I'm pleased to announce that our high-quality stream is now running at 192kbps, rather than 128kbps as it's been for the past few years - so now you're recorded, and streaming, in higher quality than ever before! If you experience any problems with this or anything else, please do tell me :)

As a result, it's even more important that you take care of the quality of music you're playing during your shows. If you're not playing from CD, make sure that your files are 320kbps MP3 or higher (the act of transcoding files reduces the quality, so the difference is definitely audible!)

And please, please try not to use the 'iPod cable', and really try and avoid playing music from your laptops or iPods or phones or whatever. The cable is there (and deliberately short) just for DJs playing occasional sound effects, or in an emergency if something breaks. We have broadcast-grade CD players, minidisc players, and a fantastic touch-screen panel system, Rivendell, which you can easily upload your own music to, set up entire shows and playlists and jingles to transition automatically on a playlist, or set up panels of jingles and songs you can just press with your finger. It's got a high-quality sound card, and if you upload good-quality files to it, it'll sound amazing (and it'll soon display the 'now playing' song on the website, and log your playlists for you!). And you don't have to use a mouse, or worry about volume on your laptop, or Facebook making a sound, or whatever.

If you have any questions about how to set up your own panels and shows on Rivendell, or how to use the CD players and fader-start, Keir (programming@icradio.com) will be more than happy to help. :-)

And whatever you do, please don't rip anything from YouTube - you're playing something which has probably been converted from analogue to CD, ripped to MP3, transcoded for YouTube, re-transcoded to another MP3 when you rip it, played through the desk, then re-transcoded to another MP3 to broadcast - understandably, it sounds awful...

Best,

Max and the rest of the Tech Team