Streaming radio and Media on Rented Skyboxes

[Devriv]

Hello Everyone,

Recently, having purchased a prefab house, but not owning any land, I went to a rental agency and rented a skybox platform to put it on. Now I'm quite new to SL, and am very happy with having a place I could call my home, but I find it very hard indeed to believe that I cannot have my own music/radio inside my own house to listen to around the clock, or change whenever I want.  It would be music for my pleasure, and for the pleasure of my guests.  As it stands, my landlord, who incidentally is a very nice person, has explained to me that I cannot: first come first served; people must take turns in changing the land's (over which the numerous skyboxes are placed) music. The streaming music URL can't be changed.

My prefab house has a control center that provides switches to various music, and even allows the owner of the house to add their own URL, but none of these are working, even with the music stream off and media stream all the way up.

Although ideally, I would like to be able to change the streaming music URL --- I emphasize, for my skybox only without affecting any others close by --- so that neither I nor my guests would need to click on anything, and we could all listen to the same music, will those Media Centers that are sold in the Marketplace provide a solution? Is there anything I can do?  Should I give up this platform and look for another rental agency?  Being new, I would like to know, before I look for such rentals, whether there are in fact other rental agencies that would allow private music. 

Please bear in mind that no dispute is involved here. I am not disputing anything.  My landlord is in fact a most generous person. I’m just new, and want to learn and understand.  I thank you in advance.  I would be most grateful for any help.

Devriv

[Rival Destiny]

Music & video are all part of the land parcel settings.  So if all the skyboxes are on one parcel then the media will have to be shared.  Imagine each parcel as having only one radio and one television.  If the landlord were to parcel out the land, then each parcel can have it's own media.

hth

[Devriv]

Thank you very much for your reply Rival Destiny. Very kind of you.

I am, then, to look for a parcel, not merely a skybox? One which I need not buy, but could easily rent?  Also, are there skyboxes that are parcels?

[Rival Destiny]

Yes a parcel for your personal space would be preferred.  That way you have all the land settings to yourself.  You can rent or buy (lease) on either mainland or private estate.  You should look into the different products that LL has to offer.  You can buy mainland and pay tier to LL or you can buy private estate land and pay tier to another resident.  Land settings also are different - mainland to estate land.  If you buy estate land from resident you can have control over the land settings.  But to have the same control on mainland, you have to buy from a resident and pay tier to LL.  If you rent mainland, there are radios, tv's that allow you to control the media but you cannot change the land settings yourself.  You need to get the land owner to do that.

On the mainland, you can own any size plot & pay tier to LL, whereas with estate (island) land, you have to buy a whole sim from LL in order to own it outright.  If you buy part of estate land from a resident, you are basically renting/leasing the land.  However, you have control over the land settings etc. as if you were owner.  Only you cannot transfer the ownership to another resident.  Only the resident that pays tier to LL can do that.

Land in sl is quite complex.

But, whichever way you go, having your own 'parcel' IMO is the only way to go.

Edited to add - for estate land, you also have different products:  Full sim, Homestead, and Open Space.  These are just a few of the many facets of land in sl.

[Koltari]

There are products out there which will provide a private stream of music or video on a land where the parcel is shared by many while still allowing the parcel stream to not be changed. I use one of these system on my land where I rent out skyboxes which share parcels or where I want the park on ground to have a certain parcel stream playing, still letting the tenant in the skybox above be able to listen to something else.

I wont name drop here as I'm not up to date about advertising in here but I'll paste the descripton for one product.

"Anybody can load their own private stream, share their streams with their friends, and switch back and forth, it's easy!
It supports an UNLIMITED number of media streams playing at the same time on the same parcel!
It even remembers your preferences when you return to the parcel!

You now have the power to choose your own stream!

Just touch the Remote Control to get a menu where you can select a private stream which only you can see and hear.
You still have the option of listening to the regular audio stream, just press the play/pause buttons in your SL viewer to control which stream you want to hear."

I can send the name to you in an PM on here or in an IM in-world. Needless to say I am happy with the product. Only problem I've had is actually explaining renters how to use it as it plays on the media stream and not music stream. So a viewer that plays both streams automatically can be confusing before they understand how it works. It does however require the land owner to deed a reciever to the parcel so if you don't own the land you'd want to check with your landlord first before getting anything like this.

 

[Rival Destiny]

Thanks for the info...I was totalling unaware of such a product. 

I'm still not so sure I'd want to pay rent on a parcel that is shared with other tenants though.  There are so many out there that do not share that I'd want that extra perk but is most definitely a positive to know the ability does exist.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Due to the economics of it, having your own parcel, even a small one, is going to cost more than sharing one with a few other skyboxes.  That is why there are so many inexpensive skyboxes and platforms about for rent. 

[Rival Destiny]

Yes this is most definitely the way to go if your budget doesn't include 117 prims or more. 

Another note, if you are premium member, you can get a linden home or a 512 with no tier.  I suppose that's another route to go.

[Devriv]

Thank you Koltari, Amethyst Jetaime and Rival Destiny. I’m now looking into both options.  I’ve posted a Land Wanted ad already, and will have a chat with my landlord too.  You guys are wonderful. 

[Xine Bing]

I would love to know the name of the radio and purchase one, I am having the same issue you had at the place u had rented from.

[Qie Niangao]

Marketplace is such a disaster; if the damned thing is available there, it's well hidden in all the other garbage that purports to be radio and media equipment.

It may be easier to learn scripting than to search this godforsaken Marketplace. With that in mind, the particular trick involved here is pretty simple: the script simply needs to use PARCEL_MEDIA_COMMAND_AGENT and call llParcelMediaCommandList individually for each avatar who's supposed to listen to the stream. As already mentioned above, this means that it can't use the usual parcel audio (aka "land radio") stream, but rather only the parcel media stream.

That kind of matters because folks rightly expect to be spied-upon using the media stream -- in fact, it's exactly this _COMMAND_AGENT version of llParcelMediaCommandList that was used by the RedZone scumbag to detect and publicize alt account identities, a few years ago. Hence, many folks routinely disable all media in their viewers, or at least use media stream filtering in third party viewers.