Why should I have SHOUTCAST hosting?
Internet radio is becoming one of the fastest growing areas of the internet.
Anyone can quickly and economically run their own radio station and advertise their musical creations. Because of our easy to use web-based interface, you do not need any knowledge on the technical side of a radio station. Streaming audio takes up a lot of bandwidth, more than you can support off your home internet connection. Our servers and high bandwidth take over the strain and lets you broadcast at a better quality and support more listeners.
Shoutcast hosting is a good solution for DJ's or bands who would like to get their music broadcast to the world gaining the attention you need. Don't bother with the hassle of finding a studio to make demo tapes, you can direct interested people and companies to your shoutcast server and let them listen to your latest creation over the internet. If you already have a website, or would like us to design one for you, you can have a link on your site that will directly open a media player and begin to playing your shoutcast audio. It's is the way to go, it's important to get your music heard. And you have the chance to be heard all over the world.
How do people find my station?
When you sign up for a shoutcast hosting account, we will automatically list your station with shoutcast.com, which is a directory of stations on the internet. People around the world go to this site to find stations to listen to. In your server control panel, you will be able to input the genre you wish your station to be listed under . The artist and track name playing on your server will automatically update on shoutcast.com If you have or wish to create a web page for your station, you can have a link on the site which will automatically open the users default media player and begin playing your station with one simple click. Your shoutcast station will also have a specific web address which you can give out to people so they can listen.
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How does shoutcast work?
Basic Components of shoutcast are the Server and the Transcoder. The server allows a client to connect using the transcoder, which may be hosted from the site of choice or from the servers .
The Server has two basic functions:
1) To allow connections from a transcoder with password from a client. The transcoder may connect to the server from any location.
2) To broadcast the audio content to listeners anywhere on the planet.
Transcoder also has two basic functions:
1) Broadcast live audio content on the top of static MP3 content from any location or vise versa. Using this method a client may control the MP3 playlist on the fly using Winamp while speaking on the microphone connected to his PC. This is very useful if you intend to be a DJ.
2) MP3's may be uploaded via a web interface or using FTP. Using a web interface, a client may create a play list with a preferred song order and allow the transcoder to broadcast the music to his listeners.
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How to Broadcast Live with shoutcast using turntables?
To broadcast with shoutcast the live content from the turntable you will need to install the software that would allow you to connect your turntable to the PC. Most new turntables have USB or FireWire audio output build-in so they can be easily connected to the PC. The PC should have the hardware drivers installed for the turntable and recognize it as a valid audio input device.
The turntables that do not have the USB or Fire wire audio output connections can be attached to the PC with the Long male to male 1/8" Stereo - 1/8" Stereo cable
Here are the cables that can be used to connect the turntable to the PC:
Step 1.
Obtain Dual Short 1/8" Stereo - 1/8" Stereo cable with two female endings (also known as Dual Headphone Jack splitter).
One plug will be used for headphones (we are assuming that the headphones have a classical 1/8" stereo-out male connector) and the other for the line-in on the PC audio card.
In some cases the 1/8" Stereo - 1/8" Stereo cable may not be needed if the turntable has several headphone jacks. If the headphone jacks are not 1/8" Stereo the 1/4" adapters may be needed. Also the turn table could have RCA out, in that case 1/8" Stereo Plug to RCA can be used to plug the turn table directly in to the soundcard Line-in.
In case the turntable has only the 1/4" stereo-out you will need the 1/8" to 1/4" stereo adapted. Plug the adapter in to the stereo-out of the turntable and then the Dual Short 1/8" Stereo - 1/8" Stereo cable in to it.
Step 2.
The last cable you will need will be the long male to male 1/8" Stereo - 1/8" Stereo cable.
Plug the earphones in to one end of the Dual Short 1/8" Stereo - 1/8" Stereo cable and then the long male to male 1/8" Stereo - 1/8" Stereo cable in to the other end. The long mail end of the 1/8" Stereo - 1/8" Stereo cable should go in the blue soundcard line-in jack. WARNING: before you connect the cable to the soundcard make sure the volume is at minimum.
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How to configure Winamp DSP to broadcast live content from the turntable in to the shoutcast streaming Station.
Step 1.
Download and install the FREE DSP plug-in from http://www.shoutcast.com/download/broadcast.phtml#plugdownload
Before you start the plug-in please close Winamp if you have it running . Then after you install it please start Winamp again. When you start it again you will see a shoutcast Source applet pop up in addition to Winamp.
Step 2.
In the Encoder menu on the Winamp shoutcast Source applet, please set the encoder bit rate to what ever bit rate you ordered from Hostit4u shoutcast Hosting (ie. 24kbps to 128kbps). This is the rate up to which you are allowed to stream.
Select the Input menu and set the Input device as Soundcard or the Turntable USB/FireWire device if it is listed. If the Soundcard device is selected the sound input will come from line-in of the soundcard device, we assume here that the turntable has microphone functionality build. In the Input Settings set the Sample Rate to 44100Hz.
In Mic Input options section select Line Input. Select Open Mixer and set the check mark close to Line Input.
WARNING: do not plug the turntable output in to the Microphone jack (color red on the soundcard) since this may damage the soundcard.
Step 3.
Go to the Output Menu in the Winamp SetNine SHOUTcast Source applet and find Output Configuration fill in the info about your server:
Address: <IP address assigned to you>
Port: <Port assigned to you>
Password: your-password (This is also the server password in the Web-Control System)
When the connection is established you should see the numbers in the Output menu, under Status start changing, this means you are connected. Then, go to the Input menu and select your input device.
There are several proprietary applications that can be used to broadcast the content. One very popular that many people are use with shoutcast is SAM Broadcaster. You can download the demo at http://www.spacialaudio.com/products/sambroadcaster/ .
Please closely inspect our web-based shoutcast Control system so that you may learn how to see who is connected and how to kick/ban users.
So you should be on line and broadcasting to the world all you need to do now is to promote your station to get people to listed> Good luck and if you need any more help please do contact us.
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