Looking for very customized streaming MP3 server

May 11, 2007 9:39 PM

Looking to set up a Streaming MP3 server on the local network on a Windows machine. Difficulty: I want to automatically use different playslist at different times of day.

I run a Sonos to different areas, and in one area (a cafe), I'd like to automatically choose different playlists based on what time of day it is. Since the Sonos can do MP3 streaming it seems like the easiest solution would be to set up a stream server and listen to it on that zone. However I can't seem to find any server that lets me change playlists based on time of day (and play randomly within that playlist for the alloted time).

I've looked at Vibe Streamer (too simple, can't change playlsits based on time), and IceCast and ShoutCast, but with the last two... frankly I don't have time time/energy to set them up and see if they have what I'm looking for.

(Windows, in case I didn't mention that. No I'm not flexible, get over it.)

posted by Ookseer to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

How about setting up a script that starts your different streams at the time of day you want? Just make a few scheduled jobs that run every day at x time. If your streaming program doesn't have command line access, then just use the open command (from the command line) on whichever playlist you want.

(Let me know if you need more detail.)
posted by philomathoholic at 9:54 PM on May 11, 2007

I use subsonic for my media streaming needs.
Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to have certain playlists playing during a certain time of day right out of the box, but I'm fairly certain it would be possible to accomplish this with some creative scripting.
I've jury-rigged something similar, only my media player does the heavy lifting by accessing certain streams at certain times of the day (via an "alarm clock" function), this however would only work with users that the players have been properly configured for, listeners over the web would have to have the same setup.
posted by ktrey at 10:00 PM on May 11, 2007

I'm not geeky enough to know if it does this, but you could try slimserver - try asking your question in their forum, see if it's possible.
posted by ComfySofa at 4:31 AM on May 12, 2007

You could do this with SlimServer's alarm feature. I think.
posted by rbs at 2:10 PM on May 12, 2007

Also, I'm pretty sure you could do it with their SqueezeNetwork service, which would be nice if, by different areas, you mean different places around the city.
posted by rbs at 2:11 PM on May 12, 2007