Working From Home Resources/WebStudio/Training Part 1 Transcript

Hey, it’s Alex here, the training coordinator from University Radio York, and this is part 1 of WebStudio training, which will cover everything up to going live for your show.

WebStudio is fully integrated into our existing backpages, MyRadio, meaning that you can apply for shows through the same process as you would normally, and plan them using the same Show Planner.

Please only use WebStudio through Google Chrome. Other browsers are less likely to work, as Google Chrome has been the main focus.

To access WebStudio, click the “WebStudio” link on the MyRadio main page. If you haven’t selected a show to work with, you’ll be asked to do that now.

If you aren’t already WebStudio trained, you’ll be able to access all WebStudio features, but you won’t be able to put yourself on air, so feel free to play around as much as you like.

If you’re familiar with our very own Broadcast Audio Playout System, WebStudio is very similar - you have three columns, representing three players, which can all play any music, jingles, beds etc. You can move things around within a column, and between columns, but keep in mind that changes you make in WebStudio won’t be saved, and will be lost if you refresh the page, so we recommend fully planning your show in Show Planner beforehand.

You can also add in songs, jingles, or beds during your show using the sidebar on the right, but remember that these won’t be saved.

To cue something up for playback, just click on it. The grey bar at the bottom will start to fill up, representing loading progress. Depending on the speed of your internet connection it may take a couple of seconds for a song to load, so make sure you’ve got it loaded up before you need it.

To play an item, press the play button, to pause or unpause it click pause, and to stop it completely press the stop button. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts - Q, W, and E to play, pause, and stop the left channel, R, T, and Y for the middle channel, and U, I, and O for the right channel.

Below the playback controls and the waveform you’ll find the fader. This has three levels - fully off, bed level, which is a suitable level for talking over, and fully on. To fade things in and out, click the relevant buttons, or use the keyboard shortcuts - A, S, and D for off, bed level, and fully on for the left channel, F, G, and H for the middle channel, and J, K, and L for the right channel.

If the Auto Advance button is on, after a song or jingle finishes the next thing in its channel will be loaded in automatically. If Play on Load is on, a song will start to play immediately after being loaded in, instead of you having to click play. Using the repeat button you can set either one song or the whole channel to repeat.

To enable your microphone, click “Options” in the sidebar, and go to the Microphone tab. Click “Open”, grant permission if Chrome asks for it, and then choose a microphone to work with. To ensure that the levels are set right, speak into the microphone at a normal volume and adjust the calibration slider until the volume bar is green while you’re speaking and yellow while you’re not.

If you need to push the gain very high or very low, double-check the volume settings on your computer, as you may have accidentally turned your microphone’s volume too low or too high on your computer.

To control the volume of your microphone, use the buttons in the sidebar. They work just like the channel faders, except the mic only has two levels - fully on and fully off. The keyboard shortcut to toggle it is X.

In order to report an issue with WebStudio, send a message in the #remote-broadcasting channel in Slack or email head.of.computing@ury.org.uk with details of the issue - include a screenshot if possible, as well as the ID of your show (to find it, click on its time next to your name in WebStudio). We will get back to you as soon as we can - remember this software has been designed by our Computing Team in less than four weeks and so there may still be some bugs here and there. If you need any technical support or advice with your show, message #remote-broadcasting in Slack or email head.of.computing@ury.org.uk.

In Part 2 of this training, we’ll cover going live on the airwaves. Keep in touch, and happy broadcasting!