‘Airtime’ is a radio automation and streaming solution for low-cost broadcasters, built by the non-profit organisation Sourcefabric.

The company has also built the newsroom software called ‘Newscoop’ which it is targeting at independent news media organisations.

Sourcefabric also provides training for journalism students as well as professional journalists on how to use new media tools.

Asia Radio Today speaks to its Co-Founder and Head of Business, Micz Flor to find out more about the company and its products.

 1. Starting with your playout and streaming technology, what are the main features and who is it targeted at?

We built Airtime to help more voices reach more people. It’s easy-to-use and open source, so you have total control of your content, forever.  Airtime lets you work with multiple DJs and producers from anywhere, whether they’re across town or across the planet. Or you can work alone, building playlists and scheduling far in advance, so your station is awake even when you’re not. Airtime saves you time and effort. You can upload multiple files or import your entire library. You can broadcast live and re-broadcast programs when you need. Your audience will love Airtime, too. They can see what you’re currently playing and your upcoming schedule right on your website thanks to our stand-alone widget. And you can stream directly to an Icecast or SHOUTcast server, even without a soundcard or mixer. It is so easy to use that even people who have never tried radio before can understand it. At the same time, it has all the functionality and stability that professional broadcasters need. Our hope is that tools like Airtime can get more people on the air, as it were, and create quality, independent radio that serves communities all over the world.

 2. The software is free but you pay for the streaming and the support right?

Anyone can download and install Airtime free of charge. Free support is available to everyone on our forums. The community members there really enjoy helping other radio-makers, including people just starting out. But many people can’t or don’t want to host their Airtime instances themselves. That’s why we have managed hosting plans. Starting at $9.95 a month, Sourcefabric handles all your upgrades, installation and maintenance. You don’t have to worry about a thing. All hosted users get support via live chat, email, forum, and ticket support. If you’re a larger organisation that needs phone support or hands-on training, we can provide that, too. As for streaming, you can use your current provider, or we can add that on for you.

 3. So what’s different about Airtime compared to all the others? What gap was missing that you’ve filled?

We introduced Airtime managed hosting because, at the time, there simply wasn’t a completely cloud-based automation option that allowed multiple users to collaborate on a project. We have competitors now, but none of them can do what Airtime does. That’s thanks mainly to our community of users, who continually provide feedback and help us make Airtime better. For example, users told us they wanted the ability to interrupt scheduled broadcasts and go to a live feed. Done. Now Airtime lets you do this from any program that can connect to an Icecast server.  That means you can broadcast live from your studio or use your phone to cover a live event as it’s happening.

 4. Moving on to your newsroom software Newscoop, how does that work?

Newscoop in an open source content management service (CMS). It’s built by journalists for journalists, so it’s ideal for periodicals. But whether you output to print, online or even radio, Newscoop helps you create richer content and attract new audiences. And like all our tools, it’s really easy to use.

 5. Where do you see it being most useful?  Can it handle large-scale newsrooms?

Because it’s open source, Newscoop is useful to any news organisation on a limited budget — which is all of them, I think. At Sourcefabric, we think your success should be determined by the quality of your reporting, not by the depth of your pockets. We built Newscoop so that one day,  some smart, hard-working journalist could start the next New York Times in his or her garage. In the future, we think newsrooms will become more and more platform-neutral. So we’re working on tools that helps news move more fluidly from format to format — from online to e-book to audio-visual. We’re also finding ways to open up newsrooms so they can include readers in the reporting and publishing process, and therefore serve the public better.

 6.  How difficult is it to break into an already crowded market?  Where do you see growth coming from?

We think competition is good. Look at Airtime, for example. Because the market has so many players, Airtime really has to help the user. It has to easy-to-use, stable, flexible. There are bigger companies who have radio software with more users, sure. We don’t have a big marketing and advertising budget — we’re a non-profit, after all! But we will do the best we can for people who want an open source tool, and trust that they’ll tell their friends.