Icecast - Apr 2021 - Basic questions

Been aware of icecast for years, but only today started looking into actually
using it and would appreciate some help and answers to a couple of questions:-

? Does icecast use unicast and/or multicast?

? If multicasting, do all listeners simply latch on to the same multicast
stream?

? If no local clients listening, does that mean nothing is being broadcast onto
the local network?

? If relaying a stream from another server and unicasting locally, am I right in
thinking that it pulls a single stream from that external server, but can then
re-broadcast that to multiple local listener clients?

? If set up to relay as above, but there no local clients actually listening,
will icecast still be pulling the stream from that external server over the
connecting network (broadband link in my use case)?

Hope someone can assist with my icecast knowledge building.


Ken  G i l l e t t

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V?Sun, Apr 25, 2021 at 04:24:28PM +0100,?Ken Gillett
napsal(a):
> ? Does icecast use unicast and/or multicast?
> 
> ? If multicasting, do all listeners simply latch on to the same multicast
> stream?
> 
> ? If no local clients listening, does that mean nothing is being broadcast
> onto the local network?
> 
Icecast implements ICY protocol (defined by Shoutcast software) which is
similar to HTTP, hence TCP, hence unicast.
> ? If relaying a stream from another server and unicasting locally, am
> I right in thinking that it pulls a single stream from that external
server,
> but can then re-broadcast that to multiple local listener clients?
> 
Yes.
> ? If set up to relay as above, but there no local clients actually
> listening, will icecast still be pulling the stream from that external
> server over the connecting network (broadband link in my use case)?
> 
No. When relaying another ICY stream (e.g. from another icecast server),
icecast disconnects from the external server.

But do not get confused with connections from "sources" (in constrast
to
relaying). Sources are origins of a stream (a sound from micropone or local
files encoded into a stream, e.g. with ices tool) and they manage the
connection to icecast. Sources initiate and close the connecion. Thus they
usually remain streaming even if no ICY client is connected to the icecast
server.

-- Petr
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