Live Audio Streaming

This may be a dumb question, but does your web host support streaming? Not all hosts do.

Well, after I posted the question, that dawned on me. I submitted a question to them asking if they did.

I have just started into this myself, looking at streaming our church service's main message live during the service. I already record them using Audacity, then making them into MP3's for people to listen to online.

I have been using winamp to play music for quite some time now. Only a couple of months ago I came across the "MEDIA" window, which in there had a ton of "radio stations" as well as TV stations to listen to/watch live. (there is also a lot of on demand things like music videos, songs, coming attractions for movies etc).

Well with how many people there were doing the live streaming, I figured it must be simple enough for me to do it. Well I noticed the term "ShoutCast" for the live media, and found the site for it, ShoutCast.com

No kidding here, but 15 minutes later here in the office I was streaming music playing on my tape deck (which goes into a mixer, then into my MIC in on my laptop), listening to it on both iTunes and WinAmp on other office computers. Now i just had the basics, no identifying information going. I couldn't believe how simple that was.

There are tutorials/instructions on ShoutCast.com for how to do this (http://www.shoutcast.com/download/broadcast.phtml), but in a nutshell here is what was done:

Get WinAmp, the ShoutCast DNAS Server and the ShoutCast Source DSP plug-in for winamp. (note, I didn't pay attention enough, winamp comes with "Signal Processing Studio DSP" and in rushing i mistakenly thought I already had the plug-in needed.)

Install all three items. For the server, edit the sc_serv.ini (main things to adjust at first are MaxUsers, Password, and possibly base port. This will get you started.

Run the server, open any firewall you have to your Port# (and I *think* one port# above it - I just installed something recently that needed the next one up available too, not sure if it was this).

Launch WinAmp,go to plug-ins (CTRL-P) and under the DSP/Effects, double click on the ShoutCast Source DSP.

Go to the OUTPUT tab, the Port and Password need to match what you just set up, click CONNECT.

On the Input Tab, choose for "input Device" Soundcard Input. Then use the mixer below to adjust your sounds (levels, bg music levels, etc.) When you are ready, do the LOCK button to hold down the "talk" mode. You are on the "air"

Open up a web browser and browse to your computer's IP address. There is a basic page that should come up and a link at the top to "LISTEN"

That is what all worked for me. Note there was about i think a 15-20 second delay in what i was hearing on other computers compared to what was actually playing.

Oh yeah, for your internet connection if you have a router, you will need to forward the ports to your computer. I have written a script that lets me "turn on" and "turn off" the listen live link on the main website. It requires a username/passowrd to access. When I turn it "on" it notes what IP address I am coming from and sets the LISTEN LINK to point to that address. When I tell it to disconnect, it plays a streaming MP3 from the server saying when to "tune in".

(We have RoadRunner cable, and even though it is a dynamic IP address, it stays the same pretty much, I think any broadband connection would probably hold the same IP address while you are actively using the connection.)

Good luck. Sorry I can't answer too much more than this, as this is all the further I have come. Actually now I'm looking into video capture to just go all the way with live video

-Greg

Wow, nice answer Greg very comprehensive!

Out of interest: Will this stuff only work on Windoze?

I think I saw download for linux version o the serer and plug in.

-Greg

I contacted my server (Netfirms.com) and this was their response:

Netfirms offers Streaming via HTTP format. The best file type for HTTP streaming is Real Media.

In order to have your Real Media 'Stream' instead of download follow
these steps:

1.Create your Audio or Video file in Real Audio format using your Audio or Video software
2.Upload your Real Audio/Real Video file into your /WWW folder or into a subdirectory such as /WWW/audio.
3.We'll assume the file name is myaudio.rm
4.On your computer, create a text file called myaudio.ram. (note the .ram extension) To create a text file, just go to your desktop, right click, and then NEW --> Text Document.
5.Put the following text into the text document (replace my-domain.com with your domain) http://www.my-domain.com/myaudio.rm
6.Save the text file and upload it into your /WWW folder.
7.Now, on one of your web pages, simply create a link to your .ram file, and not the .rm file. The .ram file (the text document) will automatically link to the .rm file. When the visitor clicks on it, it will begin to stream video.
8.If you prefer to have the visitor download the entire file before viewing it (no streaming) then simply link to the .rm file, and skip the .ram part.

So, does anybody know of a software that makes real streaming media, or will the Microsoft Media Encoder still work?