Standalone Network player with FTP update

Standalone player

• What can I do with this?

This application allows you to set up a low cost Exstreamer to play music as and when you want, from files stored on an attached USB stick. No network load. However, if you want you can also dynamically update the content of the USB using the FTP protocol.

Create playlists, assign playing times and priorities, listen in for real time announcements made on a priority port from an Annuncicom, Instreamer, or our ICGraph[1] free PC software.

This application is ideal for Retailers who want to play background music, but don't want to overload their network with audio traffic.

• Where can I find it?

The application is called FTPMP3 and is one of the free programs included with our ABCL firmware.[2]. Take a look at this:[3] to find out more about other ABCL applications we offer, free of charge.

• I have an unreliable network connection, can I still use the FTPMP3 application?
  

Yes!

Poor network connections can result in partial file downloads, which are not easily detectable and result in unpredictable playback. To address this the application can be set up to detect incomplete files using 'length checking':

There are two parts to the length checking system: a server component which creates a 'length file' for each file to download and the checking functionality at the player, which must be enabled.
The system works like this:

As well as downloading the music file, the second file containing the length of the music (or configuration/playlist) file is downloaded. A simple check reveals if the whole music file has been received.

More about those extra files:
In order for length checking to be employed, files with length information have to be created on the server. For every file (including the configuration file) another file with (second) file extension “.len” must be created on the server(s). This “.len” file should contain just 12 digits - size of file in bytes padded with zeroes from the left.
It is easy to create the length files using the WriteFileSize tool, which is included in the firmware update archives.

WriteFileSize1 is a command-line tool. When run without arguments, it displays its documentation. Typical use is to give WriteFileSize just one argument:

WriteFileSize MyDir

which results in adding length files for all of the files in the subdirectory MyDir.

How do I set the player to check the files are OK?

The length checking must be activated in the player.cfg configuration file on the player, using the variable CHECK_LENGTH:

CHECK_LENGTH=1

That's it!