Scheduled Video Feed

xrmichael

We have been asked to come up with a system in a local venue to do the following on the hour every hour during opening hours.

Wait for current song to finish (during this time warm a projector and video blank)
At the end of song open screen curtains
play a video clip
At the end of the video close the curtain kill the projector and start the next song

Repeat next hour

Why then want this I don't know.

At present they are using itunes for music content, but this probably wont work for the video, and i cannot see any why to control it in a reliable fashion.

Would anyone have a suggestion to tackle this, the projector/curtains no problem but a way to get the content manged/track play state seems awkward to say the least, at present i think we will walk away, but as work is a bit thin on the ground it would be handy to land the job.

Michael.

DHawthorne

If it were a hardware box doing the music, it wouldn't be that tough ... nearly all have an elapsed time / time remaining indication you can use for your trigger. So the question is how to get the same data out of iTunes. One way I can think of is use Squeezeserver as a content manager pulling from the iTunes library. I am reasonably sure there are protocols available for that to get the data you need. For that matter, there are probably ways to get it directly from iTunes; I just have no idea how without adding a third party device of some sort.

PhreaK

If you're going to go the 'iTunes as a media server' route you'll probably interested in checking out Apple's Digital Audio Control Protocol. true (from these forums) has put together an awesome open source AppleTV module that impliments it so it would pay to check that out (and swing him a donation if you use it). Otherwise, if you're more of a Java guy, it was reverse engineered a couple of years ago and put back together as an open source Android app. Everything you'll need to now control wise is there. Failing that there are commercially available AMX modules around for talking to iTunes too.

Spire_Jeff

Given the current change in operation of the AppleTV, you might not want to put your eggs into the DACP protocol on an iTunes server. Personally, I would feel more comfortable with an iPort using an iPod. This definitely gives you the current song time and allows you to pause/play at will. It shouldn't be that difficult, you just need to make sure you can easily and reliably get the current song time info.

Jeff