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Obsequeium Features


The Obseqiuem system has the following features:

  • Integrated volume management: The server knows how to access multiple CD-ROM changers that are stuffed full with MP3s. The server can cache the tracks onto a local cache on the hard drive before streaming the tracks out. The supported volume devices are: Hard drives (duh!), single CD-ROM drives, and multiple CD-ROM drives. It should be easy to add support for FTP for instance, that would pull a file from an FTP server into the cache.
  • Streamed or local playback: Content can be streamed via RTP/multicast as specified in RFC 2250. Alternatively, the content can be played back locally with Zinf.
  • Integrated ripping/encoding/submission script: The supplied RipCd.pl script will identify a CD via CDDB, rip the tracks using CDParanoia, convert the to MP3 (using a user-supplied MP3 encoder) and the submit them to the Obseqieum server.
  • Preexisting MP3s can be submitted into the server via the network.
  • Web interface: All music selection and playlist management happens via the web browser.
  • DJ Random: When the play queue runs out of things to play, DJ Random takes over and will randomly select tracks from your collection. If DJ Random's selection is a bit too haphazard for you, you can speciify a DJ Random filter that will limit which artists DJ Random can choose from. You can specify a DJ Random filter for your particular mood -- if you're in a mellow mood, apply your 'mellow' filter and DJ Random will play only music from your selected 'mellow' artists.
  • Rio Download support: Using the supplied script you can create a playlist via the web and then download that playlist directly to your Rio player. This requires the Snowblind Alliance rio program,
New features in 0.3.0:
  • Added support for admin pages that allow editing the database information
  • Added AddFiles.pl script that searches for mp3s files and adds them to the database.
  • Added the CleanUp.pl script that structures the mp3 files according to the metadata in the database.
  • Support for ID3v2 tags in AddFiles.pl, SubmitTrack.pl and CleanUp.pl
  • Moved all perl stuff into four seperate perl modules
  • Created a perl module install script
  • Improved the install-db.pl program to work with MySQL servers that have root passwords set and non-source MySQL installations.
  • Added -n option to run the server without streaming mp3s
  • Improved error messages to help people who got stuck on the most common install issues.
  • Improved install process that now sets up the database information in obs.conf and ObsDefs.pm files
  • Updated to work with the latest and greatest DBI, CGI, and DBD::mysql modules


Mailing List


The obs-devel mailing list is dedicated to discussing Obseqieum installation problems and future development. You can subscribe to this list at http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/obsbox-devel.


How do you spell Obsequiuiem


There is no correct way to spell Obsequieum. Sorry. Since no one could ever get it right, its best not to have a right way. No?


The Future of Obsequeium


In the distribution is a list of things that need to get done soon, and some things that need to get done at sometime. However, here I would like to mention some future projects that could be based on this project.

The networked server architecture allows advanced features to be added to the system without much work. The basis for advanced features exists and now that I've made Obs easier to install I hope to work on some of these features.

Scheduling Features: Adding a scheduling engine would allow obseqieum to play certain types of music at certain times of the day. For instance, Obseqieum could be used to play soothing music to fall asleep to, and the be used to wake the user up with a specified playlist.

Mixing Features: Adding a simple mixer and timing information the Obs server could be made to play a seamless stream of music, where one track fades into the next track.

Content Aggregation: Multiple Obs servers could cooperate and present one Ueberdatabase of music to the user. The use does not care whether a track is stored on this server or that server -- the servers would collaborate transparently to get files from one server to another.

Multiple Channels: Right now, each Obs server servers only one stream. With a litte effore each server could serve multiple streams.

There are hundreds of other ways that this software can be extended. If you have something in mind that you'd like to work on, please don't hesitate to drop me a line: rob@eorbit.net.