[GLLUG] Streaming "radio" service recommendations?

[James Courtier-Dutton]

On 6 August 2014 23:37, Christopher Hunter <cehunter at gb-x.org> wrote:
>
> A friend of mine is running an internet-based "radio" service for several
> hours per day.  At present he uses a package from "Rhythm365" which bills
> him according to the number of listeners. The hosting seems to be fairly
> solid, but there have been some interruptions lately, and the price has just
> been increased too.
>
> Can anyone suggest another service - ideally an "un-metered" one. This
> little station has gone from three to three thousand listeners in a matter
> of days!
>

If he moved to using Adaptive streaming, it could massively lower the
download bandwidth needed.
Adaptive streaming uses a feature whereby the client downloads a list
of objects references. The client then requests each object as and
when it needs them. These "objects" are equivalent to individual files
on the web, and can therefore be cached like any other static content.
Each object is a mp4 file that lasts for a few seconds of audio/video.
The client then stitches each mp4 file together to get a continuous
stream of audio.
Adaptive streaming is a standard feature of modern browsers and uses mp4.
Adaptive streaming has two main goals:
1) Be able to cache the content reducing load on the source.
2) Be able to adapt to changes in bandwidth, so the client can decide
to request a lower quality object if the bandwidth is low, and then up
to a higher quality object if the bandwidth improves. In this case,
two objects for the same time period are stored, one for the low
quality one, and one for the high quality one.
The client can therefore adapt to changing conditions.

This works very well for static content like youtube, but I think it
also has features for near-live content.

Kind Regards

James