Remote Radioman to your iPhone

When working away from the office, you may need to listen to (or edit) audio that’s already saved on the Radioman system back in the office.

The easiest way to access this audio would be to phone a friend back at base, and for them to send a copy to you via Box, Dropbox or even as an e-mail attachment (for small files only).

However, for a variety of reasons this may not be possible.

This guide is therefore to enable you to help yourself to that content, without any assistance from anybody else, and with as little data usage over the internet as possible.

To access any data, files of information from inside the BBC, you must first log in via the F5 Edge client.  You will have this app and function as a default, once you’ve registered your iPhone or iPad with BBC Essentials / Airwatch MDM.  If you need to do this – just access the BBC Essentials site via Gateway, and follow the on-screen instructions.

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Once logged in to the F5 app, you can access the Remote Radioman site

At this point you can easily  create a shortcut icon on your device.

Select the ‘share’ icon (see the image on the left), and scroll across the options until you find “Add to Home Screen” (image on the right

 

 

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You can now Search for any Audio or Music from the Radioman database, however you cannot listen to the files as you would on a PC.  In most scenarios, you will have a good idea in advance what you’re looking for, so this should not pose a major problem.

 

 

 

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Once you find a file you want to download, select the “Copy Audio to Disk” button.  If you just want to listen to the file, then save it as an mp3.  But if you want to edit the audio (in any final format), then leave the file on the default file setting – which is mp2.  Now press the “Start Copy” button, which will export the file from Radioman to an external folder.

Scroll down and click on “Link for use elsewhere”, and you will see your exported file, along with every file that other users have also recently exported.

***Please note, this page can also be accessed directly from the Remote Radioman main page, by clicking “Pickup Previous Downloads”, which allows other colleagues to export audio for you to collect later.  This might work well, when a producer wants a reporter to include audio elements in a package that were gathered elsewhere, and avoids the need for that reporter to search blindly or to return to base to access a Radioman terminal, before being able to edit the material.

Hold your finger down on the mp2 file you need, and (eventually) a new window will open asking you what you want to do with the file.  Select “Open”  (Please note, particularly with larger files this sometimes you to try two or three times – but be patient!)

The iOS system on iPhones and iPads does’t recognise mp2 files, which is crucial for us to access the file itself.  If you open an mp3 or .wav file, then your device will simply start playing the audio.  But with an mp2, you will be prompted to “Open in” another app.

Select the Copy to iConv option.

Here’s a slideshow of each step of the process so far:

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The next steps will allow you to convert the file format for various apps.

iConv is one of many apps that can convert media files, and when you select it with your Radioman clip, it will show your mp2 file in the Source list.  Click on the mp2, and select the “Convert” option.  Choose “Advance”, and change the format.  If you want to use the audio in an app such as Quik, then change it to an mp3. But if you want to edit the file in an app such as Ferrite, then change it to m4a.  Press “Done” and the file will be converted within seconds, and will appear in the Converted list.  ***Please note you will need to upgrade iConv to the Pro version via an in-app purchase to enable full functionality with all of the different file formats.

In the Converted list, click on the version of the file you want to use, and select “Open in …” which will give you a range of apps to choose from.

If you’re importing an m4a file into Ferrite, then the transfer will fail if the Ferrite app has been left running with an editing project still open.  Ferrite must either be left on its main audio Library page, or be switched off.  Within seconds you will see the transferred file appear at the top of your main Library audio files list in Ferrite.

Here’s another slideshow which shows you each step of the rest of this process:

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If you want to send an mp3 file to Quik, then you must go through one extra step – which is to first copy the file to the Filebrowser (Pro) app, and specifically into the Share With Apps folder.  If you’re exporting a file from Ferrite then you’ll also need to convert this via iConv, just as above.  When you do copy any mp3 to Filebrowser, you will see the text “1 item selected” at the top right of the screen.  Tap this, and a new window will allow you to Paste the file into this folder – which can now be accessed by Quik.  Every step is shown below.

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