Today i listened to a brilliant talk from Amanda Wozinak, which she held on the 28C3 congress. The slides can be downloaded here. I find it really inspiring to understand engeneering as a process and that documenting your stuff really pays off on the mid/long run.
w0z also laid out some initial questions, which should be asked when starting a development – well, the OggStreamer has already started but I am somehow in the mood to answer this questions now.
1. Why are we making this?
- Admiration for the parts, especially the AudioDSP and the Lantronix XPortPro.
- Scoring at the Lantronix XPortPro DesignContest (done 😉 )
- Building something useful our local radiostation
- Just fur Fun
- Building something to present as a product made in the Open Technology Labratory
2. Who is this for?
- mainly for Radio Stations
3. How will this be used?
- Connecting remote studios to the main studio
- Connecting Live Events to the main studio
- Connecting the main studio to remote transmitters
- Providing an gateway for Analog-Audio to the Internet (like http://locusonus.org/)
4. What features does it need to have (now)?
- Converting and compressing analogue audio to ogg/vorbis
- upstreaming the ogg/vorbis to an (external) IceCast2 Server
- Feeding an internal Icecast2 Server (for a small number of listeners)
- Adjustable Input Volume and VU Meter
- monitoring the incoming signal with Headphones
- configure quality and server settings via ssh
- Firmware Update for XPortPro
- internal web server with small streaming applet
5. What features does it need to have (later)?
- Configuration Web Interface
- Firmware update of STM8 Microcontroller
- Talkback channel from Studio Operator
- optional mp3 support and other streaming formats
6. What are the legacy requirements?
- IceCast2 Support
7. Who’s going to build this?
- PCB – WEdirekt
- SMD assembly – abatec
- THT soldering by hand
- Lightguids – 3D printed from The Open Technology Labratory
- mechanical works/Housing – from the professional school Attnang
- final assembly @ The Open Technology Labratory
8. How many do we want to make?
- 1 breadboard-Prototyp is already built
- the next Prototype to test the PCBs is soldered and now tested
- 12 pcs. will be manufactured – once the PCB-prototype is debugged and tested
- if there is demand we will make another batch of around 10-30 pcs. this year
9. What is the budget?
- I personally invested a whole lot of time and around 2000 EUR in this project
- This project heavily relies on friends that support me with various issues: like PCB design, mechanical works, EMI considerations, product design, Audio Design, …
- with out the help of all this generous supporters it would take another 3000-4000 EUR to produce the first 12 devices.
- If this project would be developed by an electronics solutions company I estimate that such a product would be in the range of 20000-40000 EUR
10. What is the timeline?
- check timeline here – but as i found some bugs on the PCB and I want to invest more time into testing – I think this plan will delay for about a month.
OggStreamer 