Tech Notes from the Field

As mentioned in a tweet I wish to share how we network the Audion Labs VoxPro. It seems to be quite simple, though from my discussions some have issues. We try to keep things as simple as possible and at times we are forced to figure things out.

The Network:
Set up each of your machines as required for the VoxPro. We currently use Windows XP. Setup a user account to log in to the machine. This is necessary when it comes to the network connection and server authentication. Also consider auto login to make it simpler. Note: This is a machine or computer login, not a VoxPro user account. That comes later.
So, a computer will have a name, StudioAVP: a user, VoxPro1; and a user password, voxpro.

The network is a basic client-server network. Connect all workstations to a switch. Connect the server to the switch. We use a Gigabit switch and 1Gb NICs (network interface cards). Choose a switch with good processing speed and memory as you will be pushing a lot of data. The file server we use is fast and runs Windows Server 2003. We also have a 1.5TB RAID 5 array for storage. Note: we “home run all workstations to a single switch as we found a switch-to-switch connection caused some oddities most likely caused by the switch itself.  Add user accounts to the server so it can authenticate.  Allow access to the “drive” that will store the files.  This is a folder you can name VoxPro.  Map the workstations to this folder.  For example you will map V:\ to this folder.  VoxPro from what we found will recognize a mapped drive, but will not work as well with an UNC, Universal Naming Convention.

Once all this is done, you can now “create” the user list for your VoxPro computers.  Each VoxPro has a file on the local drive called users_local.inf.  This is where VoxPro creates the user paths to their files when you make them within VoxPro.  Instead of doing additions within the software, I edit this file directly using Notepad.  If you have multiple stations you can comment out the users from each local machine, but allow access in a production room.  I’ll show an example below.  Once this file is created/saved, you can open up VoxPro and the list of users is now present.  When selected for the first time, the necessary folders are created on the server and the audio will now be stored on the server and available in any room.  This users_local file is necessary on all VoxPro computers and the paths must all be consistent.  I save the master copy on the file server for easy reference and editing.  If you add a new workstation, you copy this file over and edit appropriately for that workstation.  Keeping a master up to date is important, too, so when you make changes, make sure you updated that master copy!

Example of the users_local file:
For the master file I create something as follows:

;KXYZ
V:\KXYZ\Joe
V:\KXYZ\Mary
V:\KXYZ\Morning Show

;WXYZ
V:\WXYZ\Morning Show
V:\WXYZ\Afternoon Drive
V:\WXYZ\Traffic

Etc.  We have 3 stations, so I have 3 commented sections for each station with the users under that.  A ; before a line is the comment character.  If you have a user you wish to temporarily suspend and want to keep the files, place a ; in front of that line.  Once the files are saved, removed, moved, or whatever, then you can delete the line.  All gone.

The above example is what you would see in a production room.  As there are 2 users named “Morning Show”, it is a good idea to give them unique names as in a common room like production, the list will show 2 users with the same name though the file location is different.  To use this file in the WXYZ control room (on air room) and restrict another station access, comment out the lines with users restricted in that room:

;KXYZ
;V:\KXYZ\Joe
;V:\KXYZ\Mary
;V:\KXYZ\Morning Show

;WXYZ
V:\WXYZ\Morning Show
V:\WXYZ\Afternoon Drive
V:\WXYZ\Traffic

Only those users not with ;’s will be visible.

Note that I always create through the software the administrator account and generic “user” account.  These are on the local drive.  The Administrator account is password protected.

Speaking of password protection, this information is saved within the folder of the specific user.  If someone creates a password, this password will be necessary on ALL workstation when they choose their account, so there is no need to worry about each workstation having a unique password.

One last thing to do is SHARE the folder C:\Program Files\VoxPro PC with everyone.  This way you can make those copies of the users_local.inf file and access them accordingly without running around to each workstation.

Hopefully this information is helpful to all.  I will attempt to create a sample network diagram and post it.  I will also edit this post as I see mistakes or changes.  All of this is written from the top of my head and not referencing any of our notes regarding this network.  😉  Brain exercise.

Cheers!