diff --git a/livesupport/modules/gstreamerElements/bin/play.sh b/livesupport/modules/gstreamerElements/bin/play.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..529b08904
--- /dev/null
+++ b/livesupport/modules/gstreamerElements/bin/play.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+#   Copyright (c) 2004 Media Development Loan Fund
+#
+#   This file is part of the LiveSupport project.
+#   http://livesupport.campware.org/
+#   To report bugs, send an e-mail to bugs@campware.org
+#
+#   LiveSupport is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+#   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+#   the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+#   (at your option) any later version.
+#
+#   LiveSupport is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+#   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+#   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+#   GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+#   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+#   along with LiveSupport; if not, write to the Free Software
+#   Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
+#
+#
+#   Author   : $Author: maroy $
+#   Version  : $Revision: 1.1 $
+#   Location : $Source: /home/paul/cvs2svn-livesupport/newcvsrepo/livesupport/modules/gstreamerElements/bin/play.sh,v $
+#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+#  Play an audio file by using gstreamer and autoplugging.
+#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+# assume we're in $basedir/bin
+reldir=`dirname $0`/..
+basedir=`cd $reldir; pwd;`
+test -z "$basedir" && basedir=.
+usrdir=`cd $basedir/../../usr; pwd;`
+
+bindir=$basedir/bin
+etcdir=$basedir/etc
+libdir=$basedir/lib
+tmpdir=$basedir/tmp
+
+play=$tmpdir/play
+
+
+export CPPFLAGS="-I$usrdir/include"
+export LDFLAGS="-L$usrdir/lib"
+export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$usrdir/lib/pkgconfig"
+export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$usrdir/lib"
+export GST_PLUGIN_PATH="$libdir"
+
+
+if [ ! -f $play ]; then
+    echo "first build the play executable by issuing the following command:";
+    echo "";
+    echo "make all";
+
+    exit -1;
+fi
+
+
+$play "$*"
+
diff --git a/livesupport/modules/gstreamerElements/etc/Makefile.in b/livesupport/modules/gstreamerElements/etc/Makefile.in
index da2547349..16b3288b6 100644
--- a/livesupport/modules/gstreamerElements/etc/Makefile.in
+++ b/livesupport/modules/gstreamerElements/etc/Makefile.in
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 #
 #
 #   Author   : $Author: maroy $
-#   Version  : $Revision: 1.7 $
+#   Version  : $Revision: 1.8 $
 #   Location : $Source: /home/paul/cvs2svn-livesupport/newcvsrepo/livesupport/modules/gstreamerElements/etc/Makefile.in,v $
 #
 #   @configure_input@
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@ SWITCHER_LIB            	= livesupport_switcher
 SWITCHER_LIB_FILE       	= ${LIB_DIR}/lib${SWITCHER_LIB}.so
 
 TEST_RUNNER        = ${TMP_DIR}/testRunner
+PLAY               = ${TMP_DIR}/play
 
 DOXYGEN_CONFIG = ${ETC_DIR}/doxygen.config
 
@@ -154,6 +155,10 @@ TEST_RUNNER_OBJS = ${TMP_DIR}/TestRunner.o \
 TEST_RUNNER_LIBS = -l${GSTREAMER_ELEMENTS_LIB} -l${CORE_LIB} \
                    -lcppunit -ldl -lxmlrpc++
 
+PLAY_OBJS = ${TMP_DIR}/play.o
+
+PLAY_LIBS = -l${GSTREAMER_ELEMENTS_LIB} -l${CORE_LIB} 
+
 
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #   Targets
@@ -165,6 +170,7 @@ all: dir_setup ${GSTREAMER_ELEMENTS_LIB_FILE} \
                ${MINIMAL_AUDIO_SMIL_LIB_FILE} \
                ${PARTIAL_PLAY_LIB_FILE} \
                ${SWITCHER_LIB_FILE} \
+			   ${PLAY} \
      gst_register
 
 dir_setup: ${TMP_DIR} ${DOXYGEN_DIR}
@@ -183,6 +189,7 @@ clean:
 	${RM} ${PARTIAL_PLAY_LIB_OBJS} ${PARTIAL_PLAY_LIB_FILE}
 	${RM} ${SWITCHER_LIB_OBJS} ${SWITCHER_LIB_FILE}
 	${RM} ${TEST_RUNNER_OBJS} ${TEST_RUNNER_RES} ${TEST_RUNNER}
+	${RM} ${PLAY_OBJS} ${PLAY}
 	${RM} ${TMP_DIR}/*.bb ${TMP_DIR}/*.bbg ${TMP_DIR}/*.da ${TMP_DIR}/*.info
 
 docclean:
@@ -231,6 +238,9 @@ ${TEST_RUNNER}: ${CORE_LIB_FILE} ${GSTREAMER_ELEMENTS_LIB_FILE} \
                 ${TEST_RUNNER_OBJS}
 	${CXX} ${LDFLAGS} -o $@ ${TEST_RUNNER_OBJS} ${TEST_RUNNER_LIBS}
 
+${PLAY}: ${CORE_LIB_FILE} ${GSTREAMER_ELEMENTS_LIB_FILE} ${PLAY_OBJS}
+	${CXX} ${LDFLAGS} -o $@ ${PLAY_OBJS} ${PLAY_LIBS}
+
 ${CORE_LIB_FILE}:
 	${MAKE} -C ${CORE_DIR}
 
diff --git a/livesupport/modules/gstreamerElements/src/play.c b/livesupport/modules/gstreamerElements/src/play.c
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d4c737ae9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/livesupport/modules/gstreamerElements/src/play.c
@@ -0,0 +1,126 @@
+/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+    Copyright (c) 2004 Media Development Loan Fund
+ 
+    This file is part of the LiveSupport project.
+    http://livesupport.campware.org/
+    To report bugs, send an e-mail to bugs@campware.org
+ 
+    LiveSupport is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+    (at your option) any later version.
+  
+    LiveSupport is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+    GNU General Public License for more details.
+ 
+    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+    along with LiveSupport; if not, write to the Free Software
+    Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
+ 
+ 
+    Author   : $Author: maroy $
+    Version  : $Revision: 1.1 $
+    Location : $Source: /home/paul/cvs2svn-livesupport/newcvsrepo/livesupport/modules/gstreamerElements/src/play.c,v $
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
+
+/* ============================================================ include files */
+
+#ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H
+#include "configure.h"
+#endif
+
+#include <gst/gst.h>
+
+#include "LiveSupport/GstreamerElements/autoplug.h"
+
+
+/* ===================================================  local data structures */
+
+
+/* ================================================  local constants & macros */
+
+
+/* ===============================================  local function prototypes */
+
+/**
+ *  Program entry point.
+ *
+ *  @param argc the number of command line arguments.
+ *  @param argv the command line argument array.
+ *  @return 0 on success, non-0 on failure.
+ */
+int
+main(int        argc,
+     char    ** argv);
+
+
+/* =============================================================  module code */
+
+/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ *  Program entry point.
+ *----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
+int
+main(int        argc,
+     char    ** argv)
+{
+    GstElement    * pipeline;
+    GstElement    * source;
+    GstElement    * decoder;
+    GstElement    * sink;
+    GstFormat       format;
+    gint64          timePlayed;
+
+    /* initialize GStreamer */
+    gst_init(&argc, &argv);
+
+    if (argc != 2) {
+        g_print("Usage: %s <audio filename>\n", argv[0]);
+        return -1;
+    }
+
+    /* create elements */
+    pipeline = gst_pipeline_new("audio-player");
+    source   = gst_element_factory_make("filesrc", "source");
+    sink     = gst_element_factory_make("alsasink", "alsa-output");
+
+    g_object_set(G_OBJECT(source), "location", argv[1], NULL);
+
+    decoder = ls_gst_autoplug_plug_source(source, "decoder");
+
+    if (!decoder) {
+        gst_object_unref(GST_OBJECT(sink));
+        gst_object_unref(GST_OBJECT(source));
+        gst_object_unref(GST_OBJECT(pipeline));
+
+        return -1;
+    }
+
+    gst_element_link(decoder, sink);
+    gst_bin_add_many(GST_BIN(pipeline), source, decoder, sink, NULL);
+
+    gst_element_set_state(source, GST_STATE_PAUSED);
+    gst_element_set_state(decoder, GST_STATE_PAUSED);
+    gst_element_set_state(sink, GST_STATE_PAUSED);
+    gst_element_set_state(pipeline, GST_STATE_PLAYING);
+
+    // iterate until playTo is reached
+    while (gst_bin_iterate(GST_BIN(pipeline)));
+
+    /* FIXME: query the decoder, as for some reason, the sink will return
+     *        unreal numbers, when playing back mp3s only! */
+    format = GST_FORMAT_TIME;
+    gst_element_query(decoder, GST_QUERY_POSITION, &format, &timePlayed);
+
+    g_print("time played: %" G_GINT64_FORMAT " ns\n", timePlayed);
+
+    /* clean up nicely */
+    gst_element_set_state(pipeline, GST_STATE_NULL);
+    gst_object_unref(GST_OBJECT(pipeline));
+
+    return 0;
+}
+