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Table Of Contents

Getting Started
Rezzing Your Device
Creating Your Account
Managing Your Device In-World
Display And Controls
Configuring The Built-In Notecard
Configuring The SlipStream Relay
Touch Commands
Chat Commands
Managing Your Device On The Web
Basics
Logging In
Changing Your Password
Logging Out
My Streams
Managers
Viewing A List Of Your Managers
Adding A Manager
Deleting A Manager
Devices
Viewing A List Of Your Devices
Adding A Device
Deleting A Device
Playlists
Viewing A List Of Your Playlists
Adding A Playlist
Adding A Podcast Feed
Adding Music To Your Playlists
Browsing And Adding Music
Browsing Music By Genre
Adding/Editing Stream Information
Adding/Editing Track Information
Forcing Your Device(s) To Change Streams
Glossary

Getting Started

Rezzing Your Device

When you purchase a SlipStream Audio Center, you should receive a box with a number of items including the audio center itself and a Getting Started guide. Open the box and transfer the items to your inventory.

If you're on your own land, skip down to the next paragraph. If you're on land you're renting from someone else, contact the land owner, give them the SlipStream Relay (included), and ask them to rez it on the land parcel within 30 meters of the place where you will rez the main unit. If you're on group land, activate the group, rez the relay, and either deed the relay to the group or ask a group officer to do so. See instructions below for configuring the main unit's notecard so that it will use the relay.

Now rez the SlipStream Audio Center onto your land. You may also rez the included speakers, but this is not not necessary. The speakers are decorative only, and you can use them, a set of third-party speakers, or none at all, as you wish.

Once rezzed, the device will first read its internal notecard, and then switch to the first stream. You should see the face of the unit light up, and when the stream becomes active you will see the stream/track number on the blue two-digit display on the front of the unit. Try turning the device on and off by touching the case, and changing streams by touching the knobs on the front of the unit. You should see messages from the unit if you are within whisper distance.

Within five minutes, the device should attempt to connect to our web server and download your playlist. If this is the first time you’ve rezzed the device, your account will not have been set up yet, and you’ll see a message instructing you to run /56 setup to create your account. Type “/56 setup” in chat, and click “Go To Page” to launch our setup form in your web browser. Recent versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox are supported; other browsers may or may not work.

Note: scripts need to be enabled on your land for the device to function. Also, the owner of the device (or the SlipStream Relay if used) must have permission to change the media URL for the land parcel. If you own the land and you rez the device, you should be fine.

If you are renting the land from someone else, and the land is private (not group-owned) land, you can use the included SlipStream Relay to allow you to control the music using your own settings as opposed to the land owner's. Contact the land owner, give them the relay, and ask them to rez it on the land parcel within 30 meters of the spot where you intend to place the audio center itself.

If the land is deeded to a group, you should also use the relay, and it must be deeded to the group. This can be done by the group owner or by any group member to whom the owner has granted permission to deed objects to the group.

Creating Your Account

After typing /56 setup, your browser should pop up with a form asking you for a password, your email address, and how you found out about SlipStream Audio Center. Complete the form and submit it.

At this point the system will email you a confirmation link. When you get the email (be sure to check your spam filter if you have one!) click on the link to activate your account. You are now ready to manage your device through our web site; go to http://www.slipjig.org/slipstream and log in.

You should also notice now that your device successfully connects to the server and downloads your playlist (which by default is configured with several streams). At this point you may want to consider customizing the device’s built-in notecard.

Managing Your Device In-World

Display And Controls

On the front of the device you should see two knobs, with a blue-on-black display in the middle. The left knob changes to the previous entry in the playlist, while the right knob goes to the next entry. The current stream number shows in the display. You can touch the case of the unit (not the knobs) to turn the device on and off.

Configuring The Built-In Notecard

Your SlipStream Audio Center contains a built-in notecard called "Configuration" containing various settings. This notecard can be used to support a stand-alone (disconnected) mode of operation, and it also serves as a backup in case the device can't connect to the server for some reason. You should review the settings in the notecard to make sure they work for you.

Note: if you change settings for your device via the web site, you can generate new notecard contents automatically. See the section below titled, "Viewing A List Of Your Devices", for more information.

Here is the default contents of the notecard: 

				[General]
				DeviceName=My Audio Center
				StreamListName=My Streams
				UpdateSource=Web
				AllowWebSelect=1
				ChatChannel=56
				RelayChannel=0
				RelayScope=Radius
				OfflineMode=NoChange

				[Streams]
				0,Groove Salad,64.236.34.97:80/stream/1018
				0,Jazz,205.188.215.228:8000
				0,Guitar,205.188.215.232:8014

				[Managers]

The notecard is divided into three sections: [General], [Streams], and [Managers]. Each section is described below.

General Settings

This section contains a few settings, one on each line, in the format Name=Value. The settings are as follows:

Streams

This section lists a number of streams or tracks, one on each line, in the following format: seconds,title,url, where seconds is the time length in seconds of the track (or 0 for streams), title is a friendly name for the stream, and url is the url for the stream, minus the http:// prefix. The streams will be numbered from 1-99 in the order listed.

Managers

This section lists the names of the people authorized to operate the device, one on each line. If left blank, anyone can operate the device.

Configuring The SlipStream Relay

See 'Rezzing Your Device' above for information about having the land owner or group owner rez the relay and (optionally) deed it to the group.

Your SlipStream Relay contains a built-in notecard called "Configuration" that contains a single setting: RelayChannel. This should be set to the same (non-zero) number as the main device, typically 156. If you find that some other device is communicating on channel 156, you can change the value here, then touch (click on) the relay to reset it.

Touch Commands

There is a limited ability to control the device by touching it:

On/Off

To turn the device on and off, simply touch the case (not the knobs).

Previous/Next

To advance to the next stream in the playlist, touch the right knob. To go back to the previous stream, touch the left knob. Both options "wrap around" in that if you pass the beginning or end of the playlist, the device will continue at the other end.

Chat Commands

The SlipStream Audio Center listens for commands on channel 56 (by default); to issue a command, type "/56 command" in chat, and press Enter. Note: the SlipStream Mini uses channel 38 by default, and the SlipStream HUD uses channel 47. A number of chat commands are supported:

Managing Your Device On The Web

Basics

Logging In

To log in, either type "/56 setup" in chat to launch the browser, or launch it manually and browse to http://www.slipjig.org/slipstream/Login.aspx. On the form that comes up, enter your password, and click Log In. Note: Your name and password are both case-sensitive. You can check the "Remember me on this computer" checkbox to cause your browser to retain your first and last name so you don't have to type it next time.

Changing Your Password

There are two ways to change your password. The simplest is to simply type "/56 password newpassword" while in-world and within chat distance of your audio center. The device will communicate the new password to the server immediately.

The second way to change your password is to log in to the web site, then go to "My Account" -> "Change Password" in the menu. Enter your new password, and click Change to change your password. The new password will take effect immediately.

Logging Out

To log out, just click on the "Log Out" option in the menu.

My Streams

After you log in, you'll be taken to the "My Streams" page, which shows you the streams and tracks for a given playlist. The playlist is selectable using the drop-down list at the top of the page; as soon as you change it, the list will refresh to show the content of the selected playlist.

There are a number of functions available from this page:

Managers (Audio Center only, not Mini or HUD)

You can have any number of people designated as "managers"; these people will be able to operate the devices to which you assign them. Note: the names of your managers count toward the limit on the amount of data the device can contain, so you may find that if you have many managers for a given device, it cuts down on the number of streams you can have in your playlist (and vice versa).

Viewing A List Of Your Managers

To see a list of all your managers (for all devices), click on "My Account" -> "Managers" in the menu.

Adding A Manager

To add a manager, first go to the manager list, and then click the "Add" button. You will get a form where you can enter the manager's full SL avatar name. Enter it and click the Add button, or click Cancel to go back. Note: the new manager is not yet assigned to any devices. Next, go to the devices list, and add the manager to the devices you would like for the new manager to manage.

Deleting A Manager

To delete a manager, first go to the manager list. Check the box on the left next to the manager's name, and then click Delete. The manager will be immediately removed from all devices and deleted from the list.

Devices

You can have any number of SlipStream Audio Centers on your land in SL. A typical scenario for this might be a business owner who has a number of locations, and wants to manage the audio for all of them. Or maybe you have a large plot of land that you've subdivided for some reason, but want to easily manage the audio for all of it.

You can name a number of devices the same if you want to manage them as a single unit. Or, you can name them uniquely and exercise fine control over who can manage each device and what audio plays on it. Even if you choose the former, you can still specify different playlists for each device by configuring the StreamListName field in its internal notecard.

Viewing A List Of Your Devices

To see a list of all devices you have configured, click on "My Account" -> "Devices" in the menu. In the list, you can click on the small icon next to the checkbox on the left in order to pop up a window with sample notecard configuration text based on the current settings of that device. Then, you can copy and paste the text into the device's notecard in-world if you like. This comes in handy if you change the default playlist for a device, and want to replicate the change to the device's notecard without having to painstakingly type each stream entry.

Adding A Device

To add a device, go to the device list (see instructions above), and then click on Add. You will get a form where you can enter the device name, a default playlist, and any number of managers. Enter or select these, and then click Add to add the device.

The device name does not need to be unique for each device, but it can be; in other words, multiple in-world devices can have the same name as configured in their notecards, and be treated as one device by the web site.

The default playlist is the playlist to use in the rare cases when your device does not send the name of the list it wants to use. This should only happen if you remove the setting from the device's internal notecard.

The manager list allows multiple selections, and specifies the people who are authorized to operate the device. It is not necessary to select a manager; if none are selected, anyone will be able to operate the device.

Deleting A Device

To delete a device, first go to the device list. Check the box on the left next to the device's name, and then click Delete. The device will be immediately removed from the system. Note: you must always have at least one device specified; the system will prevent you from deleting the last one.

Playlists

SlipStream allows you to define any number of playlists containing a mixture of internet radio streams, audio files and podcasts. Each device uses only one playlist at a time, configurable through the device's internal notecard. The device downloads the specified playlist from our web site every five minutes.

You can optionally specify the URL of a podcast feed for the playlist to use. If you do, the system will check the feed at approximately 1:00 AM SLT every day, and add any newly-published audio content from the feed to the playlist. Note: as currently implemented, the system will remove podcasts from the playlist after one week, in order to conserve available data space in the device.

Viewing A List Of Your Playlists

To see a list of all playlists you have configured, click on "My Account" -> "Playlists" in the menu. Note this the resulting page does not show you the contents of the playlist. To see the contents of any of your playlists, click on "My Streams" in the menu.

Adding A Playlist

To add a playlist, go to the playlists list (see instructions above), and then click on the Add button. You will get a form where you can enter the playlist name and (optionally) the RSS feed URL. Enter the information, and click Add to save the playlist. You will be returned to the list.

At this point you may want to add some streams or audio files to the list. Click on "Browse Streams" in the menu to go to a page where you can add music to the playlist. See "Browsing and Adding Music" below for more information.

Adding A Podcast Feed

To add a podcast feed, follow the instructions above for adding a normal playlist, but also specify the RSS feed URL for the podcast. The system will check the feed at approximately 1:00 AM SLT every day, and add any newly-published audio content from the feed to the playlist. Note: as currently implemented, the system will remove podcasts from the playlist after one week, in order to conserve available data space in the device.

Adding Music To Your Playlists

To add music or other content to your playlists, see the instructions below, under "Browsing and Adding Music".

Browsing And Adding Music

You can easily search for music in particular genres, or add information about internet radio streams or music files that are not already in the system. You can also mark streams or tracks you add to the system as private, in which case they will not be available to the general public.

Browsing Music By Genre

To search for music in a particular genre, click on "Browse Streams" in the menu. You should get a form with an expandable/collapsible outline of genres on the left, and a list of matching streams or tracks on the right. Expand the outline and click on one or more items - as you do, you should notice that the list on the right updates to show the content for that genre or set of genres.

You can sort the list on the right by clicking on the column headers. You can also listen to a given stream by clicking on the Listen icon next to its name; this will launch the stream in your default music player if it supports Shoutcast (.pls) files.

To add the stream to your playlist, check the box to its left, select the desired playlist from the list in the bottom right, and click Add. You can add multiple streams at once this way.

Adding/Editing Stream Information

You can easily add your own favorite internet radio station to SlipStream. To do so, first go to the "Browse Streams" page using the instructions above under, "Browsing Music By Genre". Then click on the "Add Stream..." button.

You will be presented with a form where you can enter the stream information. Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required. Complete the form, and click Add to add the stream to the system. You can add it to your playlists at the same time by selecting them in the list at the bottom of the form. Here is a description of the fields on the form:

If you do not have some of the above information, all is not lost! For streams available on Shoutcast.com, you can look up the name, format and bit rate using the search functions on their homepage. To get the URL, right-click on the "Tune In" button to the left of the stream, and save it to disk using the browser's "Save Target As.." or "Save Link As.." option. Then open the file you just saved with a text editor such as Notepad, and you should see one or more URLs for the stream listed, along with its name and a longer description.

Once you've added a stream to the system, you can edit it later by clicking on the Edit icon next to it from either "My Streams" or "Browse Streams".

Adding/Editing Track Information

This is very similar to adding a stream. See the instructions above, under "Adding/Editing A Stream". Here are the fields available when adding a track:

Once you've added a track to the system, you can edit it later by clicking on the Edit icon next to it from either "My Streams" or "Browse Streams".

Forcing Your Device(s) To Change Streams

This is actually done at the playlist level, not at the device level. To select a given stream or track in a playlist, click on "My Streams" in the menu. On the "My Streams" page, select the desired playlist from the drop-down list at the top. Then check the box next to the stream to which you want to change, and click Select.

When you do this, the stream will be marked as "Selected". Any devices configured to use this stream will switch to that stream upon their next update, unless "AllowWebSelect" is set to zero in their internal notecards.

You can clear the selection by clicking the "Clear Selection" button.

Glossary

If you have any questions about how to use SlipStream (either the in-world device or the web site), please IM Slip Stringfellow in-world or email me at slip.stringfellow (at) gmail (dot) com.