Sharing is Easy in the ContentDepot^®

A Quick Start Guide for PRSS^® Content Exchanges

The PRSS^® ContentDepot^® is public radio's national program distribution system. The ContentDepot uses a combination of Internet and satellite technologies to offer services to public radio stations and program producers. The ContentDepot service includes a vast, searchable digital catalog of all public radio content delivered through the system, a public radio messaging system for sending important program notifications, and ContentDepot-provided satellite receivers at interconnected stations that enable them to receive programming.

About This Guide

It is easy to use a PRSS content exchange to exchange files with members of your broadcast community. This guide is written for content exchange participants. Your role in a content exchange is determined by the content exchange's administrator.

Separate guides are also available for program distributors, station operations, and administrators. Please refer to www.prss.org for additional materials.

Getting Help

Detailed information for the ContentDepot portal and content exchanges is available via the "Help" link in the upper right of the portal pages.

If you still have questions after reading this guide and referring to the online help, please contact the PRSS Help Desk.

Website: www.prss.org
Email: prsshelp@npr.org
Telephone: 800.971.7677

What are Content Exchanges?

The ContentDepot offers a file sharing service called content exchanges. A content exchange is an online forum where members of a broadcast community can place and retrieve content for on-air or other uses. A content exchange enables communities to exchange program ideas and program elements-both for creative interchange amongst members and as a delivery mechanism between stations and producers of individual content modules.

In a content exchange, a community is a self-identified group of stations, program producers, and/or affiliated individuals sharing a thematic or programmatic focus. Communities, or neighborhoods of interest, can be defined by any criteria, including by region, constituents, or specialized topics. Members within that community can publish files to a content exchange and let other people access them. Membership in an exchange may be open to all or limited to a defined set of users.

By definition, content exchanges deliver content on-demand. Content distributed through exchanges typically includes program elements, news actualities, or localization modules, as opposed to completed programs. Completed programs must be delivered through the program and episode delivery features of the ContentDepot.

If you are currently using an FTP service to exchange files with other broadcast partners, a content exchange can help you provide the same service using a more informative user interface and the file delivery infrastructure of the national distribution network.

If you are interested in setting up a content exchange for your network or community of interest, please contact NPR Distribution at 800.971.7677.

Administering a Content Exchange

Each content exchange has a designated administrator. The administrator manages all content exchange use by the organizations participating in the exchange. Content exchange administrator responsibilities include:

Managing informational content about your exchange;
Adding and removing participating organizations;
Managing the permissions associated with users from those organizations; and
Overseeing content posted to the content exchange.

Important: Content exchange administrators must be authorized by PRSS. If the content exchange administrator leaves or changes jobs, please get in touch with us right away to let us know who should be authorized as the new content exchange administrator.

Managing Content Exchange Participants

Content Exchanges can be open to the entire PRSS network or closed to participating organizations. To add or remove a station or distributor organization from your content exchange, begin by logging into the ContentDepot.

In the left navigation, click on the name of your exchange (beneath the "Exchanges" heading).
Select the "Manage Group" tab.
From the list of organizations in the left pane, highlight those organizations that should have access to your exchange.
Click "Add to My List." The selected organizations will appear in the right pane.
When you're finished, click "Save" to save your work.

Tip: If you do not have an option to save changes to the Manage Group page, you have not been given administrative permissions to this exchange.

Managing Content Exchange Users

Any authorized ContentDepot user that is associated with the organizations participating in your exchange will be able to download content from your content exchange. You must give individuals the ability to upload content to a content exchange.

To give a user permission to upload content, begin by logging into the ContentDepot.

In the left navigation, click on the name of the exchange (beneath the "Exchanges" heading).
Select the "Manage Users" tab.
Select the organization to which the user belongs, and check the box next to the person's name.
When you're finished, click "Save" to save your work.

Note: If an expected individual does not appear on the list for that organization, you must contact the local ContentDepot administrator for that organization to request that the user be added.

Managing Topics

Before your exchange participants can begin uploading files, topics must be created in the content exchange. Topics allow content to be organized under appropriate headers.

To create a topic, begin by logging into the ContentDepot.

In the left navigation, click on the name of the exchange (beneath the "Exchanges" heading).
Select the "Files" tab.
Click on the "Update Topics" link.
Click on the "Add New Topics" link.
Type in the name of the topic.
When you're finished, click "Save Topics" to save your work.

Once the first topic has been created, you can use the same process to modify existing topics and add new ones.

Tip: You must create at least one topic before you can begin uploading files to your exchange.

Adding Exchange Content

Audio, graphics, text, and web module files can be uploaded to a content exchange. A varieity of file formats are suitable for uploading.

Important: Completed programs intended for broadcast cannot be posted to a Content Exchange. To add completed programs, refer to the program distribution guide for ContentDepot.

File Formats for Exchange Content

You can upload content to a Content Exchange via the Internet, using the ContentDepot web portal. Files can be uploaded in any of the following formats:

Audio

MPEG 1, Layer 2 (.mp2)
MPEG 1, Layer 3 (.mp3)

Graphics

.jpg
.gif
.tif
.eps

Text

.txt
.rtf
.pdf
.html
.doc
.xls
.zip

Note: Audio files uploaded to an exchange in .mp2 format must meet the ContentDepot specifications:

File format: .mp2 (MPEG 1, Layer II)
Mode: mono or stereo
Bit Rate: 128 kbps for mono or 256 kbps for stereo
Sampling Rate: 44.1 KHz
Word Length: 16 bit
Frame Padding: Must be turned off
ID3 (Audio)Tags: Must be turned off

Uploading Exchange Content

To upload a file, navigate to the Content Exchange and click on the "Files" tab.

Click on the "Add New File" button.
Fill out the form. Make sure that you complete all the required fields, which are marked with an asterisk. Complete the "Audio File Information" section only if you are adding an audio file.
Browse to and select your file for upload.
Click on the "Save Content" button to save your content.

Tip: The content exchange will check for file viruses and file format upon upload. You will be notified if an unaccepted format is detected, and the file will not be saved.

The Content Exchange files page will display all content in the exchange with the most recently uploaded file at the top. For any content that you have uploaded, you can:

Update content information;
Replace files;
Delete the content.

Tip: If you do not see an "Add New File" button at the top of the files page, please contact the content exchange administrator designated on the Exchange Information page. The administrator will either need to add upload permissions to your account or verify that a topic has been created for the exchange.

Downloading Exchange Content

You can download any materials from a content exchange of which you are a member. You can elect to have files delivered via satellite, FTP, or the Internet. Satellite deliveries will be made to your ContentDepot storage receiver.

If you use one method most of the time, but want a download via another method, follow these steps:

Navigate to the piece of content on the "Files" page that you want to download, and click on the link (which is also the file name).
On the "Download File" page, click the radio button for FTP, Satellite, or Internet if you want to change your default for this delivery to one of these methods.
Click the "Download Now" button to initiate a download, or the "Cancel" button if you change your mind.

If you chose an Internet download, ContentDepot will prompt you to specify the destination directory for the file.

Note: You must have a valid FTP server setup in your station profile in order to have content delivered via FTP.

If you are unable to click a file link and bring up a download screen, you may not be authorized to download files from that content exchange. Contact your local ContentDepot administrator to find out if this is the case.

Congratulations! You are ready to use a PRSS content exchange to share files with your exchange partners. For more detailed information on using content exchange features, please refer to the online help system.