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Setting Up Your Station
Are you ready
to start your own radio station? If you're planning to use SHOUTcast
on the Windows platform, this technical walk-through will get you
there.
Requirements
Before you spend valuable time setting up SHOUTcast, you need
to know whether it's going to work when you are finished. DO NOT install
until you have answered these questions!
Do you have enough upstream
bandwidth to host a station? Do you have access to the Admin
area of your router or DSL Modem?
If the answer to either of the
above questions is "No", then you are done. You must either pay for
a stream host, or find another hobby.
STEP 1 :
Testing Upstream Bandwidth
Find out if you can host SHOUTcast by following the link below...
http://www.testmy.net/u_load.php and clicking the "SmarTest"
link.
When the test has completed, you
will see a page that includes your connection speed. You care about
the number circled in the screenshot below...
The result of the test
is very important. Use the number you received to find out
how many listeners your station can support. The "Quality" is how
good your station will sound when a listener tunes in. For MP3
streaming, here's a guide...
| Stream
Bitrate |
Quality |
24k |
Good for
voice-only broadcast |
32k |
Voice or low
quality mono music |
56k |
Low quality
stereo music, medium quality mono |
64k |
Medium quality
stereo, good quality mono |
96k |
Good quality
stereo, excellent quality mono |
128k and above |
Very good
quality stereo |
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