[webcast-l] Setup help

[Ben Edwards (lists)]

On Thu, 2005-03-03 at 18:34 +0000, gARetH baBB wrote:
> On Thu, 3 Mar 2005, Ben Edwards (lists) wrote:
> 
> [please don't post to the list and email]

Sorry, force of habit.

> > 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 
> 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 
> for live source streams.

We are straming .mp3 (dial up) and .ogg (broadband).  The 1.7Mhz Box is
running at around 20% and having some residual is a good idea but could
possibly get away with a little less.

> > 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 (15 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 
> live side of things that much - I suspect it's going to be easier for some 
> events/people just to stick to Windows webcast-l at commedia.org.ukbased stuff, ie. WinAmp with 
> Oddcast3, which unlike Oddcast2 does work and seems to be stable.

Ouch, we are totally Linux.  I guess windowz is easier if you can afford
the licences or are prepared to break the law and use pirated software.
O, and dont mind it crashing every so often ;).  However in the long
term Linux makes much more sense as it fits in much better with out
community remit.   

Mp3 is also a bit of a problem as it is not a licence free format and
the legal status of the Linux implementation (lame) is legally
questionable.  Our compromise is to stream mp3 as a  low quality stream
so everybody can easily listen to it and ogg as a high quality stream.
Its better quality/more suitable for streaming and is totally licence
free.  We are also putting links to players, vlc seems a good open
source cross platform solution.

> Switching streams isn't a problem, with icecast2 you just have a primary 
> mount point with fallback to a secondary mountpoint. (And a third 
> "emergency tape" mountpoint which the secondary falls back to.)
> You run a playlist-type stream to the primary mountpoint, and meanwhile 
> get the live event working on the secondary fallback mountpoint. Then just 
> kill the primary source when ready and it falls back to the secondary 
> "live" mountpoint. And when you want to come out of live you just bring 
> the primary source back up.
> 
> You can do alsorts with fallbacks, especially with some of the -kh branch 
> extras.

Sounds a good way to go, but smoothly fading down/up between
live/playlist may be a bit difficult.  Douse ices2 support mp3, we need
something that douse ogg & mp3.

Ben

> _______________________________________________
> webcast-l mailing list
> webcast-l at commedia.org.uk
> http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/webcast-l
-- 
Ben Edwards - Bristol, UK, England
Web Services, Database Development and general IT services
If you have a problem sending me email use this link
http://www.gurtlush.org.uk/profiles.php?uid=4
(email address this email is sent from may be defunct)
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
Url : http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/pipermail/webcast-l/attachments/20050303/073285b9/attachment.bin