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In this article:
- What is Internet Radio
- Broadcasting techniques
- History of Internet Radio
What is Internet Radio?
A broadcasting service that transmits over the Internet is called Internet radio. A typical characteristic of such ‘radio stations’ is that they usually have an already existing traditional radio station. Instead, most of them are independent, often run by individuals and only broadcast over the Internet – a process which is often simply called streaming. The first Internet "radio station", Internet Talk Radio, was developed by Carl Malamud in 1993.
As against conventional radio services, Internet radio ‘signals’ are relayed over the Internet, hence making them accessible in all the places where people have access to Internet. Thus, a person broadcasting from the US can be heard in Australia or Europe and vice-versa. This is the reason why Internet radio is as famous as it is since it allows people to hear to music that interests them which may not be provided by the existing radio stations where they live (an example being stand-up comedy acts or indie music). Typically, such radio stations tend to rebroadcast or repeat what they have already delivered whenever new programs or music is not available. In Internet radio, a high-quality audio stream would mean a lower number of listeners as people who have slower connections will not be able to ‘tune-into’ the station.
Broadcasting Techniques
- Streaming
Streaming is the most popular technique of delivering Internet radio. This type of broadcasting service usually makes use of the MP3 audio codec, though Ogg Vorbis and Windows Media Audio (WMA) or even RealAudio may also be used. The bits are sent over a TCP/IP connection that are put together again at the receiving end to play. Streaming Internet radio takes two seconds before its bits can be played on the receiving end.
As can be derived from the above, three major components are involved with an audio stream:
- An Audio stream source
An audio stream source is where the broadcast originates. Various sources maybe used including the SHOUTcast service (which is more apt for advanced users due to its setup procedures) which can be easily played by using the software Winamp (developed by the same people who created SHOUTcast). Other than this, one may make use of Streamcast, MuSE, IceS etc.
- An Audio stream repeater
An audio stream repeater, which is also called a server, is also required in order to actually transmit the information from the broadcasting service. Live365.com is one such popular service which allows anyone to create their own stream (but requiring people with higher requirements to do so for a fee to access all the features). Another popular service for this purpose is SHOUTcast. Certain open-source options also exists (eg., Icecast). These Internet radio servers list all the radio stations that relay using their service (which often runs into thousands) hence giving access to a barrage of genres and artists that represents a growing ‘market’. The servers are responsible for delivering the broadcast to the playback software at the receiving end. It is possible to locate radio stations from a particular location or that play music pertaining to a particular language or genre.
- An Audio stream playback
At the receiving side of the stream, there needs to be some method to play the stream being received. This may be in the form of hardware or software. A good example of such a software is Winamp on the Windows platform and Apple’s iTunes for the Macintosh and Windows both. For Linux and Unix variants, XMMS is a good option. The practice of using hardware devices to directly listen to streaming audio (and thus Internet radio) is not popular and so also, a limited number of devices are available in the market for this purpose. However, this is now changing as new devices are being introduced and the market picks up.
- Podcasting
Podcasting has become popular after the introduction of Apple iPod (though it is not necessarily ‘casted’ to iPod devices). Podcasting is used to broadcast many audio and video programmes which are often close to conventional radio and TV quality. Podcasters often make use of RSS feeds and P2P systems for this purpose.
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