setup and broadcast your own radio stream in less than 1 hour
The amount of necessary equipment that it takes to start broadcasting your own radio station has been greatly reduced greatly in recent years, with the advent of internet streaming. In turn, this has meant the increase of home based broadcasters has followed in similar numbers. Now it is not unusual to find traditional broadcasters taking up this delivery mechanism equally.
After a brief experiment, I have proved that it is perfectly possible to start broadcasting your very own audio stream very easily - and the whole setup can take less than an hour!
Now, I have used a Mac for this example - and as you will find if you try this – the amount of software and features that are already built in facilitate this even more. In fact the only extra piece of software that would be recommended is Nicecast.
Calculate You Hosting Potential
As you prepare to begin broadcasting, it will be helpful to consider the amount of bandwidth you have at your disposal – as this is the element that will most strongly govern how many (or few) listeners you can comfortably host. If you really want to host large audiences, then you will need to consider having your stream hosted on an external server.
Extra Stuff
As previously stated, there really is very little additional equipment that is needed; but if vocal or talk elements will be mixed into your audio stream then it is recommended to invest in an external microphone.
Organise Your Content
Before progressing any further, it goes without saying that you need to spend some time organising some content for broadcasting. I have used iTunes in this example, but any software that acts as an audio library manager will do just as well (Nicecast is flexible enough to plug in to any application on your system).
I’m assuming that at this point you have decided on the type of audio content you will be broadcasting and how to tailor this for your audience; so this article will just focus on the technical aspects of making this a reality.
Setup Your Streaming Server
Spend some time (and a little money) downloading and installing Nicecast from Rogue Amoeba. This is a very powerful application that enables you to broadcast audio from any application on your system both across your local network and the internet.
If your system connects to the internet behind a router then you may need to set up port forwarding (or port mapping) for port 8000. Similarly, for systems that are behind firewalls, then this port may need to be opened on your firewall if you’re connection attempts are being refused.
Enhancing Your Stream
Once you have configured your streaming server, test it locally on your host and across your network to make sure you are happy with the way your stream information is displayed and the quality of the audio. If this is OK, then you are ready to begin publicising and broadcasting! That really all there is to it!
One feature that is only available to registered versions of Nicecast is for your stream to be listed on MacStreams when broadcasting.
Now here is where Nicecast and Apple really dovetail greatly; full compatibility with Apple’s built-in Audio Units is provided as well as those from 3rd party providers. If you are aiming to record jingles, mix voice and music then careful utilisation of these Audio Units will greatly enhance the quality of your audio stream.
Success!
That's it - your radio stream is broadcasting on the world wide web, and is listed on MacStreams! Now all you need to do is to work out how to publicise it to your wider audience.
After a brief experiment, I have proved that it is perfectly possible to start broadcasting your very own audio stream very easily - and the whole setup can take less than an hour!
Now, I have used a Mac for this example - and as you will find if you try this – the amount of software and features that are already built in facilitate this even more. In fact the only extra piece of software that would be recommended is Nicecast.
Calculate You Hosting Potential
As you prepare to begin broadcasting, it will be helpful to consider the amount of bandwidth you have at your disposal – as this is the element that will most strongly govern how many (or few) listeners you can comfortably host. If you really want to host large audiences, then you will need to consider having your stream hosted on an external server.
Extra Stuff
As previously stated, there really is very little additional equipment that is needed; but if vocal or talk elements will be mixed into your audio stream then it is recommended to invest in an external microphone.
Organise Your Content
Before progressing any further, it goes without saying that you need to spend some time organising some content for broadcasting. I have used iTunes in this example, but any software that acts as an audio library manager will do just as well (Nicecast is flexible enough to plug in to any application on your system).
I’m assuming that at this point you have decided on the type of audio content you will be broadcasting and how to tailor this for your audience; so this article will just focus on the technical aspects of making this a reality.
Setup Your Streaming Server
Spend some time (and a little money) downloading and installing Nicecast from Rogue Amoeba. This is a very powerful application that enables you to broadcast audio from any application on your system both across your local network and the internet.
If your system connects to the internet behind a router then you may need to set up port forwarding (or port mapping) for port 8000. Similarly, for systems that are behind firewalls, then this port may need to be opened on your firewall if you’re connection attempts are being refused.
Enhancing Your Stream
Once you have configured your streaming server, test it locally on your host and across your network to make sure you are happy with the way your stream information is displayed and the quality of the audio. If this is OK, then you are ready to begin publicising and broadcasting! That really all there is to it!
One feature that is only available to registered versions of Nicecast is for your stream to be listed on MacStreams when broadcasting.
Now here is where Nicecast and Apple really dovetail greatly; full compatibility with Apple’s built-in Audio Units is provided as well as those from 3rd party providers. If you are aiming to record jingles, mix voice and music then careful utilisation of these Audio Units will greatly enhance the quality of your audio stream.
Success!
That's it - your radio stream is broadcasting on the world wide web, and is listed on MacStreams! Now all you need to do is to work out how to publicise it to your wider audience.
This entry was posted
on Friday, June 17, 2005 at 5:36 pm.
