# Broadcasting/transmission This section requires some technical knowledge of HTML and Javascript [[:styleguide|Style Guide for ICRN Wiki]] {{:test-image.jpg?400|}} This sections discusses how broadcasting on internet radio works and the tools and solution available to transmit audio or video from your studio out to the world. ## Introduction ### What is Icecast? Icecast is a free and open-source streaming media server which receives data from a source client (such as IceS, Liquidsoap or BUTT) and relays it towards multiple listeners. As a source client connects to the Icecast server it automatically creates a mountpoint, the source client provides the content for the stream and later on the listeners use this mountpoint to access the stream. In general it's the industry standard for streaming media server. Icecast is developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation and it supports a wide range of audio and video formats. * [[https://icecast.org|Icecast]] * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icecast|Icecast wikipedia]] * [[https://www.rocketbroadcaster.com/help/icecast-vs-shoutcast|Icecast vs. Shoutcast - Which is Better?]] ### What is Shoutcast? Shoutcast is a streaming service developed by Nullsoft (creators of Winamp). Its the closed source equivalent to Icecast and has a very similar feature set. Shoutcast played a big part in introducing MP3 to the streaming world, but their commercial approach and limited customization led to other open-source solutions like Icecast. * [[https://shoutcast.com|Shoutcast]] * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoutcast|Shoutcast wikipedia]] ### What is Liquidsoap? Liquidsoap is a free, open-source scripting language mostly used by internet radios for media stream generation. One of its main features is the AutoDJ fallback mechanism, but it also offers solutions for jingles, playlists, live sources and advanced scheduling mechanisms. Most software like Airtime, AzuraCast and LibreTime use Liquidsoap in their back-ends. * [[https://www.liquidsoap.info|Liquidsoap]] * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquidsoap|Liquidsoap wikipedia]] ### What is BUTT (Broadcast Using This Tool)? BUTT is a free and user-friendly tool for streaming live audio. It's very lightweight and therefore can be run on older hardware, compared to more feature rich software like AudioHijack. It supports Icecast, Shoutcast and WebRTC, so covers all the bases for streaming radio. * [[https://danielnoethen.de/butt|BUTT - Broadcast Using This Tool]] ### What is AzuraCast? AzuraCast is an all-in-one, self-hosted, free and open-source web radio management suite. It supports playlists, Live and Web DJs, remote relays and offers advanced media management, role based user management and a rich API. It uses Liquidsoap (AutoDJ) as its backend and Icecast (a fork of Karl Heyes' fork, there are plans to uplift it to the latest official, upstream version) as its radio broadcasting frontend. * [[https://www.azuracast.com|AzuraCast]] ### What is an MP3 stream? MP3 streaming started with M3U file format, which is basically a multimedia playlist, frequently with a single-entry pointing to a stream on the internet. This way instead of returning separate MP3 files, a continuous stream is received and processed. It was developed by the Fraunhofer Society ### What is HLS? Similar to MP3 stream but can have adapatable bitrates, especially useful for video and low bandwidth internet connections.