Our new lab’s project ‘Broadcast‘ streams audio via the Flash player. This means the broadcast can play anywhere you can play Flash. It is easy to embed players into websites, Desktop gadgets (Vista, Windows 7, Google, MacOS) and mobile devices (with Flash Lite 3). The following discussion explains how to setup the various players.

When you create a Broadcast account you are allocated station codename(s). Typically this looks like SRnnnnnn-sss where nnnnnn is the user id number and sss is the station id for that user. The default demonstration station codename is SR000084-000. You need to know a station’s codename to select and play the broadcast.

To embed a specific station into your webpage using an iframe, use the following code:

<iframe scrolling="no" style="width:300px;height:115px;
 overflow:hidden" frameborder="0"
 src="http://broadcast.labs.swishzone.com//player.php?station=STATIONCODE"
 allowtransparency="true">
 Sorry, your browser does not support the &lt;iframe&gt; tag
</iframe>

Simply replace STATIONCODE with the actual code for the station you wish to listen to.

The player embedded should look like this:

The player has recently been updated so that if the mute is active for more than 60 seconds the data flow is terminated.

So far we’ve created Desktop gadgets for Windows gadget (Windows Vista / Windows 7) , Google Gadget (needs Google desktop sidebar) and MacOS Dashboard Widget.

Simply download the appropriate gadget then double click to install. All of the gadgets allow the active station to be configured using the configure button which is in the bottom right hand corner of the gadget. Press the button, enter the station code then press the submit button.

Here is a video demonstrating the Mac Dashboard widget.

Note that the gadget players provide a power switch (bottom center). Pressing this switch will stop the data flow. If you are using a metered data account you should turn off your gadget when you are not listening to the music to reduce the amount of downloaded data.

If you want to attempt to modify the gadgets using SWiSH Max3, we have previously published articles on how to make Windows 7 and Google desktop gadgets.

NOTE: I have just read, but not confirmed, that there may be issues with the Windows Vista / Windows 7 gadgets running on x64 systems. This is because the gadget player is 64bit but the Flash player is currently only 32bit. It is possible that the issue is now resolved but if anyone has any knowledge on this situation please leave a comment.

Mobile devices that use Flash Lite 3 should be able to access the gadget .swf directly at:

http://broadcast.labs.swishzone.com/gadgets/player01g_120x120_blue.swf
 

More player styles and options are coming soon…so stay tuned!

Tags: broadcast, gadget, player, radio

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Broadcast, Labs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.