It should be stressed that we are webcasting from a rural area - we try to ensure that even dial up listeners are supported so we use a highly compressed mono audio stream.
Think of the webcast as a rural pub. There is limited room inside (our bandwidth limits us to about 175 connections) so you may have to wait until somebody leaves before you can get in.
Internet congestion can also be a problem. If you have unlimited funds (we don't) you can outsource your webcast to a server farm with geographically dispersed servers - even around the globe.
Another potential problem are Firewalls. Internet broadcasts use Realtime Transport Protocol/RealTime Streaming Protocol. You may have to ask your IT staff to allow RTSP.
Currently our listeners are using QuickTime or VLC MP4 players.
Step 1: Click here to download QuickTime
(if you don't already have it).
During a recent webcast from Tilting the listeners discovered VideoLAN, a volunteer Open Source group in France. They have developed an Open Source media player - VLC - which seemed to solve access problems for the Tilting webcast cause by recent incompatibilities with some versions of QuickTime and some versions of the Microsoft operating system.
Link to a VLC download.
We have been webcasting in rural Newfoundland for the past decade. If you hear music now, it is not the webcast, but it means you already have QuickTime installed on your computer.
You can also start up your MP4 player as an application and open this url - http://www.ryakuga.ca/media/estacy.mov
Estacy is/was a theatrical group from Stephenville, NL - Stella Campbell, Cindy O'Neill and Susan Fowlow.
At the time of each webcast, we will provide you with a URL to enter in your MP4 player. This will take you straight to the server rather than through a website and browser.
If you have music playing, go straight to step two : )
Thanks to Peter Gnemmi and Fred Shepherd for suggesting improved instructions for listening in.
Step 1: Click here to download QuickTime
(if you don't already have it). You can use another ISO compliant MP4 player.
Step 2: Windows users high light this
web address, and select copy.
(We will provide an address at the time of the webcast.)
Step 3: Open the MP4 player
and under file - open url.
Step 4: Paste in the web address.
Step 5: Enjoy : )