djdanmcdermott
The owner of the radio stations that host my talk show said he was interested in streaming the signal over the Internet and asked my advice since I am the only computer nerd in the building. He will pay the royalties to do it legally so I am only concerned with the logistics.
I know Windows media server (pricey) will do it and that there are other commercial and open source programs that should.
I'm thinking that a cable modem and a server in the station with a good soundcard would do it. But maybe we should use a hosting service. It just doesn't seem like it should be rocket science so I don't want to suggest a mainstream (translation: expensive) solution if there is a good reliable open source way.
I am googling it and getting lots of ideas but I was wondering if any of you had any thoughts off the top of your head on what might be an easy, relaiable, cheap way to go.
Thanks!
I know Windows media server (pricey) will do it and that there are other commercial and open source programs that should.
I'm thinking that a cable modem and a server in the station with a good soundcard would do it. But maybe we should use a hosting service. It just doesn't seem like it should be rocket science so I don't want to suggest a mainstream (translation: expensive) solution if there is a good reliable open source way.
I am googling it and getting lots of ideas but I was wondering if any of you had any thoughts off the top of your head on what might be an easy, relaiable, cheap way to go.
Thanks!
Posted Fri 23 Jun 06 @ 4:21 pm
djdanmcdermott
Note: I am hoping to have it set up so a listener can just click on a link and it opens an imbedded player (like WMP) that they almost certainly already have installed and starts playing music. I don't want the end user to have to download anything special . The idea is to make it easy on their end to maximize the chances that it gets used.
Posted Fri 23 Jun 06 @ 4:27 pm
Andrew87
Use shoutcast (or icecast, supports ogg but you'd have a limited audience) to stream, it's free and will stream as MP3 which all major software can play, i.e. Windows Media Player, Realplayer and Winamp. If you broadcast using Windows Media Encoder (which is free by the way (not sure about commericially), but maybe different software to what you meant) you are limiting your audience by using wma only. WMA is superior to MP3 at low bitrates however and the cost may be worth it.
You need to find out what sort of audience you will have then work out how much bandwidth you will transfer and then workout your equipment from there. What is the upload speed of a cable connection, only 256kbps? That would mean you couldn't even have two listeners broadcasting at 128kbps.
You will likely want at least a 10mbit upload from a connection if this is to be a serious broadcast, the cheapest way to do this is to broadcast from your cable connection to an external server. You can either rent one (a VPS may be cheapest) or pay for the service from another company.
10 x 1000 is roughly equal to 10,000 kbit of broadcast
so if you broadcast at 96kbps you could get around 100 listeners.
I don't know what country you're from but maybe you can have a 10mbit upload cheaper than getting a server elsewhere.
You need to find out what sort of audience you will have then work out how much bandwidth you will transfer and then workout your equipment from there. What is the upload speed of a cable connection, only 256kbps? That would mean you couldn't even have two listeners broadcasting at 128kbps.
You will likely want at least a 10mbit upload from a connection if this is to be a serious broadcast, the cheapest way to do this is to broadcast from your cable connection to an external server. You can either rent one (a VPS may be cheapest) or pay for the service from another company.
10 x 1000 is roughly equal to 10,000 kbit of broadcast
so if you broadcast at 96kbps you could get around 100 listeners.
I don't know what country you're from but maybe you can have a 10mbit upload cheaper than getting a server elsewhere.
Posted Fri 23 Jun 06 @ 4:54 pm