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Rouk
If you’re wondering how to start a television network, you may think that it’s a project reserved for celebrities, media moguls, and large corporations. Imagining how to start a TV network seems like a massive task – or so you may think. You may be surprised to learn that you can learn how to start a TV network channel all on your own.
Although it’s possible, starting your network can be a challenge. But if you’re up for it, it can be a rewarding project, and an excellent way to get started in your media-based career. Perhaps you are hoping to work as a professional broadcaster one day, or you want to get hands-on experience to learn what it takes to manage a network – whatever your career goals may be, starting a television network can help you get there.
Here are a few steps you can take to tackle the task of creating and starting your very own TV network:
1. Stake out your territory
Many people don’t realize that there are channels available for lease by everyday people. Under federal law, any cable operator that maintains at least 36 channels must reserve a group of channels for leased access. You can rent one of these channels for a monthly price that’s determined largely by the number of subscribers and channels – the larger the company, the more you will pay.2. Set up your technical equipment
It’s important to use high-quality software and hardware for broadcast-quality material, especially because many cable companies do not accept VHS recordings. Another option is to use video streaming equipment and the Internet to live stream content for the channel.3. Announce your channel
When it comes time for the big launch, you’ll want to make sure people are watching. Get the word out on social media and explore inexpensive marketing options like newspaper advertisements or local promotional events.4. Generate a paycheck
If you’re hoping to earn income from all your hard work, you’ll need to line up advertisers. Consider working with regional product distributors to avoid stepping on the cable company’s toes by pursuing local companies that already pay to advertise on their other channels.Found this on Reddit:
If anyone is still interested, here's his video (on Wayback amachine): https://web.archive.org/web/20231224232421/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luxFdsAkG80 I'm guessing that once everyone started linking back to his channel he got shy. I don't blame him, a lot of attention on the internet is a scary thing.
Anyway...
I've been building one of my own for nearly a year. Without his code it's been 'fun' to say the least. My programming knowledge is basic at best. I store the Show, Break, and Commercial info in a SQL Database and use Crontab to schedule PHP scripts every night to calculate the next day's playlist (in M3U format, it allows for stopping and starting videos at certain points. Great for commercial breaks). Then VLC plays the playlist at full screen. It also cleans up the previous day's info every night so that the database doesn't get bloated.
Working in PHP allows for the TV to have a 'back-end' The Pi is WiFi connected to my home network and I can schedule, add videos, and view the TV-Guide without plugging in a mouse and keyboard. I just connect using my browser on my desktop. But the TV is independent (not counting the fact that it connects to a server to get the correct time).
I had an old 14' monitor and Raspberry Pi 3 B+. It seems to keep up just fine. I took the monitor out of it's case and built a TV enclosure for everything. Then I 3D printed a face for the TV. Eventually I plan to have an Arcade Room and I want it by the counter, constantly playing old stuff.
My work so far:
Mark 1 - Used 4 daily playlists and one channel. Every 6 hours Raspbian would kill VLC and start the next playlist. This allowed me to assign certain commercials to certain times of day (Goofy stuff or Miss Cleo to Late Nights, Toys and cereals to mornings, laundry Detergent and mom stuff in afternoons, and parent stuff at prime night for example).
Mark 2 - Utilized channels by storing playlist info in a SQL database table. I used the GPIO Pins and a Python Script for running the TV on startup and handling the channel changing. I learned Python just for this so everything is quite basic. I used one of these for changing channels: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JLQ12W3?tag=vp314-20 You can daisy-chain tuners and have as many channels as you have GP Pins. I stuck with 10 because I'm already using 3 Terabytes of storage.
When you start the pi or change the channel the python script searches the table for that channel and that day. It compares the current amount of seconds into the day it is and does the match, finding the show or commercial that should be playing. Then it kills VLC, deletes the playlist that it was playing, and writes the new one before quickly starting VLC again. Changing the channel currently takes about 4-6 seconds. I want to shave that down.
Mark 3 (planned) - Cut playlists to only the show that's currently playing (plus it's commercial/break videos). I'm hoping that this will shorten the channel changing time and also help the TV stay on time (currently shows will start and stop up to a minute before they're supposed to. A 24-hour long playlist and videos that don't stop on the exact second causes things to be thrown off over time. This will create a couple of seconds gap between the last commercial and next show/movie. I have an idea of how to minimize this, but everything with this project is an experiment.
Currently, I'm focusing on editing shows and copying them over. This is taking a LONG TIME. I format everything to DivX format because it plays easily on a Pi3. I have a Pi4 to use, but the fan on it is failing and loud. It could be replaced easily enough, but I don't like the thought of having a moving, fail-able part in my Retro-TV. The HDD's will be the only real point of failures.
Once I have more shows on it and more than just the 3 current channels that are running, I'll begin on playing with the Mark-3 Programming.
Eventually I'll throw all of my programming up on the net somewhere for everyone to be confused by (it's a Hodge-podge of SQL, Python, PHP, HTML, and Shell Commands written by a 46yo Noob) Maybe someone can make sense of it and improve upon it. But I want it to be something that I'm proud of before then.
But, the above Youtube video has been sort of a Bible for me. When I first came across it I got very excited and craved one of these for my own. When he pulled it I had hoped, that maybe a company was approaching him to design on for public sale, but nothing has yet to appear.
