Another open-standards alternative would be QuickTime Broadcaster - also
free (see http://www.apple.com/quicktime/broadcaster/) which uses AAC
for audio.

Or there's ShoutCast (see www.shoutcast.com), another free product
delivering MP3 for your audio.

Those solutions should make your stream more accessible than a closed
Windows Media solution.

Of course the main problem will be bandwidth and data caps, which is why
it's probably better to have a single stream up to a provider's server
who then have the capacity to on-stream to many listeners, albeit at a
price! You will get better 'mileage' from QuickTime broadcaster than
you would with Shoutcast because AAC has a lower filesize-to-quality
ratio than MP3.

Let's say you had a 96kbps stream. One listener continuously connected
will chew through 30 Gb of data per month. Two listeners and it's 60 Gb
per month. The good news is that if you had a 256k upstream broadband
plan then that's all you could support as the third listener would
saturate your connection and max it out at 80 Gb per month.

That's a lot of data and a lot of money!!

I suppose you could argue that there may be times when no-one would be
connected but the problem is you can't really control that. You'd have
to monitor your usage and go "off air" if you find you're going through
too much bandwidth. Or, limit the number of connections to 1 or 2.

While self-streaming is doable, the more you look at it the more
attractive a hosted solution looks.

Edwin.




Herb wrote:
> You could download Windows Media Encoder for free from the microsoft
> website and stream straight from your pc. I have a mate whose
> preparing for an LPFM launch and is currently testing it.
>
> The good thing about the media encoder is that it's small in file
> size, operates using Windows Media Player (which all Windows-based
> PC's have preloaded), can be configured how you like, you can also
> provide a dial-up and hi-speed option as well. Oh, and did I mention
> it's FREE?
>
> So, the only costs associated are the ISP charges. My mate is
> fortunate to have a TCL (TelstraClear) residential cable connection
> (2meg up/down 10G $50p/m). Remember, if you are streaming and have no
> one listening, there is no traffic so no usage. The only usage will be
> when someone is listening.
>
> The downside to the media encoder is that you can't limit how many can
> be on at once. This isn't so bad because your ISP upload limit should
> kick in to take care of that.
>
> Worth a look! Hope that helps.
>
> Cheers,
> Herb.
>