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An Idea I have...

L

LA_Guy

Pardon my indulgence here-I just need some feedback from my peers:

I have an idea that I believe could be popular with broadcasters out there,
and want your input.

What would it be worth to you to be able to buy Barix Instreamers and
Exstreamers that were pre-programmed to talk to each other. No need for static
IP addresses, no router and firewall issues-NOTHING! 100% completely plug and
play 192 kbps MP3 audio (assuming your upload will support this much-otherwise it could be made lower).

There's a server cost involved (since the units would have to talk to each
other through a common server). The first year's cost would be built into the
purchase price of the package. After that, there would ba a monthly or yearly
charge. Remember, Barix units normally need a static IP address on one end of
the connection while these would not-any old dynamic connection(s) will work
fine-and the price difference between dynamic IP (vanilla) cable and/or DSL service
and static IP service would probably be more then the monthly charge for this
service.

Is this something that you might be interested in? I'm not going to do it if
no one is...

-D
 
I'm interested, but get cold feet at the idea of monthly payments. I'd be willing to cough up more dough upfront for pre-defined Barix boxes.
But a yearly charge is much less bothersome, so I might go for that. The cost difference in not having to pay for a static IP address would
make it an easy choice for me.
 
Good idea. The biggest limitation with barix IMHO is the decoder end these days. There are some reliability issues on that end with several boxes I've bought lately.
 
sounds like a really good idea, I'm sure it would help quite a few people. Couple things though.. I would not depend on a single server to handle this, I would distribute the load between several that way if for some reason you had a hardware failure, not everyone would be down just some and you could theoretically move that traffic to another box.

How many people would you be looking to support with something like this?

I know someone right now that would benefit from this service being available, he wants to do a show from another town but has an unknown internet connection down there without a static ip and he does not have a static ip at his station. If you go forward with this I will certainly pass this info on, if not and if you don't mind, I would like some technical details on just how you would accomplish this and I might try to implement it on a small scale for a few people I know to see how it works out. I have access to a good bit of internet bandwidth and a server that I own with about as many public ip addresses as I could ever use. This particular network has about 135 devices on it and they have a /24.
 
This would basically be a web streaming service. I use Windows Media Encoder ($Free) to send my audio to a web streaming service ($monthly fee) and then my Exstreamer (and web stream listeners) can listen to my web stream for free. Or, I can just use a computer to listen to my web stream at the transmitter site. So, it's exactly like your standard streaming service. I do like using my Instreamer to send my audio to my web streaming service (Stream the World) because it reboots immediately upon power loss and is much more reliable that a computer.

The magic behind these boxes is... no middle man!

Sorry to be a party pooper...
 
I was thinking something along the lines of a rtp stream relay, if somehow you could set the instreamer to send to the server ip address and the exstreamer to pull from said address on a certain port, then you could keep rtp and the low latency with an unknown ip address on both ends.

I was too tired last night to think of it in that way, but it might be a good idea if it could be made to work reliably.

i'll do some digging and see what I can come up with.
 
This would basically be a two device point to point link. Of course, you could add more receivers for a higher monthly fee. It looks like the fee would be in the neighborhood of 30 dollars a month. This is about half the difference in cost between dynamic cable/DSL connections and static IP address ones (normally you need a static IP address on one end of the connection for things to hook up).

A year's fees would be built into the first year (the estimated cost for the two Barix boxes and a year's service would be $900.00). After that you would be able to sign up for a year for $300.00 paid in advance or $30.00 per month, billed to your credit card monthly.
 
stephend2 said:
sounds like a really good idea, I'm sure it would help quite a few people. Couple things though.. I would not depend on a single server to handle this, I would distribute the load between several that way if for some reason you had a hardware failure, not everyone would be down just some and you could theoretically move that traffic to another box.

How many people would you be looking to support with something like this?

I know someone right now that would benefit from this service being available, he wants to do a show from another town but has an unknown internet connection down there without a static ip and he does not have a static ip at his station. If you go forward with this I will certainly pass this info on, if not and if you don't mind, I would like some technical details on just how you would accomplish this and I might try to implement it on a small scale for a few people I know to see how it works out. I have access to a good bit of internet bandwidth and a server that I own with about as many public ip addresses as I could ever use. This particular network has about 135 devices on it and they have a /24.
Click to expand...

The data center I'm working with is backed up so many ways that they've been at 100% up time (except for planned upgrades announced weeks in advance) for almost 4 years with my stuff.
Multi honed gigabyte fibers, UPSes, generators, located near Toronto (Canadian Internet is MUCH more reliable then ours is), hot standby servers, the whole 9 yards. We can support thousands of customers this way, but we're probably going to limit it to about 750 total customers to keep it manageable (we want to be able to offer first class service-and that gets difficult with too many customers) . We are also going to code each unit with a letter which will tell us which port it runs off of so you will be able to run as many simultaneous units on one IP address as your bandwidth allows.
 
that actually sounds quite interesting. If you ever do this and want someone to test it out in the real world down in Mississippi then let me know, I know someone that needs exactly what you are offering right now.
 
Okay here is another branch.

One encoder of any variety sent to 4 to 10 barix boxes?

I have 3 state wide feeds we are using now and are using brand x. A barix dedicated server sounds interesting because you understand the product.
 
ChiefEngineer said:
Okay here is another branch.

One encoder of any variety sent to 4 to 10 barix boxes?

I have 3 state wide feeds we are using now and are using brand x. A barix dedicated server sounds interesting because you understand the product.
Click to expand...

This would be available for an additional monthly cost. The ISP has customers that are streaming to over 200 simultaneous listeners this way.
 
If Telos can give away 6 gB of data a month to everyone just because, then more power to them! I have to PAY for mine, along with the server colo charge.

From what I see, Telos' disconnects after ten minutes. Just what you all need for an STL, right?
 
The Telos Zephyr/IP test line in Cleveland is specially programmed to disconnect after 10 minutes to give other testers a chance. Since the Zephyr/IP connects over IP - which is very cheap - it's too easy for someone to stay connected and tie up the test unit in the Support Department.

I work for Telos. I don't know of any free service we offer to distribute IP audio streams.

To add something to this thread... I a Barix Extreamer will connect to a ShoutCast server, then one could use any MP3 encoder - free software or purchased hardware - and ShoutCast, IceCast, SteamCast, etc., to stream out to any number of Barix Extreamers or other decoders. Bandwidth would be purchased from the provider at each endpoint.

Best,

Kirk Harnack

Check out the podcast, "This Week in Radio Tech".
This week's episode features Tom Ray, Chris Tobin, Chris Tarr, and special guest, Gary Kline.
Download from the web site here... http://bit.ly/29FYSK
Or subscribe in the iTunes store. Search for "This Week in Radio Tech".
 
What if you don't need to send the whole audio stream to the barix "man in the middle" server. But just have the pre-configured in/extreamers have a barix server to negotiate the two ip's and ports at each end and have the in/extreamer build up a peer-to-peer stream to each other after negotiation instead? This way you cut down in you hops for the audio stream but still benefit from the ability not to have static ip's and program routers/firewalls. And you could do monitoring from the barix negotiation server.
Being Barix give your customer the ability to manage certain configs with the negotiation server. You say you want to be able to identify the unit that connects to the Baris server. Use this to give me, the customer, the ability to couple this unit and others I might have to a profile. Now I can centrally make config files with settings I want all or certain units to have.

So in short:
I buy preconfigured in/extreamer
I make a personal profile/login on the barix negotiation server and set settings like type of coding and bitrate and tie them to the id's the units I will receive in a few days from Barix.
I receive the pre-configured units and plug them in/turn them on.
When they boot they will search their way to the internet and call in to "home" (being the barix negotiation server) and identify itself.
The Barix server now knows the public ip's of the units and on which port they will listen.
The barix server will push the config file I prepared earlier and also have both units know eachothers public ip and port and build up a peer-to-peer stream.

If I have 200 extreamers I will be very happy when I can centrally push uniform config files to all in one click. Or group certain with different config.

Just brainstorming here.
 
The F Mister said:
So in short:
I buy preconfigured in/extreamer
I make a personal profile/login on the barix negotiation server and set settings like type of coding and bitrate and tie them to the id's the units I will receive in a few days from Barix.
I receive the pre-configured units and plug them in/turn them on.
When they boot they will search their way to the internet and call in to "home" (being the barix negotiation server) and identify itself.
The Barix server now knows the public ip's of the units and on which port they will listen.
The barix server will push the config file I prepared earlier and also have both units know eachothers public ip and port and build up a peer-to-peer stream.

If I have 200 extreamers I will be very happy when I can centrally push uniform config files to all in one click. Or group certain with different config.

Just brainstorming here.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what Telos and Comrex are doing. I believe Comrex charges a fee for use of the registration server whereas Telos does not.

I believe that both allow you to host the registration server yourself.
 
The problem with this type of setup is firewalls.

Firewalls are set up to only allow packets from the WAN side to come in if someone from the LAN side has requested them. On the send end our Instreamers will be set to push packets out (which go right through firewalls), They will be pushed to our server. On the receive end, the Exstreamer will pull packets from our server, circumventing the firewall there.
It's the 'push/pull' that makes it work. Also, our server provides the static IP address that's needed for the units to work.

Guys, we're talking 25 bucks a month here (if you pay by the year). For that you get better then 4 nines reliability on the server (fed by HUGE pipes), a toll free 24 hour support number and access to Barix that only I can provide (I stock Instreamers and Exstreamers and LAX is only a few minutes away). Shouldn't I be able to make a few bucks too?
 
RealityCheckr said:
This is exactly what Telos and Comrex are doing. I believe Comrex charges a fee for use of the registration server whereas Telos does not.

I believe that both allow you to host the registration server yourself.
Click to expand...

For the sake of accuracy:
Comrex offers use of our server for free. We also provide free code for you to build your own server if you wish. To use the function in our codecs requires purchase of a firmware upgrade, which is a one-time cost.

This server helps arrange connections to dynamic addresses (creates a "buddy list"), and bores through the "incoming call through router" problem. As noted, it doesn't actually process any user data streams.

Best
Tom Hartnett
Comrex
 
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