Web Microphone - a fly on the wall with big ears

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 22 May 2005 8:16 am

I'm sure you've all heard of webcams - cameras that broadcast to the internet via a web page.

It just occurred to me that, for musicians, a web microphone or "webmike" might be a lot of fun. Set up in your home studio or down at the bar where you play, or simply mounted on your steel amp.

Does such technology exist? I don't even know.

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<img align=left src="http://b0b.com/b0bxicon.gif" border="0"> Bobby Lee
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Michael Barone · Post by **Michael Barone** » 22 May 2005 10:55 am

b0b,
I think you're referring to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). You install the software on both ends, and use the internet to stream live audio & video, a few frames/sec. Two friends of mine have been using this for about a year and a half now (Florida and Arizona. It's constantly improving, but the last that I heard was that the audio bandwidth may not be that good, just like a landline, 300Hz to 3KHz.

If the audio bandwidth improves, it could be interesting. Some other members will hopefully chime in who know more than I. I'm interested in this as well.

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Mike Barone
Sho-Bud Pro-1, Nashville 112, Goodrich Pedal, BJS 15/16 Bar

Jim Phelps · Post by **Jim Phelps** » 22 May 2005 11:01 am

Would it have to be VoIP with its' limited bandwidth (frequency range) just to set up a link with live streaming audio? It's been around longer than VoIP.

mickd · Post by **mickd** » 22 May 2005 11:45 am

I don't think you'd need to use VoIP - thats aimed at voice conversations where the flow is two way, meaning you have to minimise delay and jitter. For audio streaming, the delay wouldn't matter (you don't care if the music arrives 10 seconds late) and jitter wouldn't be as big a deal either, as streaming can use a big playout buffer.
I know some webcams work by uploading a JPEG every 30 seconds (or whatever interval you configure) so maybe you'd need something that captured a WAV every minute or so and uploaded it as a Real Audio file..but then the listener would need to keep clicking on a link to get the new sound..

Michael Barone · Post by **Michael Barone** » 22 May 2005 12:32 pm

You guys are right. I missed the point that its a one-way transmission. There are service providers that offer this at various sampling rates for a monthly fee. They compress to mp3 and stream it. Somebody wrote the program for these guys, and those who have it want to make money. If you do a search, you'll find them.

I guess what we're looking for is a program for the consumer that can convert live audio to mp3 on the fly, and stream it in continuous packets.

Need a fast upload speed and a power machine with it, to obtain quality we could use. On the receiving end, good speed and buffer may be all you need.

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Mike Barone
Sho-Bud Pro-1, Nashville 112, Goodrich Pedal, BJS 15/16 Bar

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 23 May 2005 6:32 am

What I'm thinking of is sort of like internet radio, but simpler. A microphone goes into a computer, which sends the signal to a web server. People access a web page on the server. The page includes an embedded object (Windows Media Player?) that plays the live audio stream.

mickd · Post by **mickd** » 23 May 2005 10:57 am

looks like "Shoutcast Server DNAS" does something like what we're talking about, but it goes via a central server (all free though).
Wonder what the snag is ?

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 23 May 2005 11:50 am

Yeah, reading through the docs at shoutcast.com it looks pretty good. This stuff was written 6 years ago. I wonder if there's something similar for the Mac by now.

Michael Barone · Post by **Michael Barone** » 23 May 2005 4:12 pm

Good find, mickd. Gee, I wonder how much bandwidth is needed for this.

b0b, check out your applications folder to see if you have been given a registered version of nicecast 1.5 with OSX. A Mac person I work with told me this, and said it might work for what you want to do.

I know nothing about Macs, but I do want to get a G5 for my electronics shop this summer.

Mike[This message was edited by Michael Barone on 23 May 2005 at 05:15 PM.]

Winston Street · Post by **Winston Street** » 24 May 2005 7:39 am

B0b, I think if everyone was on cable that you could set up video conferencing and have a jam session on the web. Some of the law firms that I have investigated for in the past has used this for years.. The microphone in the camera would furnish the sound.. There used to be a web site named Dialpad.com that you could talk all over world through you computer for free. Jack Stoner [a forum member] has been involved in computers for a long time. He could probably give you a quick answer and the way we would all have to go about setting this thing up.. Live video conferencing may be expensive though.
Winston

Dave Van Allen · Post by **Dave Van Allen** » 24 May 2005 10:11 am

Nicecast for OS X b0b

http://www.rogueamoeba.com/nicecast/

... seems it might be the tool for what you want to do