Streaming Audio Website

[MadWeb]

Does anyone run a streaming audio site ?
I'm looking into it and wondered if it required special hosting.
If anyone has any recommendations on hosting, audio players etc I'd love to hear them.

Cheers

 

[serverhouse]

Doesn't require special hosting.

These days you can use things like flash etc to 'stream' audio/video
Or you can just have wav files or mp3's

I would advise against any noise playing automatically when someone visits your website as it can cause problems (i.e browsing in your lunch break and suddenly the whole office knows what you're doing)

If you show me the site / intention I'm happy to offer more pointers on actual implementation

 

[HungryHorse]

Have a look into HTML5's <audio> tag too Audio on the web is just about starting to get a little bit easier.

 

[Rudi]

There can be advantages to special hosting, for instance those hosts that offer IIS Media Services. With a Silverlight front-end (perhaps with others also..) it has the ability to stream automatically depending on what's being viewed, how long the video is, how strong their connection speed is etc etc.

There's also the automatic transfer encoding to switch between encoders based on what device the video/audio is being played upon. There's also bit rate throttling for the downloads etc etc.

Most of the features could be achieved with other web server software via third-party plugins etc but this is a comprehensive package.

That said, if you're just hosting simple audio and playing it back with a simple HTML/Flash media player, I wouldn't worry too much. IIS Media Services will help out when you're one of the "big fish" in the market

 

[Posilan]

Does anyone run a streaming audio site ?
I'm looking into it and wondered if it required special hosting.
If anyone has any recommendations on hosting, audio players etc I'd love to hear them.

Cheers

Is this live streaming or pre-recorded (or both)?

For live streaming or playlist streaming, you could look for Shoutcast hosting. Shoutcast is a streaming server made by Nullsoft (the people that made the Winamp MP3 player).

Steve

 

[astutiumRob]

I'm looking into it and wondered if it required special hosting.

Depends on what you mean by "streaming" ...

We run a s/Cast hosting service - for ease of use for the clients, it requires certain software and configurations at the server end, and (types of stream dependant) uses about 300 times more bandwidth than a normal hosting setup - so simple answer is Yes, it needs special hosting.

 

[Horton_Sakaria]

[FONT=&quot]Use YouTube to stream media from your site, all you'll need is an iframe in your page. Take a look at this hairdressing site, which I completed a few months back, www.thehairloungechatham.co.uk > Video Gallery.

Remember this is public, so if you want private streaming then you will have to look into using real-time or flash...[/FONT]

 

[Rudi]

Use YouTube to stream media from your site, all you'll need is an iframe in your page. Take a look at this hairdressing site, which I completed a few months back, www.thehairloungechatham.co.uk > Video Gallery.

That is not streaming media.

 

[Horton_Sakaria]

what's not streaming media... Could you elaborate please

 

[Rudi]

what's not streaming media... Could you elaborate please

YouTube is not streaming media. It is static media that is downloaded via the player to the browser, streaming media is live from the server, a constant stream.

 

[Horton_Sakaria]

Agreed. But if you review the post, they mention wav files and flash. We use a company called bitgravity for LIVE streaming.

 

[Rudi]

Agreed. But if you review the post, they mention wav files and flash.

No they don't.

We use a company called bitgravity for LIVE streaming.

Interesting, they must have some form of custom encoder such as IIS MS allowing it to be streamed across in different formats. I'm assuming it accepts it's input in different formats too!

 

[serverhouse]

Agreed. But if you review the post, they mention wav files and flash. We use a company called bitgravity for LIVE streaming.

I think it was me that mentioned that rather than the OP.

I assumed (maybe wrongly?!) that as their business was wedding related they'd have no need for live streaming.

But hey its 2012 and I've seen weddings streamed real time so perhaps that is what they want.

OP to clarify I guess?