[Icecast] Best way to handle multiple (6+) streams

Discussion:

Seth McTigh

2005-05-19 03:02:53 UTC

I have a need to stream 6 or 8 different audio sources (radios), and am
seeking suggestions on the best way to do it. Although I'd like to stream
each separately, I could combine them to stereo streams and do 2 on each.

I'd like to know what the best hardware configuration would be to accomplish
this? Are there any multiple input sound cards that have been successfully
tested, or will I need to run 6 or 8 separate boxes to stream into a main
server?

Is it possible to configure 4 sound cards in a single computer?

Any suggestions/pointers would be greatly appreciated.

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Dan Stowell

2005-05-21 11:29:51 UTC

Permalink

Could you use something like a MOTU firewire box to input all your
streams into one computer? They have lots of audio inputs.

I don't know anything about the practicalities I'm afraid, so no idea
how to turn those inputs into separate streams. But I'd much rather do
that than run 8 separate computers.

Dan

Post by Seth McTigh
I have a need to stream 6 or 8 different audio sources (radios), and am
seeking suggestions on the best way to do it. Although I'd like to stream
each separately, I could combine them to stereo streams and do 2 on each.
I'd like to know what the best hardware configuration would be to accomplish
this? Are there any multiple input sound cards that have been successfully
tested, or will I need to run 6 or 8 separate boxes to stream into a main
server?
Is it possible to configure 4 sound cards in a single computer?
Any suggestions/pointers would be greatly appreciated.
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Dennis Heerema.net

2005-05-21 11:46:40 UTC

Permalink

Hi,

I read something about a new version of Opticodec-SE see

http://www.orban.com/orban/products/stream/1010_overview.html

* *SE Version - Standard Edition - NEW!! *
* Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server Application.
* Graphical user interface uses standard Microsoft Windows menu
structures for ease of learning and use.
* Console user interface supports batch file execution to enable
easy launching and automation.
* Supports any high quality Microsoft Windows Sound Card. May be
used with Optimod-PC professional signal processing sound card.
* Up to 128kbps bitrate using aacPlus codec.
* Up to 320kbps bitrate using AAC codec.
* Up to 4 encoder instances per stream. -----*** Maybe this is what
your looking for?*
* MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Streaming

Regards,

Dennis Heerema
**

Post by Dan Stowell
Could you use something like a MOTU firewire box to input all your
streams into one computer? They have lots of audio inputs.
I don't know anything about the practicalities I'm afraid, so no idea
how to turn those inputs into separate streams. But I'd much rather do
that than run 8 separate computers.
Dan

Akos Maroy

2005-05-21 12:19:49 UTC

Permalink

I've used the m-audio Delta 1010LT card, which has 10 inputs (and
separate input for each channel). The ALSA drivers under Linux support
this card quite well. I'm sure there are other cards like this one.

You could use darkice to encode each of the inputs, and send them to an
icecast server.

Post by Seth McTigh
Is it possible to configure 4 sound cards in a single computer?

yes, actually it is, but it will take up 4 of your PCI slots.
alternatively, you could try to use 4 USB sound devices - also supported
by ALSA drivers under Linux.

IMHO you're better off with a single, multi-channel sound card though.

Akos

Geoff Shang

2005-05-21 13:08:42 UTC

Permalink

Hi,

Before we go any further, what operating system are you using and do you
have a prefered streaming software?

I will say though that certainly at lower rates, you'll probably get some
crosstalk between channels if you send two sources per stream.

Geoff.
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Andy Baxter

2005-05-21 19:08:08 UTC

Permalink

Sounds like a bad idea - you'd get cross-talk between the two channels.

Post by Seth McTigh
I'd like to know what the best hardware configuration would be to
accomplish this? Are there any multiple input sound cards that have been
successfully tested, or will I need to run 6 or 8 separate boxes to stream
into a main server?
Is it possible to configure 4 sound cards in a single computer?

Yes if you have the slots, but a single multi-input card would be better.

Post by Seth McTigh
Any suggestions/pointers would be greatly appreciated.

One point is if you want to encode 6-8 streams on a single machine, you'll
probably need a pretty fast machine, as encoding is quite
processor-intensive. As an example, I just encoded a 4 minute, 34 second
track in 40 seconds using oggenc at 64 kbps on a 1.4 GHz athlon, which means
that streaming live audio the encoder would use around 100*40/(4*60+34)=14.5%
of the CPU. I.e. you'd run out of CPU trying to encode more than 5-6 streams
at that bitrate on this machine.

You can do this test yourself on the machine you'll be using like this:

$ oggenc -b 64 track.wav -o track.ogg
Opening with wav module: WAV file reader
Encoding "track.wav" to
"track.ogg"
at approximate bitrate 64 kbps (VBR encoding enabled)
[ 99.9%] [ 0m00s remaining] /

Done encoding file "track.ogg"

File length: 4m 34.0s
Elapsed time: 0m 40.3s
Rate: 6.8263
Average bitrate: 66.7 kb/s

Then look for the 'rate' parameter in the results - this is the number of
times faster than real time the track encoded in, which should roughly
translate to the maximum number of live streams you can encode at once.

andy baxter.

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Thanks, andy.

Iain Mott

2005-05-21 21:58:14 UTC

Permalink

hi - once you decide on a sound card configuration, Pd would be an easy
way of accessing the individual input channels (eg. with individual adc~
objects). You could then patch these to multiple "shoutcast~" objects
within Pd to create the individual icecast2 mountpoints/streams.

See: www-crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/software.html for Pd and
www.akustische-kunst.org/puredata/shout/shoutcast-howto.html for a
shoutcast~/Pd howto.

iain

Andy Baxter

2005-05-21 22:17:24 UTC

Permalink

Post by Iain Mott
hi - once you decide on a sound card configuration, Pd would be an easy
way of accessing the individual input channels (eg. with individual adc~
objects). You could then patch these to multiple "shoutcast~" objects
within Pd to create the individual icecast2 mountpoints/streams.
See: www-crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/software.html for Pd and
www.akustische-kunst.org/puredata/shout/shoutcast-howto.html for a
shoutcast~/Pd howto.
iain

another way to do this would be to use jackd - each channel comes up as a
separate jack port, so you could start 8 streamer clients (e.g. ices or
oddcastv3, both of which support jack), and then send each one a separate
input channel. Getting a proper multichannel sound card would still be better
though.