streaming audio?

[dragonb]

K,
got a linux box running apache on a very weak processor.
I want to stream audio from it. Probably just some talking and stuff for family website.
Needs to be easy to use for the end user..computer illiterate family.
Needs to be free.
Any ideas?

I don't know much about this stuff, but I'm pretty sure realaudio server is not free, and also it isn't as easy on the end user.
Preferrably something that windows media player would just recognize and play.
TIA,
dragonb

[ScottW]

I've never done it but I looked into it once. Real Audio does have a free server version (or the used to) for a limited number of simultaneous users. Not sure about processor overhead.

[RobRich]

Streaming is not too intensive, since the server is just forwarding a regular file as usual. More intensive work is only involved if you intend to serve a real-time feed. A real-time feed requires real-time compression, thus demand for resource overhead becomes significant. If you intend to record the files for later playback/streaming, then just serve the files from your server, then you should be ok.

I use RealAudio only in high-compression scenarios when quality is not the primary concern, such as for streaming to modem users. RA doesn't not even require a server, as you can simply serve through HTTP. Just create a RA playlist file, then direct the playlist to the HTTP URL for the media file, the RA client takes care of the streaming automatically. Basically the same process for MP3 files, as no media server is required.

If you really desire a true audio streaming system, the I recommend SHOUTcast since you are running Linux. The file format is MP3 for the best quality, though bandwidth can be a concern (anything under 24-32 kbps per client connection usually sounds horrible). You can use a client PC on the local LAN to process the stream feed; usually WinAMP with the SHOUTcast plugin. The pluggin uploads the file to the SHOUTcast server on your Linux box through your LAN. The server distributes the data to clients running WinAMP on the WAN (Internet, Intranet, etc.), plus the resource overhead is minimal since the data encoding/decoding is being performed by a seperate client on the LAN.

http://www.shoutcast.com

Another great alternative is icecast, though I have not had a chance to work through the particulars of this software package. Might be work looking into, especially as it is being developed on the Linux platform (other OS ports are available though).

http://www.icecast.com

Good Luck,
Robert Richmond

[dragonb]

wow, thanks.
I didn't know that you could serve RA or mp3 without the special server. Which from looking at their site was very expensive.
Very good info again, thx
dragonb

[golfcart]

On my server, I just create a winamp playlist that points to the files on my server. When clicked on, the list will open in winamp and stream the files off the server. Not sure if there are any special settings needed to be made on the server, but it works on nt4 & iis