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I am PHP MySQL developer and I am interested in the way television and radio are broadcasted over Internet live. I want to know how it works and and what are its requirements (which package of which programming language offers the best).

And please clarify me:

Websites are stored in servers. From my desktop, if I want to broadcast some video, then I need to connect to webserver (to upstream the video). Is there an application to do that (or do I have to code that or embed in my web application and which programming language would be suitable (does Python support that))? And I also need a script to handle the upstreamed video or audio (can I do that with PHP)?

gnat
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S L
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2 Answers2

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Most of the internet radios & televisions out there use HTTP protocol to stream. A part of the pie for RTSP (after MMS) and RTMP, but it's marginal. Here are the list of the most popular streaming servers:

  • SHOUTcast - the legendary streaming server. Supports only HTTP streaming and is very easy to setup.
  • IceCast - this open source project has been developer to cover limitations of SHOUTcast. It is widely used and as recommandable as SHOUTcast. It also supports HTTP streaming.
  • Windows Media Services - An RTSP based streaming server (before it was MMS). It also supports HTTP streaming, but you need a specific encoder. It is also widely used, but will cost you more in licensing.
  • Wowza Media Server - RTMP based streaming (Flash) but also supports all possible streaming protocols such as HTTP, RTMPE, RTMPT, RTMPTE, RTMPS, MPEG-TS, etc. Not free, but you get what you paid for! Probably the best choice. It has a very well designed API (it has been programmed in Java) and will let you control and extend most things.

There are other solutions that I know less, so I just list them:

Here is a comparison of all servers.

I would go for SHOUTcast or IceCast first, the use Wowza Media Server if you are serious about streaming (because of the capabilities and the API).

  • now i get the idea that i need a streaming server. i thought i could sit in my desktop and broadcast audio and video connecting to a normal website. – S L Jan 15 '11 at 09:22
  • Https://net7mma.codeplex.com is another example which should be added to that list. – Jay Dec 15 '14 at 03:58
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Multimedia streaming is mostly done using a protocol called RTSP. And there are a number of commercial and open source implementations that handle this for you.

Michael Brown
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