Broadcasting via Discord

To allow shows to continue during the Coronavirus pandemic, a Discord server has been set up. The server allows shows to broadcast from home.

If you prefer, you can watch our tutorial video on YouTube that guides you through the process of getting and running your show. This wiki page is likely the definitive guide, though.

Note about the video:' You don't need to ask in #registration for someone to register your show - that'll be done automatically after your practice slot. You do still need to verify yourself with !verify, though.

Getting Started

1. Join the Discord server.
2. Verify yourself with our Discord system. Only current show hosts can have shows on our remote broadcasting system. In order to verify youself, use the command !verify <email address>, where <email address> (without angle brackets) is the email address you signed up with when you applied to be a show host. Normally, this is your University email address. Send the command in a private message to the Gorilla Joe bot (Starbot Admin#9915) - look for the list of server members to find the bot. Then, follow the instructions you receive back.
3. Read the rest of this guide so you know how the system works.

Server Channels

A channel is like a chat room, and a server is a group of channels.

Our text chat channels are:

• #info: guidance and help.
• #just-chatting: general chit chat.
• #help-me: for technical help during your show. Mention @Tech Team in your message!
• #broadcasting-guide: guidance for going live.
• #control-room: chatting with co-presenters during your show, and controlling the music bot.

Our voice channels are:

• #the-studio: audio in this channel will go live on air. This is where the music bot plays music, and where you and your co-presenters should talk to broadcast.

Voice channels are for audio only, and chat channels are for text messages only. So, to control access to #the-studio and to control the music bot, send your command messages into #control-room. Any non-command messages in #control-room are ignored by our bots, so you can also use this text channel to talk to your co-presenters during your show.

Going Live

At the time of your show, you and your co-hosts will automatically be given access to the studio. You can't access any of the broadcast channels until your show time.

To get started on air:

1. Connect to #the-studio voice channel.
2. Open the #control-room text channel.

Commands to control the music bot should all be sent in #control-room. You can also message your co-hosts there.

Everything in #the-studio is sent to broadcast, including your mic and music. You can use the mute button to turn off your microphone if you don't want your voice going to air (for example, during a song).

Every hour, Gorilla Joe will enter the studio and play some music if nobody is present. If there's already music playing when you came in, or you arrived a bit late to the studio, these commands might help you out:

• _remove all: This will remove every song from the music queue. When the currently playing song has finished, no more songs will be played, which is a good time for you to get on air!
• _nowplaying: When you begin your show, you might want to let people know whatever song was just playing. If so, this command will show whatever song is currently playing.

At your show's end time, you will all be automatically removed from the studio.

Controlling Music

The music is controlled by sending commands to the #control-room channel. Different commands take different parameters (bits of extra info) after them - the music bot will tell you what to add if you don't provide it first time.

All music commands start with _.

Some key commands are:

• _play: Plays the music player.
• _play <YouTube link> (without angle brackets): Queues the specified YouTube link for playout.
• _play <search term> (without angle brackets): Searches YouTube for the specified term, then queues the first result.
• _pause: Pause or resume the music player.
• _stop: Stop the music player.
• _skip: Skip the current track in the queue and start playing what's next.
• _remove: Remove a song from the queue.
• _shuffle: Shuffle the queue.
• _nowplaying: Shows what's currently playing.
• _queue: Shows the music that's currently queued.

You can see all music commands by sending _help to #control-room, but be aware the list it sends back doesn’t include the leading underscore before each command.

Other Commands

• !listeners: This will let you know how many people are currently tuned in to STAR.
• !invite and !uninvite: If you have a guest on your show, you can ask them to join the Discord server using the link above, then you can use the command !invite @guest-username to give them access to the studio. Your guests don't need to go through the !verify process. To remove someone, use !uninvite @guest-username. Be careful - if you accidentally uninvite yourself and get locked out of the studio, there might not someone available to let you back in.
• !addhost and !removehost: If you have a new co-host, you can use !addhost @host-username to automatically give them access to the studio during your show each week. To stop granting someone access, use !removehost @host-username. If you've got a guest who only needs access once, use !invite (above) instead. Again, be careful not to remove yourself by accident and get locked out of the studio!

Get Help

If you need help, message the #help-me channel in Discord and mention @Tech Team to send a notification to the tech team.

You can also email [email protected].

Technical Implementation

This section is intended for STAR Tech Team's reference.

The Discord server is powered by:

• starbot-admin, a custom-developed bot for managing the station in Discord.
• starbot-forwarder, a custom-developed bot to send a Discord voice channel to our streaming server.
• Octave, for music.
• Carl, for announcements, logging, etc.