Internet Radio – ShoutCast

In this tutorial, I’ll describe how to set-up your own internet radio streaming – you’ll send information (songs/voice/whatever…) from your computer to a server (which you have bought), which will foward the songs further to your radio listeners. Also, I’ll describe how to make a form on your web-server (web-site) which will show what is currently playing, what’s next, most popular songs, formular for requests (visitor request some song – and radio automaticly plays it) and so on (a playlist).

WARNING: First do ALL WITHOUT No-IP.com, and when you’re done and everything is OK, then back to the first steps and do with No-IP.com static Host.

Neccessary:

Rent/buy a ShoutCast server/hosting

First of all, you need to buy a ShoutCast server which will “serve customers” (because for most of people, the normal upload speed at home is only enough for about 3-5 people simultaneuosly). I have tried a very good and cheap one (if you order by yourself without contacting me, you’ll pay a few times more) for hosting (no bandwidth limit), so if you’re interested – contact me. I have written this tutorial based upon that host, so some of pictures are connected with it.

When you have contacted me, I will refer you to a good & cheap hosting site and when you have paid them, they will give you information for the server in the following form:

Go on www.streampanel.biz and log in.

Click on Server Management – Manage.

Change Admin Password and Password. Also write down Port Base. At the bottom write down Public name – name of your Radio Station. After you fill them all – click on Update.

After that click on Start - server will start up.

MySQL database

After you bought your ShoutCast server, the first thing you must to do for your “radio programme” is to allow connections to (MySQL) database on your website. Because, in our case, the database is neccessary for the correct working of the SAM Broadcaster – with it we list our songs on website, send requests and similar. So, go to the Cpanel on your website – mostly it’s www.yourwebsite.com/cpanel.

Log in and then click under category “Databases” on “Remote MySQL”.

In the given box, you must type in the IP address which will connect to the database on your website (it must be YOUR IP address). If you want, you can type in your current IP address (find it on www.whatismyip.com) but I don’t recommend that because if your radio station will be online more than 24 hours – your (mostly dynamic) IP address will change. There are offers for static IP addresses, but for us that’s too expensive. There is a solution for this problem. Go to www.no-ip.com, create your account and log in. In your member area click on “Add Host”.

At Hostname: type in your future (static) “IP address”, that address will “act” as your real IP address. There are many names reserved, so be creative. On the right-hand side you can choose the “form” of your address – pick what you like. At “Host Type:” leave it as it is (DNS Host (A)). At IP Address ,probably it will automaticly write your current IP address. If not, type it yourself (you can find it at the right upper corner). “Assign to Group:” leave as it is. Click on “Create Host“.

Address will be created.

Next step, you must download a little piece of software which will be installed on your computer and which will contact the server when your (dynamic) IP address is changed – so it will be (again) – mojradio.no-ip.info (in our case). Program can be download at the following address. Install it and run. Log in with your account (on No-IP.com) and your address will be automaticly added – mojradio.no-ip.info. All you need do is click on it so the smiley will be “shy” (red cheeks).

After that just leave it in Tray.

After you have created your static IP address (Host), you must type in the estimated field in your Cpanel – under Remote MySQL type it in and click on Add. Address is added.

WARNING: Temporarily allow access to your dynamic (real) IP address (example: 42.131.43.234) – after you run program (SAM Broadcaster) you can remove it. If you turn off the program, in the meantime your IP address change, so you won’t be able to run it (database error), so then you must have you real IP address allowed in Cpanel.

After that, make the database for your “radio station”. Go on Cpanel and click on MySQL Databases.

Create new database (whatever name; in our case it will be tzruscom_mojradio) and assign it user with ALL PRIVILEGES – in our case that will be tzruscom_testna.

Your database created.

SAM Broadcaster (v4.2.2)

Now we move on “main” part – installation of SAM Broadcaster programme. Open up installation file (sambc-up.exe) and installation will begin.

Click on Yes.

Click on Next.

Click on Accept.

Click on Next.

Choose MySQL and click on Next.

Choose Specify custom settings and Remote server. At username type in user name of database (in your Cpanel) – in our case that’s tzruscom_testna. At password type in password of that user, and at Database type in name of database which will be for your radio station (tzruscom_mojradio). At Host type in domain of your website (without WWW!). Leave the Port setting as it is (3306).

Click on Next.

The program should be successfully installed (if some error occurs, if something you did went wrong – allow access to database, check for wrong typing of username/password and similar) and it will generate tables in database.

After that type in serial key for program activation:

Run program (all people with version “from net” must deselect all, put “update” and then they can run program).

Program should load up and pop-up windows for importing songs (Media Library) and SoundFX module. Both, leave as they are (selected) and click ‘Continue’.

Now, you should wait for a little while (for communication with the server), and after that you can choose a directory (some) of your songs – choose and click on OK.

SAM Broadcaster will import the songs (if you have many songs, I reccomend importing in pieces because if you import one huge directory of music, the program can freeze), wait till it has finished importing (Q: Why is it so slow?? A: Because there is neccesary communication between your (home) computer and server, and (probably) your speeds (upload speed) are a little slow (~512kbps)…

and there is first screen of your program.

At left side there is a list of your imported songs – under Playlist “Tracks”. At Queue there is list of songs that are ready to be played on the radio, History - history of your played songs and Voice FX – microphone settings (you can turn on microphone and press Press to Talk and speak LIVE at your Internet radio).

Click on Desktop B and click on + (plus) at Encoders

Choose MP3 (if you need 128kbps encoding) or mp3PRO for 64kbps or lower. We will use 128kbps (as our ShoutCast server which we bought – allows it) and click on OK.

At Format choose 128kb/s, 44,1kHz, Stereo.

Click on Server Details and at Server Type select (if it isn’t already) – ShoutCast. At Server IP type in IP of your server (you can see it on www.streampanel.biz after you log in) – in our case 208.53.138.125. At Server Port type in port which you get (in our case) 8757 - you can check it at Server Managment – Portbase. At Password, type in the password of your server (you can see it/change at Server Management – Manage). At Station name type in the name of your radio station, at Genre - type of your music, Website URL – site of radio station and click on OK (if you want you can fill up AIM/ICQ/IRC Channel fields).

After that click right click on Encoder and click on Start (or select and then press F9).

Program should successfully connect and write “Encoded (time), streamd 0 bytes (time)”. It’s time to play some music! Switch on Desktop A and play some song.

If you switch back to Dekstop B you’ll see the size at Streamed is raising.

Go to the IP address of your server with internet browser (208.53.138.125:8757) and you should see the name of song, name of radio station, how many listeners you have and similar.

If it’s all as I mentioned, the thing is fully funcional.

Changing configuration (config)

Now, we must enable that ‘current song’ is shown at our web-site (directly from Internet), so visitors can request songs and similar. Go to the following folder “C:\Program Files\SpacialAudio\SAMBC\samPHPweb“ and copy it all (samPHPweb) to some other place (ex. Dekstop). Open up folder and file config.php with Wordpad/Notepad.

Change the following lines in file config.php:

//Station general details
  $station  = "My station name";
  $email    = "email@mailbox.com";
  $logo     = "images/logo.gif";
 
  $stationid   = 0;           //The ID of your registered station on AudioRealm.com
  $sam["host"] = "localhost"; //The IP address of the machine SAM is running on (DO NOT use a local IP address like 127.0.0.1 or 192.x.x.x)
  $sam["port"] = "1221";      //The port SAM handles HTTP requests on. Usually 1221.

into

  //Station general details
  $station  = "Moj radio";
  $email    = "info@tzrus.com";
  $logo     = "images/logo.gif";
 
  $stationid   = 0;           //The ID of your registered station on AudioRealm.com
  $sam["host"] = "mojradio.no-ip.info"; //The IP address of the machine SAM is running on (DO NOT use a local IP address like 127.0.0.1 or 192.x.x.x)
  $sam["port"] = "1221";      //The port SAM handles HTTP requests on. Usually 1221.

Station – name of your radio station, email – your e-mail address, logo leave as it is (path), stationid leave 0, $sam[„host“] type in your host / static IP address – in our case that is mojradio.no-ip.info. Port leave as it is (1221).

After that open up file dbconfig.xml.php and change following:

<?/* 
<CONFIG application="SAM" version="4.2.1">
	<Database>
		<Driver>MYSQL</Driver>
		<Host>localhost </Host>
		<Port>3306</Port>
		<Database>database</Database>
		<Username>username</Username>
		<Password>password</Password>
	</Database>
</CONFIG>
 */?>

into

<?/* 
<CONFIG application="SAM" version="4.2.1">
	<Database>
		<Driver>MYSQL</Driver>
		<Host>localhost</Host>
		<Port>3306</Port>
		<Database>tzruscom_mojradio</Database>
		<Username>tzruscom_testna</Username>
		<Password>blabla</Password>
	</Database>
</CONFIG>
 */?>

When you have done that, upload the complete directory to your web-server. If you get the following screen (in Internet browser) everything is OK.

If you get error “MySQL error – couldn’t connect to database“ one possible problem could be the ports (1221 and 3306) which must be “free” – you must pass them through your router. An easy way to detect this is download the following script and within it, change these two lines (and ofcourse than upload it to your web-server):

$hostNameOrIP = "mojradio.no-ip.info";
$hostPort = "1221";

that it will read in the first case, and in the second

$hostNameOrIP = " mojradio.no-ip.info ";
$hostPort = "3306";

If both are PASSED, then it’s fine, if it’s FAILED, then you must pass them through your router (tutorials for this can be found here – portforward.com).

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