Disclaimer
Please note that we are not affiliated with Cleanfeed.net in any way and cannot offer any additional assistance or support with their product. The information in this article has been provided for guidance purposes only. If you have any questions or wish to purchase Cleanfeed Pro then please contact the Cleanfeed team directly.
Introduction
If you are using Myriad Playout Remote or Anywhere Cloud Playout Remote to control your studio playout from a remote location, you will also need some for of audio link to allow you to monitor the station's output as well as contribute real-time voice links. Typically this will use either 3rd party hardware or a AoIP software service.
There are multiple methods available including:
- VoIP Services / Applications – These include IPDTL, Cleanfeed, Skype, Luci Live etc.
- Phone / ISDN – Including standard phone lines, HD phones (mobiles) and traditional ISDN.
- IP Audio Codecs – Professional grade ‘point to point’ audio codecs such as the AEQ Mercury.
Any of these methods will work and we do not recommend any single method or supplier but for the purposes of this demo we will use Cleanfeed as they offer a free basic account with a paid for ‘Pro’ version offering additional features.
In this example we will do the following steps:
- Setup a Cleanfeed account.
- On the studio end we will set the default windows playback device to be the same as the device used by one of the Media Players (doesn’t matter which one).
- Create a Cleanfeed connection.
- Connect to the session from the Remote End.
Creating A Cleanfeed Account
To get started, first visit the Cleanfeed website. We recommend doing this on the studio Myriad Playout PC.
Click on the Get Started option.
Follow the onscreen instructions to create a Cleanfeed account. You will need to add in your name, email address and create a username and password.
Once you have done this you will receive an account confirmation email from Cleanfeed which you will need to click on to confirm your account. When we tried this, the email from Cleanfeed was routed to our Junk Mail folder so if the email has not arrived after a few minutes then check your Junk Folder and if necessary, right click on the email and make it s ‘not junk’ so future emails are not classed as junk!
Once you have completed the registration process, you can login to Cleanfeed.
Setting default devices at the studio
Cleanfeed will require one audio input and one audio output for each end of the session. Ideally, they should be allocated as follows:
At the studio:
- Input – Should be set to the station output or PGM bus. This should be set to be the same as the soundcard input used by Myriad Playout for recording (see section 1) as this will most likely be the PGM or AUD bus from your mixer. Cleanfeed will ‘send’ this to the presenter at the far end so they can hear station output.
- Output – This should be set to one of the sound cards outputs that Myriad is using for a Media Player. It doesn’t really matter which one as the in remote operation, all the Media Player faders should be ‘up’ on your mixing desk. Cleanfeed will send the microphone from the remote presenter to this device and Windows will mix it with anything that Myriad is playing.
At the remote contributor end:
- Input – Should be set to your preferred microphone device.
- Output – Should be set to your headphones. Do not use speakers as you will get feedback from your microphone.
The standard (free) account does not allow you change the output device so you will need to ensure the correct device is set as the Default device on each PC.
On the Studio PC, right click on the speaker icon in your System tray and select Open Sound Settings.
This opens the generic Windows Sound settings page, but we need to access the Sound Control Panel. To do that, click on the Sound Control Panel option to the right of the screen.
This will open the traditional Sound Control Panel in Windows which can be used to set default devices.
Find the sound output device you want to set as the default (for the studio PC it should be the same as one of your Media Players), right click and Set as Default Device.
Now switch to the Recording tab and repeat but this time make sure the sound input device you set to the default is the same input device that Myriad Playout uses for recording.
Once you are done, click on ok.
Setting the default sound devices at the presenter’s end
On the presenter’s end, repeat the steps above but this time, set the default devices to be:
- Recording – Your preferred microphone.
- Playback – Your headphones.
If you need to change the Microphone Input during your Cleanfeed session, you can do so using the drop-down options accessed by the cog icon.
Creating a Connection Session
Now that the Cleanfeed account is setup and the sound card allocations are set at both ends, it is time to create a connection and test it out.
On the Studio PC, open a web browser and then login to your Cleanfeed Account. Next click on the Connect button:
You will be asked to add the name and email address of the person you want to invite to your connection:
If you prefer, you click on the Advanced button to access advanced features, including the ability to get a connection ‘link’ you can send out yourself. In this example we will let Cleanfeed send an email to the presenter:
As before, if the presenter does not get the email, ask them to check their spam or junk email folder. Once they locate the email, there is a green button labelled Connect. Click on the button to enable the connection.
TIP: Some email clients will block images so instead of a button you will see a message saying something like ‘downloads blocked’. Usually you right click and download the image or directly click on the link. If your email client is configured to only allow text, you will see a text link instead.
When you click on the Connect button, your default web browser will load the session window. Click on the Start button to connect to the session:
The first time you do this you will also be asked to ‘allow microphone access’, you need to allow this for Cleanfeed to be able to access your microphone:
You should now be connected, with your microphone audio being ‘sent’ to the Studio end and the station output being fed back to your headphones.
Feedback – You should avoid using speakers as you may get feedback from your microphone. You may also need to change your soundcard settings if your input is being routed to your output as this can also cause feedback.
Muting and unmuting the microphone
Now that you have audio flowing both ways, you can mute the microphones at any time by clicking on the Microphone button for your connection. To unmute, click again.
If you find Cleanfeed useful, please consider upgrading to the Pro version to help support the project. Broadcast Radio are in no way affiliated with Cleanfeed and this guide has been produced purely as an example of how it and other similar services (like IPDTL) could be used to add like voice links to remotely controlled shows.