Icecast...Who's Knows What's What?

Elspode · 07-03-2004, 03:10 AM

So...Sycamore's Yahoo Chat broadcast experiment has spurred several hours of searching and studying on my part, only to have me end up both more enlightened, and more confused.

What Syc is doing is functional and easy, but lacks a couple things; namely, stereo and high quality audio. Apparently, the answer to these issues is Icecast, an Open Source Internet broadcasting server/client package (www.icecast.org) .

There are numerous freeware clients that will do on-the-fly encoding into mp3 (and other) audio formats, allowing live broadcasting to occur (such as what Syc is doing), and these I understand and have looked at. What I do *not* understand is this: Who runs the server? Is it like IRC, where there are public servers out there for you to tap your client into and start broadcasting? If so, I cannot locate any.

Therefore, I am at a stopping point, as I have no freaking idea about how to configure a server for such a purpose. However, this doesn't stop me from making my proposal...

What if someone amongst us (with more computer savvy than I) set up a dedicated Icecast server, and then we took turns on a rotating basis netcasting a weekly program? Each participant could find the client of their choosing and then connect to the the server which some kind soul had made available. Then, any of the Cellarites with the ability to listen to streaming audio (pretty much anyone who takes the trouble to run Windows Media Player or download Winamp) could listen in. We would then have sort of a live version of the CMP...

I'm sure there's something here I am missing, but if we could put it into play, we could expand Sycamore's vision into something of higher fidelity, and have another thread connecting this very groovy community together.

Thoughts? Elaborations? Explanations of what I am missing? Offers to donate bandwidth and run the server?

Griff · 07-03-2004, 10:18 AM

I don't know what's what but I do know you've just given me another reason to upgrade from dial-up, despite the absurd cost.

07-03-2004, 03:10 AM	#1
Elspode When Do I Get Virtual Unreality? Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Raytown, Missouri Posts: 12,719	Icecast...Who's Knows What's What? So...Sycamore's Yahoo Chat broadcast experiment has spurred several hours of searching and studying on my part, only to have me end up both more enlightened, and more confused. What Syc is doing is functional and easy, but lacks a couple things; namely, stereo and high quality audio. Apparently, the answer to these issues is Icecast, an Open Source Internet broadcasting server/client package (www.icecast.org) . There are numerous freeware clients that will do on-the-fly encoding into mp3 (and other) audio formats, allowing live broadcasting to occur (such as what Syc is doing), and these I understand and have looked at. What I do not understand is this: Who runs the server? Is it like IRC, where there are public servers out there for you to tap your client into and start broadcasting? If so, I cannot locate any. Therefore, I am at a stopping point, as I have no freaking idea about how to configure a server for such a purpose. However, this doesn't stop me from making my proposal... What if someone amongst us (with more computer savvy than I) set up a dedicated Icecast server, and then we took turns on a rotating basis netcasting a weekly program? Each participant could find the client of their choosing and then connect to the the server which some kind soul had made available. Then, any of the Cellarites with the ability to listen to streaming audio (pretty much anyone who takes the trouble to run Windows Media Player or download Winamp) could listen in. We would then have sort of a live version of the CMP... I'm sure there's something here I am missing, but if we could put it into play, we could expand Sycamore's vision into something of higher fidelity, and have another thread connecting this very groovy community together. Thoughts? Elaborations? Explanations of what I am missing? Offers to donate bandwidth and run the server? __________________ "To those of you who are wearing ties, I think my dad would appreciate it if you took them off." - Robert Moog

07-03-2004, 10:18 AM	#2
Griff still says videotape Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 26,813	I don't know what's what but I do know you've just given me another reason to upgrade from dial-up, despite the absurd cost. __________________ If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you. - Louis D. Brandeis

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