Help Selecting a Streaming Hosting Provider
October 10, 2011 10:38 AM Subscribe
Icecast or Shoutcast and which hosting service has most bang for the buck?
I am part of a group that is working toward a low-power FM radio for our very small, rural (U.S.) community. Part of our plan is to get an Internet radio station up and running while we await the FCC license. This will allow us to start lining up programming, and train volunteer staff, etc.
Right now, I am researching benefits/drawbacks of Icecast vs Shoutcast and the hosting services that provide them. We want to start with a low number of simultaneous listeners (25-50) with the ability to increase that should the need arise.
I have looked at this side-by-side comparison chart, but am not even sure what some of the features are (Dynamic Configuration? Relay on Demand?).
In our ideal world we'd like to provide low-bandwidth and high-bandwidth options, but we are also okay with a single 96kbps stream.
Price-wise the Shoutcast option seems cheaper on most of the hosting services I have seen, and I am not sure why.
Our plan is to use a Mac of some flavour, and Nicecast because it is easy to use, inexpensive, and some of us have experience with it. We have donated studio space available to us with a cable-based high speed connection. We plan to do a large majority of our broadcasting from the studio and eventually remote (spin-from-home) DJs. As I said above, we expect to broadcast at 96kbps. Auto DJ is not necessary as we expect to be able to create DJ-less playlists for hours where we don't have a person in the studio.
I found at least one other AskMe where a MeFite recommended Stream101. Their prices look very good and the MeFite in the thread I found raved about their customer service. What other hosts should I investigate? What other things should I look for? What should I look out for?
Thanks.
I am part of a group that is working toward a low-power FM radio for our very small, rural (U.S.) community. Part of our plan is to get an Internet radio station up and running while we await the FCC license. This will allow us to start lining up programming, and train volunteer staff, etc.
Right now, I am researching benefits/drawbacks of Icecast vs Shoutcast and the hosting services that provide them. We want to start with a low number of simultaneous listeners (25-50) with the ability to increase that should the need arise.
I have looked at this side-by-side comparison chart, but am not even sure what some of the features are (Dynamic Configuration? Relay on Demand?).
In our ideal world we'd like to provide low-bandwidth and high-bandwidth options, but we are also okay with a single 96kbps stream.
Price-wise the Shoutcast option seems cheaper on most of the hosting services I have seen, and I am not sure why.
Our plan is to use a Mac of some flavour, and Nicecast because it is easy to use, inexpensive, and some of us have experience with it. We have donated studio space available to us with a cable-based high speed connection. We plan to do a large majority of our broadcasting from the studio and eventually remote (spin-from-home) DJs. As I said above, we expect to broadcast at 96kbps. Auto DJ is not necessary as we expect to be able to create DJ-less playlists for hours where we don't have a person in the studio.
I found at least one other AskMe where a MeFite recommended Stream101. Their prices look very good and the MeFite in the thread I found raved about their customer service. What other hosts should I investigate? What other things should I look for? What should I look out for?
Thanks.
Response by poster: I had looked at Fastserv's site but missed that chart, so thanks. Is your link a recommendation of their service as well?
posted by Hey, Zeus! at 7:20 AM on October 14, 2011
posted by Hey, Zeus! at 7:20 AM on October 14, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by morganw at 1:21 PM on October 13, 2011