Icecast - May 2006 - multichannel streaming

On Thu, May 18, 2006 at 05:31:00PM +0000, Georg Holzmann
wrote:
> Hallo!
> 
> >>So if a user wants to hear record A, then a stream should be opened
> >>(maybe a new mount point ?) and only this user should be allowed to
hear
> >>the stream ...
> >>Is this possible with icecast ?
> >
> >It probably would.
> >(Aber man kann sich auch hintenrum durch die Brust ins Auge
schiessen...)
> :)
> Have you an idea how it would be possible ?
> 
> I just read the documentation for the config-file about mount-points:
> http://www.icecast.org/docs/icecast-2.2.0/icecast2_config_file.html#mount
> 
> But in our situation we would have e.g. 10 listeners in parallel (which 
> here different recordings) and I would have to declare 10 such mount 
> points in that config file ...
> So is there a way to dynamically set such settings ?
You don't have to configure mountpoints to create them. Just set
the global source client password. If you connect using those credentials
the mountpoints will be created on the fly. You won't be able to use
authentication this way though. (You might be able to patch it)
 
> Or is there maybe an other (open-source) software, which might be better 
> for our task?
I'm not sure.
My idea would be that users probably will feel the need to pause, resume,
rewind lectures. This is not at all possible using icecast live streams 
unless you do some crazy things like source client controll.
So I'd rather look in direction of some client that is capable of 
http authentication and can send range requests and a server that understands
those. You'll have static files anyway so no need to make them into live 
streams...
> >>And the streams should be also multichannel (2-8 channels, it
depends on
> >>the record) ...
> >
> >that would probably be possible with ogg/vorbis. You'd need to find
> >a client software supporting that though.
> 
> Thanks - I just tried it myself and multichannel is possible with ogg ;)
> And yes, we have to program a special client software anyway ...
> 
Good to know :)

Cheers

Thomas

On Thu, May 18, 2006 at 03:06:47PM +0000, Georg Holzmann
wrote:
> Hallo!
> 
> We are searching for a streaming-server for a e-learning system at a 
> university and therefore and I wanted to ask some questions:
> 
> There is a database of recordings on the server, and only registered 
> users (students) are allowed to hear those.
Icecast is not primarily targeted at on demand streaming. It's an live
streaming
server.
> So if a user wants to hear record A, then a stream should be opened 
> (maybe a new mount point ?) and only this user should be allowed to hear 
> the stream ...
> Is this possible with icecast ?
It probably would.
(Aber man kann sich auch hintenrum durch die Brust ins Auge schiessen...)
> And the streams should be also multichannel (2-8 channels, it depends on 
> the record) ...
that would probably be possible with ogg/vorbis. You'd need to find
a client software supporting that though.

Cheers

Thomas