The steps to build an entire radio station (minus transmitters) in a few AMD or Intel 64 bit computers. (Rivendell has been reported to run on some ARM machines, but I have not tried to make this work) Rivendell particularly likes AudioScience 6000 sound cards, but I have found M-Audio PCI and various USB sound cards work well when you use Jack Audio connection kit.

What you need are some computers:

• A server computer
  • reasonable speed
  • 4-8 cores
  • two or three RJ-45 Gigabit ethernet interfaces
  • 16 or more Gb of memory
  • a small (64 -256 Gb) SSD
  • a pair (or more) of 3 Tb or larger hard drives
  • a USB audio Interface (EX Beringer UMC-1820 or equiv)
  • Could be a retired server with SATA SSD added, but these make a a lot of physical noise and require deep racks
  • Optional:
    • Rack mount Monitor (Touchscreen optional)
    • Wireless Keyboard -touchpad
• Production Computer(s)
  • 4 cores or more
  • 8 Gb or more of memory
  • Small or medium SSD (128 Gb to 1 Tb)
  • Video Monitor (touchscreen optional)
  • a USB audio interface (EX Beringer UMC-404 or equiv)
  • USB / SD Flash memory extension and reader
  • High Quality Audio Monitor
  • Microphone
  • Wireless keyboard and mouse
• Playout (Rivendell Automation) computer(s)
  • Raspberry Pi 3 B+ or 4+ with power supply and heat sinks
  • Quality audio “hat”.
  • HDMI monitor (optional compatible touchscreen)
  • Wireless keyboard
  • Wireless mouse (if no touchscreen)
  • Optional USB GPIO card
  • High quality computer speakers or powered monitors
  • Housing
• Optional Virtual Console
  • Same as production Computer
    • Headphone Distribution Amplifier
    • Several Microphone
    • A USB-Midi Korg NanoKONTROL 2 controller
• Gigabit Switches (Managed Switches preferable, but they are noisy)
  • 24 port for Office Network
  • 8 Port or larger POE switch for phones, cameras, etc
  • 8 Port or larger for Music Network
• Internet Gateway Router (fast home router probably ok)
  • Secure WIFI access point
  • Guest WIFI access point
• Office Computers with Ubuntu 20.04 desktop
  • with Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM) and Windows 10 for programs that won’t run in WINE.
• Off premise rsync server for backup
• Network printer(s) / scanner(s)
• Master Uninterruptable Power Supply
• IP / STL Receiver and stereo Generator
  • Same as production computer
  • USB Audio interface must be 192 kHz / 24 bit for FM
  • No Microphone needed.
  • Rackmount Monitor desirable

You need two small (4 GB or so) USB flash drives, plus one high speed micro-SD card for each playout station One will be to hold the Ubuntu 20.04 ISO and the other will have these scripts. It will also be loaded with the latest Rivendell files, the Raspberry Pi image and Centos7 ISO (to save time) after the first computer is set up.

Download the latest LTS version of Ubuntu, and put it on one of the flash drives as a bootable .iso image according to the instructions here. Label it “Ubuntu 20.04.X” with X as the subversion number of the actual file.

Copy the scripts from here (This will be a link when I have the files in a releasable version) the flash drive should have a file transfer.sh and a file named RadioStationSetup.tar.gz and a few other files when you are done.

The first task is to set up a server, as this should be available to test the setups of the other types of units.

Start by installing the operating system on the server. Plug in the Ubuntu .iso flash drive. You may have to fiddle with the boot order in the settings of the BIOS to boot from the flash drive and boot into “install Ubuntu”.

Choose Minimal Install, choose your “master” user name – this user will have full privileges and should have a good password, check that the hard drive that will hold the operating system is listed is the SSD, and “erase and install”.

After the OS is installed reboot and make sure you can login. Reboot and open the bios – If you are setting up anything except office computer, set “turn on after power failure” and reset the SSD to be the preferred boot drive. Reboot. Login as the “master” user.

Plug in the flash drive with the scripts. Open the file manager and click on the flash drive listed in the left hand panel. Click on the file listing. double click on the file “transfer.sh”. This will copy the appropriate files to the master user’s home directory in a folder “radiosetupscripts” and set appropriate permissions. When complete, you should be logged into the ~/radiosetupscripts folder.

Make sure you open “setup-configuration.source.sh” with gedit or another editor. You will want to set up the server first. There

Open a terminal window and type “sudo ./RadioStationSetup.sh” Don’t miss the ./ bit.

Click on the “start button” (This will be completed as soon as possible)