Streaming Audio Help

  1. What is streaming audio?
    • Streaming audio is sound that is played as it arrives. The alternative is a sound recording (such as a WAV file) that doesn't start playing until the entire file has arrived.

  2. MINIMUM configuration / Ideal configuration
    • 100 MHz processor / 400 MHz or better
    • 28.8 modem / 56K modem, DSL, ISDN or cable modem
    • Soundcard (all Macs have this out of the box)
    • Windows 3.1/Mac OS7x / Windows 95 or 98, MAC OS9
    • 32MB of memory / 64MB or higher
    • Min. 10 MB of free hard disk space / You can never have too much!
    • Free streaming software (Real Player, Media Player, QuickTime) / "Plus" versions of the software with extra features
    • A browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator) configured with the proper plug-ins for various audio formats (.wav, .au, Real, etc.)

  3. Where can I get the software to stream audio?
    Click on the player software to download

    • Microsoft Windows Media Player (™) (Microsoft.com) version 7 or higher.
      Most computers that use the Windows operating system have Windows Media Player installed. If your version is getting old, you may need to download and install a more current one in order to use streaming. A version of Windows Media Player is also available for the Macintosh.

    • Real Player (™) (Real.com) for Windows 95/98/NT version 6 or higher
      Real Audio is another popular streaming format. Many computers/browsers come with Real Audio players installed. Like the Windows Media player, you may need to download a newer version. The Real Audio Player comes in both Mac and Windows versions.

    • Real Player(™) (Real.com) for Macintosh and UNIX

    • QuickTime (™) (Apple.com) version 5 or higher
      Most Apple computers (G4s, iMacs, PowerBooks, etc.) are shipped with the QuickTime player installed. As with all players, if your version is too old, you may need a new one. QuickTime is also available for Windows. QuickTime is used for both audio and video streaming, but has additional capabilites, such as QuickTime VR, a panoramic picture display.
    • iTunes 2 for Mac (Apple.com) OS X v10.1 or later
      System Requirements
      Hardware. iTunes 2 works with all Apple systems that have built-in USB ports. Use with iPod requires a FireWire-equipped Macintosh computer. Audio CD burning requires a supported CD-RW drive. All built-in Apple CD-RW drives work with iTunes 2.
      System software. Mac OS X version requires Mac OS X v10.1 or later (with Mac OS X v10.1 Security Update installed). Mac OS 9 version requires Mac OS 9.0.4; Mac OS 9.2.1 or later is recommended. Audio CD burning in Mac OS 9 requires Mac OS 9.1 or later.
    • XMMS - X MultiMedia System for Linux (xmms.org) sponsored by 4FRONT Technologies

    New versions of each player come out from time to time. It is a good idea to update to the latest version, since some online audio sources will not work with older versions.

    Each streaming media player comes in

    • a free version (sometimes well hidden at the Web site) and
    • a pay version with extra features.

    In all cases you will find the free version quite adequate for listening to streaming audio (or watching video). But you may want the extra features that an upgraded pay version offers. Once you have downloaded the software, you'll need to install it and configure it for your browser (easy to do).

  4. Is there a downside of streaming?

    Well, there are a couple of problems, but you should know how to avoid or minimize them.

    • Traffic jams. Streaming requires an Internet connection that's free of "traffic jams." But the Internet isn't a direct pipeline from the source to you. Streamed content passes through many other computers on its way to your computer via your ISP. If any one of them is carrying too much other traffic, the streamed content may be interrupted and pause. Streamed content is "buffered" to help avoid this, but sometimes it's unavoidable. Usually the delay only lasts a few seconds, and the audio picks up where it stopped. Video is more sensitive to such interruptions.

    • A slow computer. Even with a fast computer, if you have too many applications open, it could slow down your media streaming. If you notice things are sluggish, close all unnecessary applications and windows running on your computer. Just keep your Web browser and your media player open. If you have a noisy phone line, that's not good for streaming (or Web browsing) either. Have your phone company check your line to get rid of humming or other line noise.

If you still have questions, please click on the E-Mail symbol and ask Angel City Chorale's webmaster for help: webmaster@angelcitychorale.org

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