This article will show you how you can gain insight into the health of your encoder contribution and the metadata you're sending by utilising Portal's live logging. 


The Encoder/Metadata Info section in Portal is available to station supervisors and admins only. Contact your team's account admin if your permissions need upgrading.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


Introduction

Encoder and Metadata info is where you can monitor the real-time connection between your encoder and our ingest server. You can use the Encoder and Metadata info log to diagnose any suspected encoder outages or metadata issues. 


Access the window by clicking "Encoder and Metadata Info" on any Stream Information page.



Encoder and Metadata Info for Ingest-audio Mounts (No Fallback)

When you load up the Encoder and Metadata info log you will see a list of log lines. These indicate either information (INFO) or warnings (WARN). Information could relate to new connections to the stream, metadata changes, or successful encoder connections. Warnings indicate encoder disconnections, instability or timeouts. If your stream is silent but the encoder log is indicating a stable connection, this implies that there is silence going into the encoder.


The logs are ordered so the newest logs appear at the bottom of the front page. Auto-scrolling is enabled by default to always show the newest results. To disable this, click the auto-scrolling checkbox in the bottom right corner.  To search through older logs, click through the pages indicated at the bottom of the window. 



Typical Messages

Below are examples of some of the typical messages you might see. 


Listener count change:

[2019-10-15  07:30:00] INFO source/source_read listener count on /sharpstreamradio.mp3 now 4


In this case listener count is referring to the number of edge servers that are actively relaying the stream, not the total number of end listeners. 


Metadata change:

[2019-10-15  07:30:00] INFO admin/command_metadata Metadata song on /sharpstreamradio.mp3 set to "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)"

Disconnection:

[2019-10-15  07:30:00] WARN source/source_read Nothing received on /sharpstreamradio.mp3 for 3 seconds


[2019-10-15  07:30:03] WARN fserve/fserve_client_create req for file "/usr/local/share/icecast/web/sharpstreamradio.mp3" No such file or directory


Encoder and Metadata Info for Premium Mounts

Customers with premium-type streams can use the Encoder and Metadata log info to diagnose encoder connections to the premium feed if the stream is not delivering the content you expect as well as to ensure that metadata updates from the encoder are delivered. 


You will see updates in this feed should the source stream go silent or disconnect - indicating that the fallback feed has kicked in on the public stream. The updates indicating switches to/from the fallback will be as follows:


********** MOUNTNAME has been detected as encoder-silence ***********


********** MOUNTNAME has been detected as encoder-audible ***********


********** MOUNTNAME has been detected as disconnected ***********


**********MOUNTNAME has been detected as connected ***********


Playout tab for Premium Mounts; sections in this image are redacted for security.


Encoder and Metadata Info Panel Controls

Filtering

You can filter logs alphanumerically in the search bar in the top right corner. This is handy for searching specific metadata changes, focusing on warning logs and searching for specific times.


Export

You can export the logs as a .log file (which can be read in any text editor) for your records. The export will display the logs as they appear, including filters should any be applied.


Detailed View

The Encoder/Metadata log filters out certain lines by default to aid faster page loading and quicker troubleshooting. If you wish to see all of the logs, click on the “Detailed” checkbox (detailed mode may cause slower loading and reduce the number of backdated logs that are returned).


To close the encoder/metadata window, simply click the red close button in the bottom right corner of the window.