[Icecast] What Does Icecast Do

[Geoff Staples]

As a national broadcaster, ISDN is definitely NOT cost effective 
compared to IP based transport.

I don't disagree. I'm simply suggesting that digital telephony of one 
form or another is more reliable and little latency. And, in certain 
circumstances cheaper than IP.

Our friend at the Bible college didn't say whether he's talking about 
long distance (as in telephone charges) or not. Although, there's an 
organization here in Dallas that uses ISDN for remote conferences with 
NY. I do know that they have an unlimited long distance plan for their 
ISDN line and so the total cost per month runs them about $130.00 per 
month for the ISDN line and the long distance charges. I don't know what 
they pay on the NY end for the ISDN line they dial into. I do know they 
always initiate from this end because they couldn't find unlimited long 
distance for their ISDN line in NY at the time they set it up.

Also, since the connection always goes to a single location, that 
reduced their costs as well.

Geoff.

Ian H Stewart wrote:

> As a national broadcaster, ISDN is definitely NOT
> cost effective compared to IP based transport.
>
> It does buy you reliable transport and reasonable delay however.
> For us to get to StarGuide and our affiliates, we have
> to use ISDN. We spend a lot of money on these lines and have driven
> our rate down to 4 cents per minute. But we DO NOT broadcast 24 hours  
> a day.
>
> I would consider an ADN, Fract T1, ATM or Frame Circuit if you have  
> tight timing requirements.
>
> Our show and some of our new 24 hour stations are going on Icecast  
> servers soon
> as the end user delay is not as big an issue as compared to traditional
> AM/FM timing requirements.
>
>
> Ian H. Stewart  -  ian at smartfamilymedia.com
> Product Discovery and Engineering
>
> .......................................................................
> :  visit the show: http://www.familytechshow.com/ :                   :
> :      A Radio Show about Family and Technology   : phn: 951-244-6205 :
> :           featuring the Smart Family            : fax: 801-306-2349 :
> :          Maxwell,  Victoria & Jennifer          :                   :
> :.................................................:...................:
> :  LIVE Sat 8-11am Pac at our website or ask your local talk station  :
> :.....................................................................:
> :             Email                    AIM - iChat - Yahoo            :
> :    radio at familytechshow.com     smartmaxradio   smartvicradio       :
> :.....................................................................:
>
> PS Have you seen 8 year old Jen's Herbie Premiere video?
>
> http://familytechshow.com/members/
> look for and click on the El Capitan image
>     (requires Quicktime 6.5 or higher - large download so please be  
> patient)
>
>
> On Jun 30, 2005, at 4:25 PM, Geoff Staples wrote:
>
>> If you are broadcasting the same feed on all three stations, then,  
>> you can encode at a high bit rate (FM quality - see the Icecast  
>> documentation to decide format and bit rate).  Then, use Icecast to  
>> serve the feed and your stations can then attach to the feed and  
>> receive their signal. You can use authentication, or even an  obscure 
>> mount name (If it isn't published anywhere, how could  anyone guess 
>> that your feed is on http://232.156.023.232/uTe8GQ64.ogg)
>>
>> But, here's a practical consideration: If you stream a private feed  
>> for your other stations to pick-up for rebroadcast, you will have a  
>> latency caused by buffering and other factors. So, you won't be  able 
>> to have a program at a remote station start at exactly 10:00,  for 
>> example. Nor will you be able to have the three stations  synchronized.
>>
>> The big advantage of streaming technology is that the origination  
>> point and the access points can be literally anywhere the Internet  
>> is available with no advance planning. You can even use wireless  
>> Internet technologies for broadcasting or receiving. But, it sounds  
>> like your origination point and your three access points are fixed  
>> locations - and there are only three of them.
>>
>> Since you're talking about fixed locations and especially if you're  
>> broadcasting 24 hours per day, you may find that ISDN telephone  
>> lines are more reliable and less expensive (or at least  competitive) 
>> than Internet technology.
>>
>> Of course, you would still use Icecast for streaming to your  
>> audience as you mentioned no matter what you do for the links to  
>> your three radio stations.
>>
>> Geoff
>
>
>
>
>