[Rfu-barnraising] Re: {leti} the automation question

Wed Oct 26 14:49:13 CDT 2005

if streaming is something that you would like to set up during the barnraising as well - you will just need another computer available.  we can set up linux or windows (if you want a legal version of windows, you will have to buy that...), and install the encoding software.  usually a combination of oddcast and icecast can be used to get streaming going without too much trouble.  just have the computers available!  i have attached a quick and dirty guide to streaming below!  let me know if you have more quesitons...  thanks,
-a

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A basic streaming setup can be very simple, or can scale up to any of your needs. I will assume, for the purpose of this information that you want a live studio where DJs will have their shows, and the audio will be sent out from there.
Here is a quick 'block' diagram of the setup for streaming on the internet:

 Studio -----> Encoding Computer ------> Internet ------> Streaming Server <------- Listeners

The first major element is your studio. I am going to assume you have something in mind for that, but a simple audio mixer is all that you will really need. It just takes in your audio sources, such as microphones, CD players, turntables, etc and allows you to control the audio level. One consideration is the outputs of the mixer. Check what outputs you have available, and what 'level' they put out. If the mixer only has high or pro level (+4dBu) balanced outputs, you might need an interface box. If the mixer also has unbalanced line or consumer level (-10dBu) outputs (RCA or unbalanced 1/4" outs), then we are probably in the clear. This also depends on what sound card you have in the encoding computer, which segues me into the next section.
The second major element is a computer to do the encoding of the audio - to take the analog output of the mixer, and translate it into digital data that can be sent out over the internet. The computer hardware for this doesn't have to be extremely powerful or recent, it could be a Pentium 2 or equivalent machine, I would say 400MHz or better. You could also use an older Power Mac, a G3 or better is probably what you would need there. This computer will need to be dedicated to encoding audio, and have about 256MB of RAM or more. If you want the computer to keep an audio log of everything that is broadcasting (have it record everything that goes into it), you will need a fairly big hard drive (80GB or more) and a way to archive the audio when the drive fills up (a CD or DVD burner). If this is not necessary, a smaller drive can be used (10GB or so). Other than that, it doesn't need any fancy hardware for graphics or the like. The sound card is the only thing you might want to think about upgrading. Standard on-board sound cards, or Soundblaster-type cards are fine, and will work well if you have line or consumer level outputs on your mixer. If you want a good sound card, I recommend the Delta44 by M-Audio:

 http://m-audio.com/products/en_us/Delta44-main.html

It runs about $200 list, but you might be able to find one for cheaper. If you find a donated computer (ask around, you would be surprised what hardware geeks in the area have lying around - you could also build a computer with the above specs with donated hardware), then the sound card could be the only expense. Or just go with onboard sound, and upgrade later. Or don't upgrade later. It will all work, it just depends on how picky people are about sound quality.
The encoding software is another thing to think about. There are many choices of encoding format - Realaudio, Windows Media, Streaming MP3, Ogg Vorbis and Streaming Quicktime. For practical purposes, forget RealAudio? and Streaming Quicktime - Real takes over a user's machine and the support on Linux and Mac isn't as strong, and the same goes for Quicktime. Windows Media is an alright choice, the encoder is easy to use, but again support isn't as strong on platforms besides Windows. Streaming MP3 and Ogg are good cross-platform formats, with encoders available for almost anything. Ogg is a similar format to MP3, with good compression. Most players support it now as well, but you might have more trouble finding a streaming server provider that offers it. So, I am going to say that streaming MP3 is the best choice for right now. The best encoding technology for streaming MP3 is Shoutcast. You can read more about it here:

 http://www.shoutcast.com/support/docs/

If you have Linux geeks in your group, then I wholeheartedly recommend linux as the operating system for the encoding computer. It is fast, stable and best of all, free. If you don't know a linux geek, or many encoders available for Linux, but a few I have used and like are Ices, Muse and Darkice. Their configuration is fairly simple (if you read the documentation), but not as easy as some Windows software. Linux is a bit harder to set up and use, but the advantage is definately in the stability of the machine, it will not crash as much. Check out the sites below for more information.

 http://www.icecast.org/ices.php
 http://muse.dyne.org/
 http://darkice.sourceforge.net/

For Windows encoding, the best software is Shoutcast. I have already included the link to Shoutcast above. I won't go into setting any of this software up, but the good thing is that it is all free. Once you have a working Linux or Windows setup, you just install the encoding software and then set it up to talk to the server.
The third stage in the streaming diagram is the internet connection. There definately needs to be a fast and stable connection to the internet. DSL or Cable will work, but you want to keep in mind that there will be a constant data stream coming out of the encoding machine, that must travel to the internet at all times. That means that it could bog down the connection a little bit, since it is always transmitting. A dedicated connection for that machine is not necessary, but there should be something fast enough that the encoder doesn't take over the connection completely.

Once that is obtained, you will need to make the choice of what streaming server provider to go with. The streaming server is what all of your listeners will connect to. Your encoder provides a single 'stream' to the streaming server, which distributes the stream to listeners. Since this requires a lot of bandwidth, I recommend to pretty much everyone not to run their own server, but to go with a server provider. There are many choices to go with, and a good place to start looking is Radio Toolbox:

 http://www.radiotoolbox.com/hosts/

Some good hosts to look at are Streamguys, Fastserv and Beannet. You can find links to them on the Radio Toolbox website. A good thing to do would be to call them and see if you can get any streams donated, if you are a non-profit. Otherwise, just check their pricing. The way streams are priced is by conncurrent connections. I recommend 15 or so streams to start with, then seeing if that is too many or too few, and downgrading / updgrading when needed. Most providers are pretty flexible about that. You will probably want to call them or email them about how much help they can give you setting up the server, and interfacing it with your encoder. That is where most people have a hard time, but once it is up and running, there are typicically very few problems.
The price range for hosting is about $20 per month and up, at about $1 per stream. So, you can see how it scales from there. So, the costs can be very minimal if you already have a studio, can get a donated computer, and can get an inexpensive stream provider.

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On Wed, 26 Oct 2005, Sascha Meinrath wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> The Acorn Active Media Foundation is planning to donate use of one of our 
> servers for streaming (and integrating this into the CUWiN wireless 
> network). We have some parameters we're operating under but would also love 
> help setting this up to your specs.  We've just finished building the 
> system and making sure it takes the server software we're loading onto it.  
> We'll probably follow something along the lines of:
> 
> http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialAudioStreaming.html
> 
> But if there are techies on the list who would like to be involved with 
> this effort (especially during the craziness of the barnraising), drop me a 
> line.
> 
> In solidarity,
> 
> --Sascha
> 
> Andrew Ó Baoill wrote:
> >You would take an output from the console and feed it to an input on  
> >the soundcard if you wanted to record the station (or other console  
> >output) onto the computer, or to create a webstream, etc.
> >
> >Andrew
> >
> >On 26 DFómh 2005, at 13:07, Gary Cziko wrote:
> >
> >>I can't imagine a situation where I would want to do the connection  
> >>as you suggest.
> >
> >
> >-- 
> >Andrew Ó Baoill

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