Stations

The Stations app in Aiir is where you should add information about your radio station(s), which can then be utilised by other parts of Aiir. It's one of the first things we recommend you do when you join our platform.

Each station has a corresponding schedule which can be built and edited in the Programme Information app.

Access to edit, delete or reach certain things related to a station is restricted and can only be given by an Administrator.

The information about stations can be made available publicly using an international standard known as RadioDNS. 

Jump to:

• Adding a new station
• Editing a station
• Deleting a station
• Station groups
• Getting access to something linked to a station
• Setting up 'now playing' information
• Making station data available publicly via RadioDNS

Adding a new station

Head to the Stations app and tap 'New' at the top and choose 'Station'.

We only ask for the essentials at this stage. Once you've created a station, there are a few things you might like to do next:

• Add more information to the station than we ask for during the creation step. Edit the station to see everything you can add, including contact details, and information for RadioDNS.
• Set up 'now playing' information. This involves configuring your studio automation system to send track information to us, so it can then be displayed on your website or mobile apps.
• Fill out the programme schedule. Initially you should either create a template or select an existing one. Once you've got a completed template, you can copy it to the live schedule, or this will be done for you automatically within 24 hours.
• Set up your choice of player, either Aiir's Player, Radioplayer, or a custom / 3rd party hosted player.

By creating a station you will be given access to edit and delete it, but nobody else will have access until it is granted to them by an Administrator.

Editing a station

To edit or delete a station, you'll need to have been given access to it by an Administrator (in addition to having access to the Stations app).

Don't forget that editing the time zone of a station affects the schedule.

Deleting a station

Just like editing, you can only delete a station if you've been given access to it first by an Administrator. If you created the station, you will have been given this access automatically. Be cautious in case the station you're deleting is being actively used anywhere.

Station groups

Station groups have a similar set of properties to that of stations. Once you have created a station group, you can add a station to a station group by editing the station and selecting the group in the "Belongs to" field.

Station groups serve the following purposes:

• An Administrator can give someone access to a station group, and they'll automatically receive access to all stations which belong to that group. This can be useful if you're working with lots of stations and need to give people easy access to a group of them.
• Groups and their relation to stations are indicated in RadioDNS SPI XML, so 3rd party services and devices can offer to display groups and their stations for aiding navigation.

Getting access to something linked to a station

If you find you can't do any of these things, it's because you haven't been given access to a station:

• Edit or delete a station
• Set up 'now playing'
• Edit a programme schedule
• Edit a template which is linked with a station
• Edit a programme which is linked with a station
• Edit a player for a station
• Manage news articles and categories linked with a station
• Edit a blog, podcast or photo album

We use stations as an entity to restrict access to things which relate to them. For example unless you've been given access to Station X, you can't edit that station's schedule or delete any of its programmes.

Only an Administrator can give someone access to a station or a station group. They will need to go to the Admin section to do this, where if you're not an administrator you can also see who is. 

Setting up 'now playing' information

You can set up the 'now playing' information for each of your stations by tapping the 'Now playing' button alongside a station in the list.

→ Learn more about now playing data

Making station data available publicly via RadioDNS

We support the RadioDNS SPI (service and programme information) international standard for publishing and making data available to be used by 3rd party services and devices. You may also wish to use this data in your own projects.

A developer can use the data to display attributes of your station in their product, such as the name, description, logo and contact details. They can also categorise your station for ease of discovery by genre, keywords and location, and know how can be listened to (e.g. FM, DAB or online stream).

In addition to SI (service information), we also publish PI (programme information) which contains your programme schedule and each programme's name, descriptions and images.

Where the data is published

The information we publish can be discovered in two ways:

• RadioDNS supports looking up service and programme data by using a station's broadcast parameters, e.g. their FM frequency. By informing RadioDNS that we (Aiir) are the host of your data, they can direct incoming requests to us.
• By knowing exactly where we publish it - this is usually only done by our own customers, if they want to use the data in their own projects and have no need to look up via RadioDNS.

In addition to being published using broadcast parameters, programme schedule data for all our stations is published (if enabled) at a location which uses the station ID we generate. 

https://epg.aiir.net/radiodns/spi/3.1/id/rdns.aiir.net/sSTATIONID/DATE_PI.xml

This is the format of the URL, where you would replace STATIONID with your station's ID, and DATE with a date in the format YYYYMMDD.

Note the 's' before the station ID.

Consult the official documentation for the Service and Programme Information standard if you are unsure on any aspects of the data.

Notifying RadioDNS

In order for your station and programme information to be discoverable by 3rd party devices and services, you will need to notify RadioDNS that we're hosting this data on your behalf. This is so that they can direct incoming requests for the data to us.

We've made the submission process incredibly easy, by creating a section which prepares an email and sends it on your behalf to RadioDNS.

The team at RadioDNS will then check your details and update their records to complete the process. You should receive an email from them to confirm this.

Notifying RadioDNS only needs to be done once per station, unless the parameters for your broadcast change, e.g. you add DAB transmission.

You can then update any other aspects of your station information any time without notifying RadioDNS again, such as adding logos or changing the description.