Linux Radio @ Linux Expo '99

ZenMaster writes "There will be a Linux broadcasting company attending Linux Expo '99 and broadcasting all throughout next week! They are also going to have a camera setup for people not attending the expo to watch what's going on. Go to their website for more info: www.linux-radio.com " Rob's already down there (on vacation. Bah-after two years of working everyday, he thinks he can take time off. Bah. :) ), but for all of you coming down, visit us in the non-profit...alley.

Comments

Icecast

[Ben Rigas]

Looks like they are taking suggestions :)

from the site:

NOTICE: We are working feverishly to get Icecast running. We've ran into a snag, and can't seem to figure it out. Hopefully we will have the problem worked out before the expo starts. -Ljd

Excelent. Maybe someone who knows how could lend a hand?

Streaming Audio

[sterwill]

I would recommend streaming MP3 from the site. It scales very well from 8000 Hz voice quality up to 44100 Hz stereo music, and with relatively low bandwidth requirements. One can do 11 KHz stereo on a 56K modem and keep up with the signal pretty well.

There is an abundance of players which will read MP3 via http (mpg123, WinAmp, maybe X11Amp), just feed it a URL.

Serving MP3 is easy. First, start your favorite MP3 encoder off /dev/dsp at the correct bitrate, then attach it to a FIFO--or any other method of multiplexing the stdout. Then write a script to sit on port 8022 (or whatever you want to name it), fork on a request for any GET, and pump a hand-crafted MP3 header block (with the current bitrate), and then stream off the FIFO. There are sets of scripts that do all this work for you; you supply the encoder. I think it's called mp3server, look around for it.

Everyone can encode this way, everyone can hear this way, and the sound quality is very good.

They Should use an Open Source Broadcast system

[szyzyg]

Like Icecast....

Especially since a lot of Linux 2.2 users can't use real audio right now.

Nice

[jelle]

Nice site.

Too bad they don't offer an alternative to the proprietary real-audio format though... For AM-radio like quality, it shouldn't be too hard to code up a basic ADPCM codec (or find it on the net...).

Anybody knows of a freely available G.723.1a codec engine? (that's an ITU standard that needs only about 6kbit/s for telephone quality speech).

quite a lot of people have problems with realaudio (like I do), with it saying "This document is not a RealAudio or RealVideo document"... Error 11? ... Which is almost as annoying as the stumbling over G2 streams that are not even supported for those fortunate enough to get the realplayer 5.0 for Linux to work. Those real* guys really should clean up their Linux act.

Jelle