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Audio over IP question..

P

plooker

I have a client who needs an STL, they don't have line of site or a big budget. I've been hearing alot about audio over IP.
Anyone out there know of any low cost, stable boxes(or software) to transmit audio from the studio to the transmitter(and thru 1 router). My clients budget is around $1000.. theres gotta be some type of solution for this out there. I've done some research, but I'm not an engineer.... so just wanted to hear from you pros on this one..
 
While somewhat rare, analog program loops are still being offered in some areas. You might check on those.

For your budget, you'll hear many recommend the Barix boxes--the Barix Instreamer at the studio and the Barix Exstreamer at the xmtr site. Because these are unbalanced, you'll most likely need a couple Henry Engineering interfaces as well. Search "Barix" in the engineering section and you'll find a ton of info. Also, Radio-Guide just ran a couple articles on the boxes.

www.barix.com

Good luck.....
 
I'll 2nd the Barix boxes - they are pretty smart units and rarely lock-up (unlike a PC!). The thing to bear in mind is that whilst you can have a $100 2nd PC or a $400 Barix unit sending your station's output over IP, even the expensive boxes won't help if you have a poor DSL link between the sites. If you're planning on using the station's existing internet connection, check your upstream capacity - in the UK we are usually given 256k/bit up on DSL (phone line) but on my fibre-optic cable (10MB down) it's 768k/bit up which is gives greater allowance for errors and heavy traffic. If you can use a dedicated line, great - if not check your station's router to see how often the connection resets. You can even run a dry test with something like WinAmp/SHOUTcast and see how reliable that is (a free solution).

So, if you wanted to stream at 24k/bit to 10 listeners, you'd need at least a 256k/bit upstream - For FM STLs, I'd send a MINIMUM of 128k, but 192 is preferable. If you play around with WinAmp, the AAC format is far superior to MP3. For AM stations, you could get away with 64k mono. Also, the lower the bit-rate, the higher the delay between "studio" and "air" - 64k could be up to a minute whilst 128k may only be 15sec.

Somebody with a better understanding of internet services in the US can probably step in here and advise what services offer what ;)
 
I've been using a product by Audio Tx called a STL-IP for the last year or so with no issues. It has balanced inputs/outputs and seems to work quite well. I don't know what the cost is. Any of these type products are only as good and reliable as the ip network it is used on. The ones here are connected on a private MPLS circuit that basically mimics a very long crossover cable, but they can also be used on the public internet if your connect is good.

http://www.stl-ip.com/
 
JamieD said:
I've been using a product by Audio Tx called a STL-IP for the last year or so with no issues. It has balanced inputs/outputs and seems to work quite well. I don't know what the cost is. Any of these type products are only as good and reliable as the ip network it is used on. The ones here are connected on a private MPLS circuit that basically mimics a very long crossover cable, but they can also be used on the public internet if your connect is good.

http://www.stl-ip.com/
Click to expand...

Audio TX is overpriced, stick with Barix units.
 
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