[icecast] Q: Is it possible?

Thu Feb 12 10:00:51 UTC 2004

Hola Mac (qué bien, un español ;-)  )

> I would reserve a mountpoint for each one of these sources:
>-Spain = my_radio.mp3 (Your listeners will listen to this mountpoint ONLY)
>-Honduras = Honduras.mp3
>-Guatemala = Guatemala.mp3

Ok, it's seemed to my conversation with Eric. My Bc server will receive N sources, mix them and broadcast the final results, but I see some differences (or doubts cause my inexperience on audio streaming, I'm sure)

I thought that an streaming scenario was basically:

* A broadcast server (icecast server)
* A source (liveice, iceS ... )
* some receivers (WinAmp)

Translated to this project:

* Bc server with icecast server (independent of the final signal treatment  - analog, digital - ... )
* N speakers around the world, each one with your microphone and your liveice station, ready to speak live.
* many many people with WinAmp and ready to enjoy this radio ;-)

I confused with "you use Winamp/Oddcast as source clients". Do you refer WinAmp can work as liveice? or related to your latest comments, too,  "You can run more than one instance of Winamp/Oddcast and use a silent output plugin". Do you refer each speaker (honduras, caracas, barcelona) must to have a bc server too, and into the central studio I must to have various Winamp to listen each remote server for to mix and to resend the result to the central broadcast server?

returning to my first mail the more "strange" scenario could be a program with N remote collaborations. More than one speaker live on the same program, one in honduras, one in madrid, one in caracas ...  bcause the people that will work in this project (the speakers at the central studio) come from a "traditional" radio world and they like to have an analog mixer to control the faders and the collaborations live , my idea was to set up an "easy" way to afford their daily work. The more easy way for them could be to have an analog mixer with N inputs, one for the principal speaker, one for each remote speaker, the stereo channels for music files,  the master output (to the bc server)...

In this way, I can assume that in an input channel (analog mixer) I can attach pre-mixed sources with your method (although still I haven't understood it well :-(   ) so I could to pre-mix the remote speakers to one stereo input channel to the analog mixer. it's ok?, so this means that now I will need:

* 1 card for all the remote speakers (to pre-mix and reserve only 1 stereo input line)
* the rest will be mixed live directly on the analog mixer (music files, principal speaker ... )
* All the remote speakers will have a microphone and a pc station (previous doubts Winamp vs liveice)
* Even so if i need I can "associate" one source with one card (only forecast) and send the signal to one input channel.

OK?

I like it .. this world is very very interesting

very very thanks, Mac and Enrico

<p>----- Original Message ----- 
From: "MacSym" <macsym69 at yahoo.fr>
To: <icecast at xiph.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 11:58 PM
Subject: RE: [icecast] Q: Is it possible?

<p>Hi Raul,

Here is how I would set it up to answer your scenarios:

-One Icecast server in Spain.
-One source in Spain
-One source in Honduras
-One source in Guatemala (for example)
...

I would reserve a mountpoint for each one of these sources:
-Spain = my_radio.mp3 (Your listeners will listen to this mountpoint ONLY)
-Honduras = Honduras.mp3
-Guatemala = Guatemala.mp3
...

Let's say you use Winamp/Oddcast as source clients. If, you want to
broadcast a live from Honduras, you won't ask your listeners to switch to
"Honduras.mp3" so you have to set up your Spanish source (Winamp/Oddcast) to
listen to "Honduras.mp3" and resend the stream to "my_radio.mp3". In this
way, there will be a smooth transition between the Spanish and the Honduran
sources because the final user will always listen to "my_radio.mp3" (not
Honduras.mp3 or Guatemala.mp3).

Also, if you want to listen to several sources without broadcasting it on a
single computer, you don't necessarily need several soundcards. You can run
more than one instance of Winamp/Oddcast and use a silent output plugin
(attached to this mail). In this way, the audio pipeline is managed by
software and not hardware.

I don't know if it's the best solution, but I am just suggesting.

Saludos de Barcelona,
(¡Yo tambien escribo desde España!)

MAX

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-icecast at xiph.org [mailto:owner-icecast at xiph.org] On Behalf Of
Raúl Wild-Spain
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 11:03 PM
To: icecast at xiph.org
Subject: Re: [icecast] Q: Is it possible?

wow, Enrico ... it's a great help ;-)

I comment:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Enrico Minack" <enrico.minack at informatik.tu-chemnitz.de>
To: <icecast at xiph.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 8:00 PM
Subject: Re: [icecast] Q: Is it possible?

<p>> Hi Raúl,
>
> interesting project ;-) So this is what I would recommend. For a number of
> remote speakers (1 or more) it would make sence to mix them together in
the
> studio the local speaker is located.
>All remote speakers could mount as a
> source at the broadcast server (shouldn't be a problem to have a bigger
> distance between them).

Ok, the first is more or less what I thought (and what i need), mix them
together in the "local" studio (where will exist the broadcast server,too)

mmm ... but I confused with  "... mount as a source at the broadcast
server...". Do you refer each remote location will have an streamer client
(pc) to send their signal (through Inet) to the broadcast server? or another
way?

<p>>Other way would be to have a icecast server at each
> remote speaker's location.

They want only a central broadcast server for controlling and planning the
kind of  programs (and to mount them).

> However, a PC could play these streams from the broadcast server on a
number
> of soundcards and the output of them is put into an analog mixer where the
> local speaker can control the volume and can listen into the stream
without
> broadcasting. The main audio output from this mixer goes into the
broadcast
> server which creates the final stream.

OK.. I'm digesting ;-)) ...

... and analyzing ...
* I will have a broadcast server (bcs).
* this bcs will have various soundcards (n +1 -> N speakers + 1 final mix)
* the output of each soundcard is put into the analog mixer.
* the remote clients will send the signal to the bcs (through liveice?) .
* these channels will be received by bcs (and not broadcasted) and will
output them to the analog mixer (one channel per soundcard).
* The local speaker (or producer) will mix all and will send the results to
the bcs.
* the result will be broadcasted ...

right?

More doubts:

- about soundcards: are important terms like "latency 0"?or MP3 decoding by
hardware?, do you know  RME digi9336? can you recommend me any soundcard?

- Do you know if it is possible to control an MP3 file list  manually
( for example if someone want to launch these files one by one and on demand
while mix the rest of remote channels - it could be another pc playing as a
MP3 server ... )

- the rule 1 soundcard = 1 remote speaker isn't fixed, right?. If the number
of speakers grows I will have some way to mix various sources to the same
soundcard. yes?

one bcs routing various "channels" to each soundcard is possible with one
icecast server or I will need N icecast servers on the same machine?

>
> This is how we make live broadcast from remote venues.

then it's all guaranteed !!!  ;-))

>
> I hope I could help some,
> Enrico M.

It has already been a great help,
;-))

>
> --- >8 ----
> List archives:  http://www.xiph.org/archives/
> icecast project homepage: http://www.icecast.org/
> To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to
'icecast-request at xiph.org'
> containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body.  No subject is needed.
> Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.
>

--- >8 ----
List archives:  http://www.xiph.org/archives/
icecast project homepage: http://www.icecast.org/
To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'icecast-request at xiph.org'
containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body.  No subject is needed.
Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.

<p>--- >8 ----
List archives:  http://www.xiph.org/archives/
icecast project homepage: http://www.icecast.org/
To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'icecast-request at xiph.org'
containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body.  No subject is needed.
Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.