Newsletters

This article is about how to create national and local service of Newsletters

Concept

AutoPatch application could help to organize regular transmission of pre-recorded newsletters.

• AutoPatch can be configured to transmit any PCM audio to a talking group from pre-defined ID
• One of supported AMBE dongles is required to provide PCM to AMBE trascoding
• Pre-recorded newsletter in .wav format can be played by aplay with scheduling by cron

Limitations

• Audio file should be PCM 16 bit with rate of 8000 Hz

Example of configuration

AutoPatch

Cord10 :
{
  // Patch ID
  number = 14;
  // Codec type:
  // AMBEServer - to use with AMBEserver or dvemu (please check https://github.com/dl5di/OpenDV/tree/master/DummyRepeater)
  // USB Dongle - to use with DVSI USB-3000, NW ThumbDV Model A or DV3K Dongle (baud-rate 460800)
  // DV3000U - to use with old NW DV3000U (baud-rate 230400)
  type = "AMBEServer";
  location = "192.168.0.2:2460";
  // ALSA input and output devices
  input = "hw:Loopback,0,4";
  output = "hw:Loopback,1,6";
  // Outgoing session parameters (optional)
  mode = "Group";
  source = 2049757;
  destination = 2048;
};

Shell script

#!/bin/bash

FILE=newsletter.wav

if [ -e $FILE ]
then
  aplay --channels=1 --rate=8000 --format=S16_BE --device="hw:Loopback,1,4" $FILE
  rm $FILE
fi

Cron

# Play newsletter1 every Sat at 16:00 UTC
00 16 * * 7 master /opt/NewsLetters/newsletter1