[Icecast] Relay Planning (many questions)

[Ian H Stewart]

Hi, I am looking to replace a Quicktime streaming Cluster
with Icecast 2.2.0.

I have a couple questions:

QTSS Supports multicast to multiple relays, does Icecast?


I understand that Icecast creates a Master / slave relationship
so that the following should work:

1) Send content to Master
2) Have the 4 systems in the cluster connect to the master as a slave 
system

What happens if the master goes away?


Using SimpleCast or Nicecast, can I supply
multiple masters incase of failure? Will the slaves switch under a 
failed condition?

Does Icecast have built-in load balancing or do I need external app 
switch?

Finally, QTSS has this feature where the slave will not grab the
content unless a user is connected, does Icecast support something
similar?

Thank you so much for your help.

Ian