SHOUTcast Radio Information:
- What is SHOUTcast?
- Is SHOUTcast a professional grade solution?
- How easy is it to use SHOUTcast?
- How Internet Radio Works?
- What is Auto DJ?
- Can I Still Broadcast Live with Auto DJ?
- Port 80 Streaming – Why and How?
- What does 'Bitrate' mean?
- What does 'Listener Slots' mean?
- Instant Setup on all Servers
What is SHOUTcast?
SHOUTcast is a streaming server which allows radio stations to effectively broadcast audio online (this is known as webcasting). It is powerful and stable, meaning you can throw all of your internet radio traffic at it without having crashes or other problems.
There are 3 stages to the broadcasting process. You don't need any complicated or expensive software or hardware at your end either, a simple desktop PC and broadband connection will work fine.
Is SHOUTcast a professional grade solution?
Very much so. SHOUTcast is an industry standard platform used by thousands and thousands of radio stations all over the world. Its wide compatibility means people can listen with most players and operating systems.
Listeners will be able to connect to your MP3 stream from all over the world, with all the popular media players including Windows Media Player, iTunes, Winamp, Realplayer, XMMS, and many more media players besides.
Although incredibly simple, it can cope with even the heaviest demands and will not break under pressure. Its simplicity works to the broadcaster and listeners favor.
How easy is it to use SHOUTcast?
SHOUTcast is actually very simple to use. You can use free software to broadcast, which can be installed on any internet connected Windows computer. There are also solutions available for Apple and Linux users. You can also consider using tools such as Simplecast and SAM Broadcaster, these are more professional and 100% shoutcast compatible tools.
How Internet Radio Works?
You can quite easily broadcast live audio on the internet and it can consist of recorded items (Eg. Your MP3/CD collection) plus live content (Eg. Your voice via a microphone). There are 3 basic stages of internet broadcasting, as follows:
I: The Source (You)
Your computer mixes together the audio sources coming from your soundcard (which can be Mp3's being played, live voice or other inputs from CD players etc). It then makes them into a 'stream' of data which is sent 'on the fly' to...
II: The Server (Us)
Your Shoutcast server with ShoutCheap.com will receive the audio stream coming from your PC and then redistribute it to ...
III: The Listener (Everyone Else)
Anyone in the world with an internet connection can then connect to your server. They will be able to hear everything which is going on at your end - so anything you output to the stream server, they can hear!
What is AutoDJ?
Auto DJ is a Source or Content Delivery System for SHOUTcast servers. It allows you to keep your SHOUTcast server online 24/7 without having to run a source (eg Winamp or SAM Broadcaster) from your computer. You can upload your music files to Auto DJ and they will play from the server, meaning you may switch your PC off overnight and your stream will still be on air for people to listen to.
Can I Still Broadcast Live with Auto DJ?
Yes, you can stop Auto DJ at any time - allowing you to connect directly to SHOUTcast. We also provide a DJ access password (which you can specify seperately to your main account) to allow your DJ's to stop Auto DJ from broadcasting, which will then let them stream their shows to your SHOUTcast server.
Port 80 Streaming – Why and How?
A ‘port 80’ sounds a bit technical doesn’t it? Well, its a very simple principle, it is fair to say that many of your potential listeners will be at work, school, college or university during the day – thats pretty straight forward, yes?
The problem arises when these potential listeners want to listen to your radio station, but they cannot as the corporate firewall or network setup wherever they are working or studying from is preventing them from connecting to your SHOUTcast server on port XXXX – although there is no risk in listening to a streaming server, often un-used ports are blocked because they can ‘potentially’ open up a risk via other means to the network they are often blocked to prevent employees from playing games too whilst at work.
This is why we have introduced a port 80 streaming link. It allows the stream to bypass the normal XXXX port and go via port 80. Port 80 is a port which will ALWAYS be open on networks as its the same port as websites get sent through, the text you are reading on this blog – will have been sent via the internet to your PC on port 80, so in other words – if you can read this, you’ll be able to listen to a port 80 shoutcast stream.
What does 'Bitrate' mean?
Radio streams are encoded (compressed) to a 'bitrate'. The bitrate simply refers to the audio quality of the stream, this is measured in computer terms in 'kbps - kilo bits per second' or 'k' for short. As a rough guide; listening to a station in 128k stereo would sound like CD quality, where as 24k would sound more like listening over the phone. It is also important to note that users with a dial-up internet connection will not be able to connect to anything higher than 24k.
Most radio stations like to offer 2 or 3 streams, usually a low bitrate (like 24k) for users with dial-up, a medium stream (such as 64k) for users with ISDN/Lower powered broadband and a high quality 96/128k stream for the majority of internet users who will have high power broadband connections either at home or work.
What does 'Listener Slots' mean?
This refers to the maximum number of people who will be able to connect (listen) to your stream at one time.
Instant Setup on all Servers
All of our streaming services feature instant setup. This means as soon as you have paid, our system will automatically process your order and email you with the service details.