We’re going to use a free technology called Shoutcast, with lots of support information at Shoutcast.com.
The way it works is that you’ll connect sound from your temple room (via dedicated microphone) to a laptop or desktop computer connected to the Internet.
On your computer, the Shoutcast software will turn the incoming audio signal into a 24 kilobit-per-second digital audio stream, uploading it to a Shoutcast server computer on the Internet, hosted by http://shoutcast.primcast.com. For up to 50 simultaneous listeners, you can expect to pay a low $16 per month for this service. 100 listeners is $32/month, and so forth. (We used 50 listeners in Alachua, Florida, for the first two years and only recently had to upgrade.)
If you’re lucky enough to operate your own Internet server, you can host it there, since you’re already paying a good sum of money for that server and bandwidth.
If you’re like most people and paying for a hosting account on a shared web server, ask your server administrator about Shoutcast streaming audio options. Most likely you’ll have to pay extra–IF they offer the service. Depending on the cost, it might be worth the $16 to host your live audio stream with people who specialize in Shoutcast streaming (such as the link given above.)
You’ll then get a URL link that represents your live audio stream. Users can click on that link which will open your audio stream in their WinAmp or iTunes audio player software. You can seamlessly incorporate your “listen” link into your existing website. It works just like a regular link.
STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS:
1) Sign up for a Shoutcast streaming audio account at http://shoutcast.primcast.com/. (The 50 user, 24kbit unlimited bandwidth account for $16 is what I would recommend to start with.)
Note down the account information, such as upload IP address, port number, password, mount point, etc., which you will get after signing up.
2) Download and install the “Standalone” version of the OddcastV3 software from:
http://www.oddsock.org/tools/oddcastv3/
(During the installation, check the box next to the option to install “LAME encoder DLL for MP3 recording”. Leave the other default boxes checked.)
NOTE: The LAME MP3 encoder is distributed separately due to licensing issues: http://www.rarewares.org/mp3.php
Specifically: http://www.rarewares.org/mp3-lame-libraries.php
3) Download and extract the lame_enc.dll from:
http://www.rarewares.org/mp3-lame-libraries.php
Place it in the program directory of your newly installed Oddcast software. (For example: C:\Program Files\OddcastV3 )
NOTE: Copy both the “lame_enc” configuration settings and the “lame_enc_mod.dll” file to your Oddcast program directory. Re-name “lame_enc_mod.dll” to “lame_enc.dll”.
4) Launch OddcastV3 via the shortcut it placed on your desktop.
5) In the OddcastV3 program window, press the “Add Encoder” button, right-click on the text of the “Vorbis: …” encoder it just added, and select “Configure” from the choices.
6) In the Configuration window, select MP3 Lame from the “Encoder Type” menu. Then configure the settings as per your Shoutcast server account in Step 1.
Example:
Bitrate: 24 (for 24 Kbit/sec)
Samplerate: 22050
Channels: 1
Encoder Type: MP3 Lame
Server Type: Shoutcast
Server IP: (The IP ADDRESS of your Shoutcast Server.
For example: 69.44.23.45)
Server Port: (The port assigned to your shoutcast stream
by your hosting company. For example: 8000)
Encoder Password: (Your shoutcast streaming password)
Mountpoint: (leave blank unless specified)
Reconnect Seconds: 2
7) Switch to the “YP Settings” tab at the top of the Configuration window, and enter some information about your live audio webcast.
Example:
Public Server: checked
Stream Name: Alachua Temple Live
Stream Description: Live audio from the ISKCON Hare
Krishna Temple in Alachua, Florida.
Stream URL: http://www.krishna.com/alachua (your
stream’s homepage)
Stream Genre: Alternative Spiritual
Unless you wish to give out instant messenger contact info, you can leave the rest blank.
8) Click on “OK” to save your settings and return to the main Oddcast program window.
9) Connect a microphone to your computer. Ideally, this microphone can be permanently positioned near one of the loudspeakers in the temple room, or anywhere it can pick up the ambient sound of the temple room and still reach your broadcasting laptop or computer.
See my recommendations for MICROPHONE SYSTEMS at the end of this HOW-TO file.
10) Notice the “Live Recording” center area of the Oddcast window. Here you can select the source of the audio signal you wish to broadcast on the Internet. You can switch between Line In, built-in microphone, CD player, etc. If you have a microphone connected to the “line in” socket on your computer, select the “Line In” option.
11) Once you’ve connected your live sound source, click on the long rectangular grey bar area of your Peak Meter. It should turn from grey to black, and display green lights that move whenever there is sound.
12) Use the horizontal sliding bar below the peak meter to adjust the input sensitivity and volume. The Peak Meter should stay between the “-15” and “-0” decibel range at the right during kirtana or loud segments of the lecture.
If it is too loud, your listeners will hear digital distortion.
Red light on the meter’s far right indicates distorted sound.
Orange is good. (Generally in the -15 to -0 db range.)
Green means safe but, if the sound levels hover below the -30 decibel range, the volume may be too low for some listeners.
13) Press the “Connect” button and see if your MP3 encoder will connect. You can monitor the status of your connection under the “Transfer Rate” area of the window. If it shows “24 Kbps” (or similar), all is good and you’re broadcasting live! Congratulations. Move on to Step 14.
If the text below the “Transfer Rate” heading says “trying to connect, password failure,” or constantly is stuck in “connecting…” mode, check your Internet connection. Make sure you are able to get online and browse the Internet with a web browser on the same computer. Reboot your Internet modem and network routers if you have to.
If you’re able to get on the Internet and you’re still having connection problems in the OddcastV3 window, then double check your Encoder Settings (right-click on the encoder text to “Configure” the settings.)
TIP: Sometimes switching the settings for “Server Type” to “Icecast” can temporarily solve password failure errors.
14) Now go to another computer and check to see if you can hear the broadcast. Pretend to be a listener of your own radio station. You’ll have to have WinAmp or iTunes on that computer. And you’ll need to know the listen URL of your broadcast (which will have been supplied to you by your Shoutcast server hosting company.)
Either open a web browser and type in the listen URL, or enter it directly into WinAmp or iTunes via the “File / Open URL” menu in those programs.
15) If everything works, then send me an e-mail with your listen URL so I can add it to the Krishna.com webcast listing
for your temple.*
You can reach me at: webcams@krishna.com
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MICROPHONE SYSTEMS
1) Simple method: Buy an inexpensive computer microphone at your nearest electronics store, along with a 25-foot extension cable. This works if your broadcasting computer is able to be located within 25 feet of the temple room. (You may have to drill holes into a wall to run the cable in such a way as makes sense.)
2) More complex method: Run two high-quality chorus microphones suspended from the ceiling of your temple room. One near a loudspeaker. The other near an area where it will pick up the response of the chanting audience during kirtanas, and questions during lectures.
Example: Audio Technica PRO-45 hanging “choir” microphones, at $90 a piece.
The XLR end of the cables from these high quality condenser mics need to be fed into a digital mixer that has “phantom power” to power the mics, and that is connected to your computer.
The best affordable digital mixer we have been able to find that has on-screen, software volume controls for each channel, is the PreSonus Inspire 1394 FireWire Audio Interface, available for $200 from most electronics stores. The real beauty of this box is that if I can access the broadcast computer over the network, via Remote Desktop, I can control the volume of each microphone remotely without having to leave the office.
The catch is that the PreSonus Inspire uses a Firewire connection to the computer. If you don’t already have one, you’ll need a $40 firewire card from Belkin, such as the “Belkin FireWire Notebook Card” (if you’re using a laptop to broadcast), or the $70 Belkin 3-Port Firewire PCI Express card for desktop PCs.
(The reason we recommend the above is that we had problems with other cards and called up PreSonus and asked them which cards they specifically supported. They said to buy Belkin brand and not the commonly available USB / Firewire combo cards, nor the newer Firewire 800 / 400 combo cards, but just the regular Firewire 400. So we did and it works fine. If you’re outside North America, you may have to contact your Presonus Inspire dealer and ask what Firewire cards they recommend.)
3) The obvious but not recommended method: Run a cable from your temple sound system mixer “record out” to your computer’s sound input socket. Duh, you say. That is like soooo obvious. Why didn’t we think of that?
Well, there are problems with the above. First and foremost, when the sound system is off, you hear nothing on the live webcast. So during the noon and late afternoon aratis,
or when devotees are doing bhajans or non-amplified bhajans, you don’t hear anything. The instinct of the web viewer is to click on “live sound” when they visit the temple webcam and they expect to hear the ambient sound from that temple. Most of the day there is no amplified program going on. Visitors want to hear the arati bells ringing. The Prabhupada CD playing softly in the background. The devotees chanting japa… Whatever you would hear if
you were physically present in the temple room at any given
time of day. (For those living far away from temples, this is the next best thing. Virtual temples.)
Secondly, the temple sound system volume settings are constantly changing, and you have no remote control over the levels during your broadcast. We used to employ this method for the first two years of the Alachua temple webcast. We had all kinds of problems with the sound volume being too high, too low, because of dozens of people having access to the temple sound system mixer during the day… pujaris adjusting the volume of the bhajan CDs, etc. The kirtan would be too loud, the lecture too low… We would have to drive to the temple from our office twice a day to adjust the volume of the webcast.
Last but not least, the “buzz” effect. We used to have all sorts of problems with ground cycle hum introduced from poor electrical grounding in the temple building. Connecting to the temple sound system almost always meant a low hum or buzz over the top of everything we broadcast. And we invested in top-of-the-line ground loop eliminators, hum removal filters, etc. Nothing fixed it until we just completely got rid of the connection to the temple sound system and set up our own, independent microphones broadcasting 24/7/365 directly to the Internet. (We currently employ suggestion #2 above, using overhead choir mics, the Presonus Inspire, into a Firewire enabled laptop computer that is permanently connected to the Internet. Our laptop is enclosed in a ventilated, locked cabinet installed in the temple room. I have a permanent fixed IP address on the Internet connection at the temple, and am able to access the broadcast laptop from anywhere on the Internet. I could be sitting in China somewhere and control the volume on the Alachua temple webcast.)
If you have additional questions not covered above, please contact me at:
Happy webcasting!
Your servant,
Manu dasa