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p2p radio
Current version 2.0 (26 Sep 12)
Status:  netstatus 4 stations, 1 listener 

Broadcasting help

Here's some extra information that may be useful to you if you want to try and set up Streamer and another DSP on your own.  Otherwise, check in the forum.  There are other examples there of how to set up other types of broadcasts.

Only two things are actually needed in Streamer's Bcast configuration, the Station Name, and the Password.

The bitrate of your stream is in most cases set by the DSP.  The only exception to this that we have found so far is the older Oddcast Version 1 DSP.  The average bitrate of the stream coming from the DSP is measured over 1 minute intervals, so the reported bitrate of your stream may change. If it gets too high for your upload bandwidth, your broadcast will stop.

Remember that for the p2p system to work properly, each listener needs to be able to upload the stream to at least one other listener, so don't go too high with the bitrate in the DSP. If your stream bitrate is higher than about 20kbps, many modem users cannot listen. For cable users the limit is about 96kbps. If you want your network to work well, you need some of your listeners to relay the stream to more than one listener.

The stream ID is a random number, and is what listeners actually search for, rather than the station name. You can't set it yourself because people tend to all choose the same numbers. New ID will set a new random number, which creates a new station in the listing. Try and avoid creating lots of new ID's. It won't help at all to get your station on the air.

Streamer will automatically run and play a particular stream when a user clicks on a special url on a web page. These currently take the form:

     streamerp2p://s=12345678|n=station name|b=32|t=mp3|

s is the stream ID, b is the bitrate, and t is the type mp3, ogg or nsv. See the live stations page again for examples. Save URL writes the url for your station to URL.TXT in the Streamer folder. This file contains the above link and also a form that you can paste into your website that will place a button which listeners can click on to download Streamer for the first time, and after simple installation instructions, come up listening to your stream!

Streamer understands Shoutcast, Icecast, and Icecast2 DSP connection protocols.

Any IP can connect
will allow a DSP on a seperate pc to connect to Streamer. This is disabled by default for security.

The Password must match the one you set in the DSP. It is only used for connections between the DSP and your Streamer, listeners don't need it.

The Station info box is for the info that listeners see when they click the View button. It can contain html tags, and is the beginnings of a full web site that will be streamed alongside the audio. Please make all links open in a new window (using target="_blank"), and don't use any script or java please. Any images need to be on a real web server for now. Max characters about 400. Remember to click Save. You can preview it by clicking View.

The relay a conventional stream box can be used to get a stream to broadcast, instead of using a dsp to make it. Enter a url to a stream (not a pls file) and click connect. This is useful for when you want to broadcast on another platform as well as Streamer. This feature however doesn't get the station name or song titles. Format is domain[:port][/mountpoint.<mp3 | ogg>]

The YP info is some extra info about your station that will appear on the live stations page. The url's don't need a 'http://'.

The Website url is the url of your website.

The Image url is the url for an up to 150x75 image that appears with your listing, and is cached on the YP server.  The image reader here will also only read up to 32K file size to keep the page load time as low as possible and still maintain the ability to put some decent banners on there.  Be aware that any banner that exceeds 150 pixels wide will be resized by the website to 150x75 with no regard to aspect ratio.

The Alt pls IP/hostname/full url will replace all or part of the url that links to the broadcast streamer by http for serving the pls file. If you use just an x.x.x.x:port style IP, just that part of the url will be replaced. This is usefull if you want to use another streamer other than the broadcast one for direct streaming. Just use it's IP:port instead. You may also put a hostname instead of the numeric ip. And you may also put a full url ending with .pls, to point the url at another streaming server entirely.


You are advised to check your stream periodically yourself or have a friend tune in to make sure that things are working properly and you can be received ok.  A whole bunch of silence doesn't do anyone any good, especially you the broadcaster.

You can stack several Streamers on one pc. Install Streamer into however many seperate folders you need and set the ports for each differently. You can broadcast at different bitrates at the same time by using several Streamers and doing some meddling with DSP's and a DSP stacker.

Streamer can broadcast by the direct client-server method as well as by p2p. To enable this, see Advanced config. The broadcast Streamer can serve a .pls file by http for direct streaming, which will also include the IP's of other listeners who have enabled direct streaming. You can put a url on a web page pointing to this pls file. See the direct links on the Live Stations page for examples.

You can broadcast live from the line-in on your soundcard instead of by playing files. Checking the 'Record from Windows Recording Device' in the oddcast dsp configuration server screen will make it take it's input from the the sound card. You can alternatively do this with what is called a linein plugin for Winamp.  This method MUST be used if you are stacking multiple DSP plugins for multiple bitrate streams.  A good one to search for the the Jasper Linein plugin for Winamp.

HERE is a little audio clip that you can use on your stream if you like that says "Powered By Streamer" courtesy of 32nds.com (pronounced Thirty Seconds dot com).

The DSP port and audio port in Streamer should always match.  If you set your DSP to the audio port minus 1 as in previous (old outdated) instructions, your stream might work but your stream titles will not.

Always use a sample rate of 44.1kHz for the soundcard in any of the DSPs.  This setting in Oddcast V2 is called Live Rec Samplerate.  This will avoid the chipmunk effect that sometimes can occur with mp3 encoding.

The listing of your station on this site will happen automatically after a minute or so of the start of your stream.  If it does not appear, a couple of things are possibly the cause. Make sure that the Image URL that you are using for your listing does not exceed 25k.  If you are still not listing, it is likely because you are running some sort of firewall or internet security program that has blocked Streamer from communicating with our website on port 80.
 

© Iain McLeod 2003-2012.
"And the meek shall inherit the Earth" (Rush/2112)

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