2. Initial Setup / First Sign In
As part of the initial setup process (unless otherwise specified) a member of our team will import the schedule from your existing Radio Station website into AutoPod. We do this so that the first time you login there should be a few days worth of content for you to get started on using the system.
note
This page assumes that you have been provided with your login details by a member of the AutoPod team.
Check the schedule is correct#
As we manually import the schedule from your website and is not an automated process, we advise that the first thing to do is check the schedule that we have imported into AutoPod to make sure that everything matches up with your actual broadcast schedule.
The schedule is made up of a number of different shows. We will have created a number of shows that should all match up to those that broadcast on your station. We attempt to extract the correct information such as presenter and any obvious show categories however like the schedule this is done manually and is therefore prone to human error.
Use your keyboard to quickly edit the schedule
It is possible to more quickly make changes to the schedule using your keyboard than using a mouse!
Configuration of initial settings#
Per each stream there are a number of initial settings that we apply, however it is worth checking that these are correct and as you expect. These options are long lived and should only need changing in rare instances after the initial setup.
These options are also configurable at any time should they need to be changed.
Accessed by the 'Stream Settings' page within the dashboard
Stream Colour this value is used across AutoPod elements to provide a basic theme for widgets. We attempt to match this up to the main colour scheme of any existing website content however appreciate that without access to any official branding documents that you may have can get this wrong. We recommend that you update this colour to the 'official' station colour.
Episode Date Format This controls the way that the date and time for listing of episodes is displayed within widgets & the AutoPod Player
Stream Delay Offset + Due to the nature of online streams being less precise in their timings (i.e. a listener will usually be a few seconds behind if listening online) we add the option here to change the delay offset for each episode that is created. It is configurable to the nearest second. We will usually set this value as part of the setup process for the account if it is needed, however streams can potentially drift over time. Once this value is changed it will take 24 hours to be implemented on new episodes that are created.
RSS Email Address This email is used to verify ownership of RSS feeds if submitting to podcast aggregation services such as Google Podcasts or Spotify. We do not allow you at this time to change the value manually due to data protection etc. If you need this changing to a different email address raise a support ticket with us and we will get that sorted as soon as possible.
RadioDNS Programme Information XML Connector If you publish your schedule as RadioDNS XML compatible data then AutoPod can ingest this and create episodes automatically without having to update the AutoPod schedule seperately. Please raise a support ticket with us if this is something you would like to make use of.
Listen to a couple of existing episodes#
It's a good idea to have a listen to some of the episodes that have been created and ensure that everything you hear is what you expect. Although we have multiple monitoring systems and listen to a few of the initial episodes ourselves when setting up the account, no one knows your content better than you. You can listen to a show by navigating to the 'Active Episodes' page of the dashboard and selecting any that are available. From the subsequent episode page that opens you need to select the 'Play Episode' button OR if the episode is not part of a show that is publicly available, there will be a simple / standard browser audio player on the episode page.
Check the Stream Image#
As the images for AutoPod streams need to be a specific size (to ensure compatibility across podcast systems etc) we will usually create a version of your logo that is sized correctly. If you are unhappy with the logo that has been setup or have a different preferred choice then let us know and we will change it for you ASAP.