Throw a party

By the end of this page the station is playing a request show, a code is up on a screen, and anybody in the room can scan it and ask for a record from their phone. Nobody needs an account or an app. Each guest asks one at a time, under the same rules as any listener, and the presenter reads out their dedications.

The programme explains requests, the rules and dedications in full.

You need a station on air with music, and a screen the room can see: a TV, a projector, or a laptop turned round. The guests' phones have to be able to reach the station, so on a home network they need to be on its wifi, and on a station you have put on the internet they can be anywhere.

1. Put on a request show

On the Desk, press Plan, choose Start a new show, then press Party night.

Party night fills in a request show for a crowd: after each request the station plays three records that sound like it, one guest waits ten minutes between requests, and ten can be waiting at once. Every field stays yours to change. Write a brief if you want one, then press Go on air.

A request show is not required. Guests can ask on any show, and their requests land in the next gap between records. What Party night adds is that each request steers what comes after it.

2. Start a party

Open Programme → Requests and press Start a party at the top.

Choose how long the code works, in hours (six unless you change it, at most a day), and press Start a party. The card now shows the code, when it stops working, and how many guests have joined.

If the card warns that the code points at localhost, you opened the console on the station's own machine. A phone cannot reach that address. Open the console at the address the guests use, such as http://192.168.1.20:8080 or your station's public address, and the code follows it.

3. Put the code up

Press Full screen on the card. The poster is the code as big as the screen allows, with the station's name and what is playing. Press Full screen again on the poster to fill the display.

To get it onto a TV, use whatever you already have:

• Chrome: open the menu, choose Cast, then Cast tab, and pick the TV.
• A Mac or iPhone: mirror the screen to an Apple TV or AirPlay TV.
• The TV's own browser: sign in to the console there and open the poster.

The poster keeps the screen awake while it is open. To put a code on the fridge as well, print the poster from the browser. Anyone who photographs it can join until the party ends, which is what ending the party is for.

4. What a guest does

A guest points their phone's camera at the code and opens the link. The page joins the party on its own; there is nothing to sign in to.

1. They search by title or artist.
2. They tap a record. A sheet asks for their name, who it is for, and a message. All three are optional, and a guest who leaves the name blank is "a listener".
3. They press Send request.

The page tells them at once what happened: on its way, waiting for you, or turned down with the station's reason. Your requests lists each one and keeps itself up to date, so they can see when theirs is coming up and when it played. A guest who closes the page and opens it again is still the same guest.

The presenter says the dedication just before the record, in their own words. A message that is not fit to broadcast is left out, and a name that looks like somebody else's station or presenter is not said.

5. Watch the requests

Every request, from a guest or anybody else, lands in the list under the card. A guest's says At the party. You can Decline one that is waiting, with a reason the guest sees.

To decide on every request yourself, set Who lets a request through to An operator, one at a time under Settings → Rotation. Each request then waits until you Grant it, which suits a party where you do not know everybody.

6. End the party

Press End the party on the card. The code stops working and every guest's page says the party has ended. Records already in the running order still play.

Starting a new party also ends the last one, so there is only ever one code to scan. A party that runs out of time ends on its own.

If it goes wrong

• The guest's phone cannot open the page. It is not on a network that reaches the station, or the code points at an address only you can reach. See the localhost note in step 2.
• The page says the party has ended. It has, or it ran out of time. Start a new party; the old code will not come back.
• The search finds nothing. The record is not in your library and your music providers could not be asked. A provider that has run out of its allowance answers nothing until it recovers. The activity feed and Settings → Plugins say which.
• A request was turned down. The page says why. The usual reasons are one request at a time, the wait between one guest's requests, too many waiting at once, the record having played recently, or the station being off the air.
• The page says the party is full. A party admits 300 guests. Start a new one if you need more.

Next

• The programme for how requests are placed and the rules they follow.
• Make a show to put a weekly request show on the timetable.