[BC] advice about internet radio

[Robertm]

Donna

I assume this would start small and grow. First I would suggest AOIP for the studio gear. Down the road there will be fewer wiring nightmares and getting a full featured system is quite cost effective. An Axia DesQ control surface is about $1200 plus another $3K for the mix engine that gives you 6 faders, 2 mics an AES input and 8 stereo analog inputs and outputs. You can have two control surfaces on one mix engine and you can buy a bigger mix engine for more IO. These surfaces do not require cut outs so no special furniture is required The other stuff for the studio you already know but if you can get stuff with AOIP ports it will make things much easier and a much better integrated system. You will save a lot on installation as well. Stations have been built in hours.

If you are in the AOIP world, the streaming becomes easier. Just get an Omnia A/XE combination processing and encoding software that will run on many XP or better PCs. It costs under $400. The 9/XE costs $1200 and is more powerful plus it improves source material with declip and de noise options. Both encode the audio stream and connects to multiple streaming servers if needed. Both accept the AOIP Livewire stream so no wiring other than an Ethernet connection is required. Also, it processes metadata so you can have song and title along with other info on your stream and It will play prerecorded streams on a schedule so you can recycle your prime time material rather than staff or feed automation over night. 

For actual streaming, use an outside vendor. Netromedia    http://www.netromedia.com/radio/radio-streaming-programs.aspx

Or primcast   http://www.primcast.com/shoutcast

Then there is always stream guys.  All these services scale so you can start small and grow.

100 streams can cost anywhere between $30 and $99 per month. Depending on the provider and bandwidth used, this can be grown to up to 12000 concurrent users per month for $400. You can start out experimentally with maybe 20 streams for under $10 per month until everything is all shaken out. 

As was suggested, you may want to also have a separate internal on campus stream. If the bandwidth is available, you might want to host a free shout cast or icecast server on the same computer used to process and encode the stream. If the University has its own DNS server, your IT people can arrange things so users inside the firewall hit the internal server while others hit outside. They may even be able to make the external server serve as a backup to the local one. Do not try to DIY the public stream. The  people who do this have pretty well hardened datacenters with lots of dedicated bandwidth with tech support and that is all they do. Many have distributed networks so there are servers in multiple geographic locations. Just be sure you keep control of the public URL that paths to the server so you can change providers and/or have different services with different providers. 

Stream encoding is pretty standard AAC+v2 between 32 and 64 kilobits. Some stations use multiple formats. CBS uses AAC from 16 to 64 Kbps and MP3 between 32 and 64 Kbps. Clear Channel is AAC at 64 Kbps both companies are in full stereo while other large groups run 48 Kbps or 32 Kbps and many run parametric stereo which I think is better suited to your needs. AAC+v2 with parametric stereo plays very nice when properly processed (see Omnia in a previous paragraph) WQXR is using that at 32 Kbps AAC parametric for classical and sounds quite good. I would also recommend 32 Kbps to start to keep streaming costs down;  you can always add other bit rates and formats later with the suggested equipment in place, it is a matter of bandwidth. 32 Kbps will work better on slow or congested connections, save money and still sound very good if AAC is used. Almost all stations run at a44.1 KHz sample rate.  At some point an aggregate bandwidth streaming plan would be better than a per stream plan as it can be spread across various formats and speeds. Any streaming service worth it's salt will provide pretty rich metrics on listening so it is easy to adjust your bandwidth based on real world metrics as you progress. 

Sound exchange should not be a big problem for you. There is a $500 annual statutory fee for an educational non profit educational station not affiliated with PBS. Until you hit 159,000 hours per month of streaming which would be over 200 concurrent users on 24/7 365 that is the fee. After that you pay .23 cents per song per listener. If you have less than 55,000 hours monthly listening you can waive detailed reporting for an extra $100 annually which may be a way to start out.  I am sure you know what ASCAP, BMI etc costs are. 

Other thoughts, if the campus has VOIP telephones, you can do really neat things with phones. Depending on campus policy, you may be able to do incoming lines for free from certain providers. 
You want an automation system that can process and deliver metadata to the stream. The station should be designed to absolutely prevent students from bringing in outside material, everything should be properly ingested and encoded from clean legal sources with metadata created.  If the material cannot be controlled, an automatic tagging program should monitor the outgoing stream to log what is played. I suggest linear storage with files produced from a decent ripping program that automatically produces metadata. Since this is a new station, this can take some time unless you buy a library for starters. Remember that while there are no FCC rules, copyright and sound exchange rules still have to be followed. 

I would suggest developing a plan to build underwriting to support at least the streaming as the station hopefully grows. While it can be more liberal and aggressive than an FCC licensed station, if taken too far it may make the station appear to be commerciAl which would ultimately cause Sound Exchange issues if the station becomes to appear to be commercial. Also if things are properly arranged, a staff administrative person can be set up to manage the reporting thus avoiding many potential legal problems with transient student staff. 

To summarize, above and beyond the usual equipment costs, streaming will cost $400 to$1300 for processing and encoding, a one time capital expense, $500 or $600 per year for Sound Exchange and $30 to $400 per month for streaming which is highly dependent on the number of  concurrent listeners. 

Also, get mic processors. Too many students have horrible technique. Axia can be configured so the mike channels are not controlled by faders so levels can stay consistent. Get as much space and air conditioning facilities can be talked out of and see how decent you can get sound treatment, but you already knew that it's just like any other radio station.

This would be a great opportunity to do a really modern 21st century station at modest cost with out having to carry the problems that many legacy stations have.  

I will contact you off list if you want to discuss further.


> On Nov 25, 2013, at 7:59 PM, Donna Halper <dlh at donnahalper.com> wrote:
> 
> The university where I teach is thinking about starting an internet 
> radio station for the students, and the deans have asked me to 
> investigate costs.  I've gotten some quotes from several equipment 
> providers, but was curious if any of you have worked with internet radio