Device to Broadcast Audio Stream

[RadarGaming]

Overkill? It depends on what your objectives are. If you want a quality stream, you need quality equipment. Lots of radio stations use the Omnia 9 and Omnia 11 processors. Check the prices on those.

I believe that at $2000 audio streaming device is overkill if you can use a PC to for the exact same thing.

[andrewzarian]

Well Nick I wouldn't say over kill. There are many reason as to why someone would want to use the Prostream. Its under a grand, gives you Omnia processing, has no noise, and takes up very little space. these are all very important features to anyone who is broadcasting. there is no such thing as "overkill" when trying to create a high quality sound.

[kharnack]

To create streaming audio, you can even use a PC and free software, such as edcast (for Windows). Indeed, I'm running edcast with the free Lame MP3 encoder to feed Nashville's NOAA weather radio station to Wunderground.com.

Another option is non-free encoding software such as that from Spacial Audio. Good stuff! I used to use Spacial's $79 encoder (can't recall the name now) some years ago. -- Oh, yeah - SimpleCast. Good product. Not offered any longer.

Now I'm using Omnia A/XE at all my stations. It's $395 for a single license and runs in several flavors of Windows. I run it in XP. The audio processor that's included is quite good, and designed specifically for psychoacoustic encoding to follow.

On my stations running Omnia A/XE, I'm using PCs that we already had doing "utility work" anyway. IOW, I didn't buy any PCs to run Omnia A/XE on. Already had hardware that would work.

If I didn't already have a PC that would work well, and I was managing anyway with anti-virus, updates, reboots, etc., THEN I would opt for an "appliance" solution - the Telos ProSTREAM. No anti-virus, no monthly updates just to keep the malware away, no fans to wear out, etc.

If your TIME is worth something, then the appliance approach can make good sense. If your time investment doesn't matter so much, then a PC-based solution is fine.

BTW, no free (or very cheap) software could possibly provide you with real-deal, licensed encoding software. Fraunhofer and others don't give that stuff away. You can use Lame as an MP3 encoder, but then all you get is MP3, which is 1990's tech, and we have much better now. if you want to stream in HE-AAC v2 - or any AAC flavor - then you'll have to pay some money for the encoder.

Think of the audio processor/encoder as your FM exciter. You can get a cheap one for $100 on ebay. If your FM competition is using an Omnia 11 feeding a Nautel, Harris, or BE exciter, you better not bring a quirt gun to a shootout.

All that said - focus on your content! It's really the key thing!

Kirk

[andrewzarian]

Hey Kirk

Thanks for the detailed post !

[xmusiconline]

Well said Kirk! Thanks for sharing.

You can do encoding cheap with a old PC and Shoutcast DSP .. There are even some "free" processing type things out there... However honestly if you want to do it right you will spend some money and by the time you invest in a high quality PC, software such as SAM Cast, Omnia AX/E etc... and a decent sound card you will be near the cost of an appliance such as the Pro Stream .. the big perk to the Pro stream is for the most part you can "set it and forget it" no maintenance, windows updates, antivirus software updates etc to keep it running.

[andrewzarian]

For a few years we were using a free broadcasting software called BUTT (broadcast using this tool). It was fine for what it was but definitely extremely limited.