I have in excess of 35 computers that I remote into the desktops during LIVE broadcasts. I need a simple, IDIOT PROOF user interface that a camera operator, radio station host or even a school teacher can use to point their camera and audio is going out to their audience.
Most of the time I have this automated with a scheduler program. This works well for Churches and radio stations (most of the time). I run into problems when there are specials like a remote Radio broadcast, special church concert, or other unscheduled event.
Football games can be challenging. Last season, I often had to manage 6 to 8 broadcasts at the same time on Friday nights. Not easy, when I have to insert station breaks during timouts and between plays, post scores, overlay graphics, and do weather radar reports if there are any thunderstorm.
My broadcasts originate from 5 different states and 16 different cities. I used four computers at the same time last year, each monitoring the desktops of two or more remote PC's during football games. THIS YEAR I WILL BE EXPANDING WITH AN ADDITIONAL 25 HS Football CHANNELS. Note that some channels use as many as 6 cameras and four remote PC's during a single 30 minute broadcast, and twice that many in the course of a single day.
I have two problems that I hope Rainmeter will solve.
My biggest problem is with my camera operators. I think Rainmeter may help.
- 1 - On remote PC's I need a simple operator interface.
2 - On my studio PC's I need quick and easy access to dozens of flash applications and remote desktops as well as some clocks and scheduleing applications.
Samurize works well and is very easy to use because of it's graphical editing that lets me move, align and size all the elements. I originally chose it over Rainmeter because of Rainmeter's clunky notebook editor. However, My clients machines include windows 98, XP, Vista, and 7., so I worry about future support for Samurize. There have been no new posts on their forum for a couple years.
I'll be duplicating most of what I have working in Samurize with Rainmeter.
For the remote PC's Here is what I'll be going.
1 - I'll still use system scheduler to start and stop camera streams by executing Flash media Encoder 3 via the command line interface. I'll need Rainmeter to see if those processes are running and hide any buttons on the desktop that might try to start the same camera or stream to the same channel while a live show is on.
2 - I'll need buttons on the desktop to launch flash media encoder for special (unscheduled) broadcasts.
3 - I'll use system scheduler to create a flag to be monitored by Rainmeter, when true, Rainmeter will display a countdown timer to let the camera operator know a LIVE broadcast is about to start. Rainmeter will need to be able to check the schedule and display the show's start time and description of the show.
4 - I need a way to display an embedded channel from Livestream, Ustream, etc on the desktop and control which channel it is to display.
5 - I need pan tilt zoom controls for Logitech Orbit cameras.
6 - I need a VU meter to show the recording level of the Mic. (I expected somone would already have a skin for that, but haven't found one yet! Any sugestions?)
7 - I need A way to display a couple text files from the local dropbox folders for announcements, schedule changes and specials.
8 - I need a way to easily capture an on-screen form and send it to google docs so camera operators can add new shows (specials) to the schedule.
Anyway, I sort of defined my first project, now the fun begins.
Bob Grosh, Producer, TallasseeTV.com and other localy oriented video channels.
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(Bob is an awesome name btw... 
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