Locality Switch

Does your station stream over the internet? No? *Gasp* You’re missing out on a huge market your station could be reaching. Don’t worry – I’m going to take you through all you need to know to get started.

But wait, isn’t community radio about serving your local area? Well, yes and no. I’m of the opinion that we should offer as many different ways to get our station across to our listeners, whether or not they are in our local area. Sure, programming decisions should be made with the licensed area as the primary focus, but as in terms of who is listening, I believe we are responsible for reaching everyone who wants to hear our programs.

After all, community radio certainly offers a huge range of very different programming, much of which would appeal to people all around the world.

So, what do you need to get started with streaming?

• A spare computer at your station, and an input from your studios into the sound card
• Encoding software – I recommend EdCast
• A reliable internet connection from your studios – I have found ADSL2+ to do the job very nicely
• A streaming licence from APRA/AMCOS – this is calculated as a percentage of your income from your stream
• A streaming provider, we’re going to focus on shoutcast.
• Permission from your board / management (I’m going to assume you have this taken care of)

Before you start piceing the bits together to start streaming, you need a basic understanding of TCP/IP networking, and also knowledge of how streaming actually works. You could just build your stream from the instructions I have here, but when it all falls over, who has the knowledge to fix it?

Let’s take a look at the path your audio will take:

Audio –> PC –> Encoding software –> Internet –> Shoutcast Server –> listeners, listeners, listeners

So, your audio will come into the PC, EdCast will encode it, it will be blasted over the internet to your Shoutcast provider, who will then distribute it to all who want to listen. Simple, right? Not quite…

Let’s explore the different aspects of this audio chain through the ether:

Your encoding software has a vital part to play. It will take a feed from your soundcard and transform it to your chosen format. There are heaps of formats to choose from, but the primary ones you should consider are the MP3 and AAC+ codecs. Why? Because these are the most compatible. Choosing a codec is beyond the realm of this article, but I will try to post more on it in the future.

Within your encoding software, you also have to configure the bitrate – this is technical jargon which roughly translates to quality (and is measured in Kbps – Kilo-bits/second). The higher the bitrate, the higher the quality – however, the higher the bitrate the higher the bandwidth required by both you and the the people listening. The trick is to go for somewhere in the middle of the road, say 64Kbps for MP3 or 32Kbps AAC+. But it all depends – I suggest you try them all out, and see how it goes.

The Shoutcast provider is where all your listeners connect to. They have all the bandwidth which they let you use. Typically, providers in the USA are cheaper, but make sure you shop around for the best deal. You want reliability, heaps of bandwidth, and a reasonable price. Remember, if your provider fails, your stream will suffer – and no one will be able to listen.

Another consideration you have to account for is your internet connection at the station. Can it handle the extra bandwidth requirements? How much will it cost? The best ISPs offer un-metered uploads, meaning you don’t pay for what is being sent out of your connection. This is brilliant if you are doing streaming, because streaming is basically just a constant upload! Make sure you read and understand all the fine print from your ISP before you start – you don’t want to get into trouble.

That’s all for our getting started guide on streaming. I know it isn’t quite a step by step guide which will guarantee success within three weeks. I feel the best way for you to fully understand streaming is to get your hands dirty with it – download the software, install it on a spare box, sign up for a cheap Shoutcast provider, and see how it all works.