What is SHOUTcast?

SHOUTcast is a free-of-charge audio homesteading solution. It permits anyone on the internet to broadcast audio from their PC to listeners across the Internet or any other IP-based network (Office LANs, college campuses, etc.).

SHOUTcast's underlying technology for audio delivery is MPEG Layer 3, also known as MP3 technology. The SHOUTcast system can deliver audio in a live situation, or can deliver audio on-demand for archived broadcasts.

How does SHOUTcast work?

The SHOUTcast audio homesteading system is comprised of three simple components. They are explained in detail below:

Listening

Listeners tune in to SHOUTcast broadcasts by using a player compatible with streaming MP3 audio. Users can visit the SHOUTcast directory to locate a stream they'd like to listen to. Recommended players are listed below:

• Windows users should use Winamp.
• Mac users should use iTunes.
• Linux/X Windows users should use XMMS.

Persons wanting to broadcast will need to run their own server, as per the instructions below, or find someone willing to run one for them. Once a server's located, broadcasters use Winamp and a plug-in called the SHOUTcast Source for Winamp Plug-In to send audio from Winamp to the SHOUTcast server. The tools are available here, and there's an entire section of the documentation dedicated to the plug-in.

The magic of the SHOUTcast system happens inside the SHOUTcast Distributed Network Audio Server (DNAS). This software runs on a server attached to an IP network with lots of bandwidth, and is responsible for receiving audio from a broadcaster, updating the SHOUTcast directory with information about what the broadcaster is sending, and sending the broadcast out to listeners. More information is in the server section of the documentation.

• Supported Players Include (among others) •

We offer FAST setup and NO setup fees! With your ezHost123.com SHOUTcast internet radio server, you will receive a login to our web-based control panel. You can control all aspects of your SHOUTcast radio server through this, including stopping, starting, and restarting your server, you can monitoring / control listeners. See below for a list of all the features of our control panel...

Streaming internet radio is one of the fastest growing and most exciting areas of the internet. Now anyone may quickly and economically run their own radio station to advertise their musical creations or enjoy the songs of their favorite artists. Due to our easy to use web-based interface, no prior knowledge on the working internals of SHOUTcast is necessary.

Also, streaming audio takes up a lot of bandwidth, often much more than you can support off your home internet connection. Our stable servers and high capacity bandwidth take over this strain and enable you to broadcast at a higher quality and support more listeners. All of our SHOUTcase server are connected to major internet backbones, with 100mbps uplinks.

We offer three simple packages for you to choose from. All of our packages offer ANY bitrate meaning your can broadcast at 24kbps, 48kbps, 64kbps, 128kbps at no additional cost. Our packages or only limited only by the amount of users you wish to broadcast your feeds too, and the amount of on-demand disk space your require (if any).