Shoutcast Tutorial
The SHOUTcast streaming audio 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. There are many players which are available for listening to SHOUTcast streams, but the most commonly recommended players are:
Broadcasting
Once a SpryCast streaming SHOUTcast account is set up, broadcasters can use a variety of third party tools to begin broadcasting. We suggest using Winamp and a plug-in called the SHOUTcast Source for Winamp Plug-In to send audio from Winamp to the SHOUTcast server.
- Download the SHOUTcast DSP Plug-In for Winamp 5.x: Click Here
- Download the SHOUTcast DSP Plug-In for Mac OS X, Linux and FreeBSD: Click Here
Once the download has completed, you will need to install the software. Verify that Winamp is not running before proceeding. Simply open the dsp software installer by doubleclicking on it in the location you saved it to, and follow the onscreen instructions to install. Once you have installed the DSP, start Winamp, open the preferences(CTRL+P) and click on the DSP/Effects subcategory under the Plug-ins tree. Please refer to the picture below:
If you see "Nullsoft SHOUTcast Source DSP v1.9.0" in the right pane, then you have correctly installed the SHOUTcast Broadcast DSP Plug-in.
Once you have the DSP Plug-in successfully installed, you should see a window similar to the one below, with 4 tabs along the top labeled Main, Output, Encoder and Input. First off, let's click on the Input tab and decide which audio medium we will be using to broadcast. Winamp should already be selected as this is the recommended setup. This means that any audio Winamp produces will be broadcast to the SHOUTcast server once you begin broadcasting.
Next we will decide on the audio quality/bitrate of the stream we want to send to the SpryCast SHOUTcast server. You will have already chosen a bitrate to use for your account at time of signup with SpryCast, so for this example we will choose 128 kbps for the encoder.
The last tab we'll deal with before broadcasting is the Output tab, which is where we input all of the SpryCast server information. Upon signup and activation of an account with us, you will receive a welcome email outlining all of the pertinent info you need to get up and running with your stream (ie. Stream IP Address, Port number). Once you have this information, input it as shown below. The Address field can either be the IP address of the server or a valid hostname/FQDN.
You can then take it a step further by personalizing your stream with the Yellowpages button located on the Output tab. Shown below are examples of input we used to personalize our stream for listeners tuning in.
Once everything is to your liking, simply press the Connect button and begin streaming your audio from Winamp! If you have any further questions about this SHOUTcast in general, please don't hesitate to ask as we have techs standing by eager to help.
Running a server
The magic of the SHOUTcast system happens inside the SHOUTcast Distributed Network Audio Server (DNAS). This software runs on a SpryCast server attached to an IP network with lots of bandwidth, and is responsible for receiving audio from you the broadcaster, updating the SHOUTcast directory with information about what the broadcaster is sending, and sending the broadcast out to listeners.
