media Player Mobile" happy.

I would very much like to hear more about this in specifics. If you feel comfortable about it, post here, otherwide PM or email me.

Thanks again!
 

DonS

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The 5-minute limit is "artificial". It's a configurable function of my TCPMux utility.

Yes. I've done that (both WME feed and Win500Client feed at the same time). The only downside is that you need a displayed window on the machine running Win500, so that WME has something to capture. In fact, the only reason Win500's "Separate LCD window" is 320x240 is to keep "Windows Media Player Mobile" happy.

I would very much like to hear more about this in specifics. If you feel comfortable about it, post here, otherwide PM or email me.

The 5-minute timeout in my 'public' Win500Client stream (home.starrsoft.com, port 26755) is created by this line in the configuration file I'm using for TCPMux:
# allow all clients, no pass data, 5 minute timeout
Y, 0.0.0.0, 0.0.0.0, N, 300, N
The '300' tells TCPMux to disconnect any client 300 seconds after they connect. If I change that to zero, there's no timeout. The same line is present in the sample config file included with TCPMux. There's another line in that sample file, commented out:
# allow all clients, pass data, no timeout, single connection only
#Y, 0.0.0.0, 0.0.0.0, Y, 0, N
That one, if not commented out, would have no timeout. Also, since the 'N' before the '300' in the previous example is now replaced with a 'Y', the clients are allowed to send data to the server - allowing control of the scanner.

The sample config file contains more information about the various fields.

When I want to do WME streaming, I check the "Show LCD in separate Window" box on Win500's Monitor/Control tab. That creates an always-on-top window, 320x240 pixels, that contains the scanner's LCD info. I then minimize the main Win500 window. I configure WME to capture video from the (still-visible) "LCD window" and audio from the mic input (which is connected to the scanner's headphone output). The resulting stream plays well in Windows Media Player ("WMP"), including the Mobile version.

My first version of the "separate LCD window" was not 320x240 - it looked like the LCD graphic on Win500's Monitor/Control tab. WMP on my Pocket PC phone was not happy with that stream - I'd get audio but no video. After changing the dimensions of the "separate LCD window" to 320x240, WMP Mobile played both audio and video.
 
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