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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Guys, I have an issue with hospital radio, rather
than community, but hope someone can help as it may solve another issue for
me.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><STRONG><EM>Trust AM</EM></STRONG> serves the
Bassetlaw (Worksop in N Notts, if you need to ask) and Doncaster hospitals. It's
main base is Bassetlaw and from there there has been a Band 1 FM link for the
last 6 years to feed audio to the remote hospital in Doncaster, a tad over 13
miles as the crow flies. Except it broke last week, the antenna fell apart.
Thats been fixed but now Ofcom want to check the link transmitter and it could
be a while before service can be restored. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>So, to try and make sure the patients could still
listen I set up a PC to use Winamp to listen to streaming audio feed sent out
from Bassetlaw using Shoutcast. It works fine for me at home, I could listen all
day - and have done. Not so at the Doncaster studio though. It's been breaking
up very badly, stop/start and sometimes showing [Buffer: 0%] </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I've read up about adjusting this that and the
other settings and have tried just about everything I could find on the topic,
it still does it. Except, when I connect via VNC to have a look at the log files
or whatever. As long as there's a connection the stream remains stable. The
stream is 'private' and had a password, which I took off to allow it to
reconnect during these troubles. I often listen from home, to check that
everything is up and running as I live in Doncaster too and can't hear the AM
signal.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The router has already been set to a 'nailed up'
connection, it's on TalkTalk Business. Checking the speed via ThinkBroadband.com
says they're getting roughly 4.6 down and 0.7 up . I'm on a Virgin Cable 10Mb
connection at home (9.6/1.0). </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I have a silence detector module running on the PC
itself, it triggers after 16 seconds of silence. It kills Winamp and restarts
it, taking it that the program itself has got stuck. Any blip in the meantime
resets the counter, so the stop/start issue isn't always being detected. The
resets are being logged at 4-5 per hour, except between 11pm and 7am when it
seems to run smoothly ?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I have had an active connection via VNC for the
last hour and a half and the stream has remained up and stable during that time.
Having noted the 11pm to 7am window when all runs with no problem I had
suspected some sort of blocking by TalkTalk, but by having something else
connected it sorts itself out...?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ideally I want to use the stream to feed the audio
to the Doncaster studio 24/7, rather than have the FM link. OK, so the
audio would be 40 seconds behind real time but who's bothered about
that when you're laid up in a hospital bed? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I had planned to have a haircut later this week, I
just hope I've got some left by then as this one has me
puzzled.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Any ideas?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Gordon Sharpe, TMCR
FM</FONT></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>