Admin only station fields

Owned by Anna Pettersen (Deactivated)
Last updated: Dec 22, 2022 by Jonathan Chard

The “Admin Settings” tab on a station allows you to control how the station can be managed and behaves in various parts of the system.

The following settings are available.

Ingest Station

This is set to “true” if the station has been updated by a broadcaster sending us an SI.XML file through Ingest, and that SI file contains images. 

When a station sends us these updates programmatically, we assume that all images will be maintained that way, and prevent that part of the station record from being updated with the UI as it’s difficult to maintain draft or intermediate versions of images from master images, while images can also come in via Ingest.

You can reset this flag if you want to modify the station’s images with the User Interface. If you use this in tandem with the “block ingest” flag, you can fix a station record while the broadcaster works out what went wrong. 

Allow ingest to process bearers

It is possible for broadcasters to maintain their bearers using the SI file - however this has been problematic in the past as its quite technical and sometimes they would get it wrong.

For the majority of our stations this will be set to false - but if we trust the broadcaster and they have demonstrated that they can administer this themselves, we can set this to “true” and any bearers submitted in the SI file will be added to the station record. If it’s false then we ignore any bearers sent in SI files. 

Replace station images with images resized by ingest

When this flag is on, we will generate any missing station images from the ones submitted by ingest. We will use the best resolution image, based on the appropriate aspect ratio (so if we have an HD 1920x1080 image we will use that the generate the other landscape images, if they are missing)

However, if the image resolution is too low, we won’t upscale them by more than 30%. If the required image is larger than that, we just upscale it by 30% and centre it.

This allows a station to submit a smaller set of images in the SI file, and we will generate the rest.

Block ingest

This temporarily bars a station from being updated via Ingest. You might do this if something has gone wrong and you want to restore a station record, but the broadcaster keeps on sending us bad data. 

Console Hosting

This flag indicates that we will be hosting the web console on behalf of the station. If this is on, when the station uses the console generator to create a console we:

  • Save the console to our own location on the Radioplayer Worldwide servers

  • Set the console hosting url on the station to point to this URL

Discoverability

You can use the Discoverability flag on a station to control what parts of the search API a station is available on.

There are three possible values.

If a station is marked as hidden it will not appear in station lists, or in searches. You can find the station if you know the station id and go directly to it.

You can use this setting to test that a station appears as you want it, and is processing now playing or schedule updates. Our rule of thumb here is that if the request contains an RPUID then it will respond with data we have for that station, in general that could be:

  • Get station information

  • Get a station schedule

  • Get now playing information

If a station is marked as discoverable then it will appear in A-Z and other station lists, but nowhere else. It will not be returned in searches, or in recommendations.

If a station is marked as searchable then it will appear everywhere, along with its associated schedules, programmes and podcasts. This also includes recommendations. 

International

This flag is used in multilingual territories such as Belgium and Switzerland.

In these territories a user can send their language when getting the station A-Z list in the web player to filter out stations that have a particular language (so a French user will see French stations)

The international flag indicates that the station is applicable to all languages; typically this is an English language station like the World Service. Stations that are marked as International will be included in the A-Z list alongside stations in the users preferred language.

Web Only

The web only flag is used to indicate that this station exists only on the internet, it does not broadcast over the air. Web only stations will be marked down in local searches, even if they have a footprint, as they are not strictly “near you”.  

Notes

You can use the Notes field to capture anything extra you want to record against a station.