Setting up a live broadcast on the Internet

Content broadcast on the Internet is not as difficult as you might think. In fact, it is extremely easy. All you need is an audio or video source, a way to get the audio or video to your PC, a free software provided by Microsoft, and enough upload bandwidth to cover the transmission of the content.

In this tutorial, I will try to teach what you need to know so you can send your content on the Internet. I first show only audio, but you will see how easy it is to do video as you progress through this tutorial.

Because it is a text only tutorial, you want to download free software from Microsoft, and go through the setup, as you read this tutorial. Do not panic though. It 's really easy to do. Do not let the length of this tutorial scare. The rewards of having your live broadcast up and running should keep motivated to stick with it.

The only part of some 'complicated that this tutorial is to do with your firewall. Because the number of firewalls out there, I will be very generic in my approach to tell you what to do. Let me explain in detail later in this tutorial.

We begin

First things first. You must set your audio source. In this example I'm using a radio scanner to broadcast live from a police radio scanner.

I basically have the scanner radio connected to the soundcard of my PC with a cable of about 2 meters (7 feet) long with a 3.5 mm mono jack at each end. Of course the length of the cable depends on you. Note: If you are broadcasting music, we recommend using a cable that has stereo plugs instead of mono. You'll also want to make sure the connectors of the cable corresponds to the audio device, some devices use a 2.5 mm plug instead of 3.5 mm. If you are broadcasting voice only, mono plugs are best as it ensures the sound comes out both speakers to the listener.

Connect the cable so that it plugs into the headphone jack of your audio device, and the other end plugs into the soundcard on the PC microphone.

Now go to the Microsoft site and download the Windows Media Encoder 9 software. It's Free. E 'of about 9.5 MB. The connection to the software is located in the lower part of this article.

Once installed the software, go ahead and start it. You'll be presented with the Setup Wizard. Highlight the option named broadcast a live event and click OK.

Now you're in the window where you can choose the audio source and / or video source. If you have been creating videos, it would leave both items ticked, but in this example, we're just going to do audio so go ahead and clear the screen. Under the audio option use the drop-down list and choose the sound card from the list. Then click the Configure button.

In the audio properties the only thing you really need to change is the option called Pin Line. In the drop-down box, select Microphone. Of course you can also use Line In, but make sure you have plugged the cable into the Line In of your sound card.

So far it's pretty easy right? Believe it or not, there is not much more to do.

We must continue

Just click OK and then click Next.

If you followed the tutorial so far, you should be a window where you can choose a delivery method. Click the check box next to pull from the encoder and click the Next button.

In the Http Port field, select a common port like 8080. You'll thank me later. Many firewalls on routers have rules already established for port 8080 and makes it much easier to configure. It also allows the maximum availability to the masses thanks to it to be a common port number proxy. Go ahead and click Next.

Then you must configure the encoding options. Vai to the drop-down box and choose Multiple Bit Rates audio (CBR). In the Bit rate section, choose 19kb / s. Note: Be sure to clear all other bit rates. The bit rate you want ticked is only 19kb / s. This bit rate should be a good compromise between quality and bandwidth consumption for streaming voice quality. If you want to convey something like music, you should choose a higher bit rate. MP3 audio tends to be around 128kb / s, but remember the higher bit rate is used, the more upload bandwidth will be required.

To get an idea of ​​use of bandwidth, it can be about 40 simultaneous listeners on a / s upload bandwidth of 1MB with 19kb / s. This will leave you with about 250kb / s to do other things on the Internet. The more concurrent listeners you have, the more powerful CPU you'll need, but from experience, you do not need a high power CPU. Live Police scanner at my website has a maximum of 40 concurrent listeners on a 1.7 GHz CPU with 1 gig of memory and it works beautifully. And yes, I have reached 40 concurrent users at once.

We continue

Click the Next button and then click again to skip the archive section.

Here we enter a text to audio. When people listen to the stream using their Windows Media Player, will scroll this information to the listener.

Once you type in the information display, click the Done button instead of the Next button. You will get a pop up dialog box that tells you about IP blocking. Just ignore this for now and click OK.

This is not that hard it was. Believe it or not, we're done. Well, almost.

Windows Media Encoder allows only a maximum of 5 concurrent listeners by default, so if you want more than 5 you can make a small modification of the registry on your Windows PC that will allow up to 50 connections.

Warning: Editing the registry can be hazardous to your operating system if you change or delete the wrong thing. If you are unsure of doing this by yourself, have someone who knows what they are doing to help. I can not be held responsible if they're wrong, and can not restart the operating system. Now, having said that, it is very easy to make change, so you should not have a problem. Follow the instructions at the end of this document, if you want to allow more than 5 concurrent listeners. If you are happy with 5 listeners, then we're almost done.

If you followed the tutorial up to date, you will have an audio source with a cable going from the headphone jack to the microphone jack of your sound card in your PC. You will have your Windows Media Encoder totally configured and be raring to go. Just be sure to save the configuration of Windows Media Encoder so you can load at any time.

One more minor speed bump to overcome and you will convey to the world. This is the part that can be a bit 'tricky though. I'll try to give you the basics you'll need to get your live broadcast up and running. We break it down into two parts. Configure the firewall, and work your IP address so you can give to your listeners.

Configure the firewall

If you use a software firewall such as Zone Alarm, is dead simple to configure. Basically, just run the Windows Media Encoder and click Start Encoding. When you do this the firewall should prompt asking if you allow the connections. Simply choose YES to all questions. He needs access to the Internet, as it should be run from a server.

If you have a hardware firewall, as one that is built into your modem / DSL router, then it becomes a bit 'more complicated. What you need to do is go to the configuration of the modem / router, firewall and find the section named. In this section you will be able to configure firewall rules to allow both connections, and Deny. The section may be called something similar to the packet filter. Consult your manual to find out exactly where you need to make changes.

Once you have located the correct section, you must configure it so that the source ports range from 0 to 65535. The destination port range should be 8080-8080 if you followed my tutorial. Ensure that the incoming and outgoing traffic is also allowed.

Note, some modems / routers might already have port 8080 configured. If your modem / router is already configured this, then ignore the above because it sounds like it is already configured to allow the necessary connections.

How to connect to the transmission

The URL to give to people is mms :/ /: 8080 which is whatever your public IP address appears to be. You must ensure that the address of your ISP gives you, since people from the Internet will be connecting to it. If you are not sure what your IP address, you can get your IP address by visiting a site on the internet like http://whatismyipaddress.com. Once the site loads, your IP address will be at the top of the page in huge print. Just substitute the real IP address and your done.

Make sure not to use brackets in the URL though. It should look like mms :/ / 10.10.10.10:8080 except use your IP address.

That's it. I hope your head has not exploded

The only thing left to do now is adjust the audio levels so that the source audio meter stays mainly in the countryside. You can try connecting to the flow of themselves, and putting the mms URL above in the address bar of your browser and pressing enter. Your Windows Media Player should open and try to connect to the broadcast.

Note: If you are unable to connect to the transmission, but only play with the settings of the firewall, and not the encoder. Make sure you have the START ENCODING button pressed on the encoder to ensure proper operation. If all goes well, you should be listening for transmission over the Internet. Give the URL to your visitors.

To increase the maximum number of direct connections

1. In Registry Editor, use the tree view to navigate to the following:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTSoftwareMicrosoftWindows average ToolsEncoderMaxClientConnections

2. Edit the subkey so that it reflects the maximum number of direct connections you want to allow. The maximum number is 50.

Caution Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up important data on your computer.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial .......