[webcast-l] Setup help

[gARetH baBB]

On Thu, 3 Mar 2005, Ben Edwards (lists) wrote:

[please don't post to the list and email]

> events.  Firstly you do not need to run icecast if you are upstreaming
> to toe CMS.   By advice is to join the CMA if you have not already and
> use there icecast server.  This will massively reduce the technical
> expertise and give you a reasonable amount of bandwidth.

I already have icecast2 running (it's been looping a test stream for=20
weeks), and bandwidth isn't a problem.

> As for your infrastructure I would recommend using one PC for live
> encoding (a 600 Mhz should do it, the type companies throw out).

600 ! Sounds like overkill to me, I fully intend to use an old 233 laptop=
=20
for live source streams.

> want to do playlists you can them use another very low spec PC.  you may
> also want to invest in a cheap 5 channel mixer (=A315 from marlins).  The
> reason for this is that otherwise going from live to playlists will
> require interrupting the stream.   You simply fade in/out.  We have
> found darkice is very solid and simple to use.

At the moment I'm using ices0 for mp3 playlists, haven't thought about=20
live side of things that much - I suspect it's going to be easier for some=
=20
events/people just to stick to Windows based stuff, ie. WinAmp with=20
Oddcast3, which unlike Oddcast2 does work and seems to be stable.

Switching streams isn't a problem, with icecast2 you just have a primary=20
mount point with fallback to a secondary mountpoint. (And a third=20
"emergency tape" mountpoint which the secondary falls back to.)

You run a playlist-type stream to the primary mountpoint, and meanwhile=20
get the live event working on the secondary fallback mountpoint. Then just=
=20
kill the primary source when ready and it falls back to the secondary=20
"live" mountpoint. And when you want to come out of live you just bring=20
the primary source back up.

You can do alsorts with fallbacks, especially with some of the -kh branch=
=20
extras.