caithness fm webcast?

[dereek]

Hi,

Why dont caithness fm do a live webcast?

i think it would be a great idea as the signal quality up here for it is no great!

compared to bbc radio 1

derek

[Metalattakk]

Any idea how much streaming media costs?

[Bill Fernie]

I have spoken to the folk at Caithness FM in the past about this idea but apparently the costs are too high for them to look at it.

[hotrod4]

I cant see how it can be that expensive as I can stream a radio show of my own for free!!!
All you need is a couple of programs and then you can stream for free on "shoutcast"
They may be limited to the number of people who can listen at any given time but it is possible.

[NickInTheNorth]

There are streaming media solutions available from as little as about £150 per month. In addition there is at least one open source streaming server available (free!) all that needs is a suitable server to run on.

I certainly can't accept that cost should be a factor in the decision as whether or not to offer a streaming media service.

[davem]

So regardless of expense people should be provided with streamed media? I am glad I'm not your bank manager. The costs depend on how many people take up the media streams. What little revenue in local broadcasting is available locally, on top of grants and fundraising, so a global presence does not significantly increase revenue. I'm sure if someone were to offer to fund webcasts it could be done, but it costs a significant amount to keep going as it is, CFM could ignore their expenses entirely but then you get no service at all after bankrupcy. My expectation would be that the directors choose to provide the best service they can that is sustainable long term.

[Torvaig]

So regardless of expense people should be provided with streamed media? I am glad I'm not your bank manager. The costs depend on how many people take up the media streams. What little revenue in local broadcasting is available locally, on top of grants and fundraising, so a global presence does not significantly increase revenue. I'm sure if someone were to offer to fund webcasts it could be done, but it costs a significant amount to keep going as it is, CFM could ignore their expenses entirely but then you get no service at all after bankrupcy. My expectation would be that the directors choose to provide the best service they can that is sustainable long term.

Well said; I had a wee chuckle at the "only £150 pm"!
£150 is a lot of money for a small local radio station.

[CFM]

Can I perhaps reply on behalf of CFM - when we initially looked into this it would have cost us thousands and only allowed about 12 people to listen at any one time, however we have recently been looking into it again and in fact are currently awaiting some information on this subject which may allow us to move forward at an affordable rate. Please bear in mind that we are a voluntary organisation, we receive no funding other than what we raise ourselves so basically everything we spend has to be earned first! You must also bear in mind that, to broadcast "professionally" (for want of a better description!) we have to consider licensing fees, performing rights etc. We would also be charged broadband access and telephone lines at commercial rates. It is a subject that we are monitoring and when the time is right for us to do it we will do so.

As to the quality of the signal in this area, we are currently undergoing some strange atmospheric conditions which are playing havoc with our signal. We are also in a position that, since our aerials were installed on Ben Dorrerry, many more have since been added and this is causing us problems. MFR are due to renew their equipment on the mast and we are hoping to replace our own equipment at the same time - at a cost of in excess of £7000, again money we have to raise.

Our ongoing service to the community of Caithness has to be our priority but we can assure you that when we are able to utilise internet streaming we will do so.

Meanwhile please do stay listening and all fundraising ideas will be greatly received!

[horseman]

I cant see how it can be that expensive as I can stream a radio show of my own for free!!!
All you need is a couple of programs and then you can stream for free on "shoutcast"
They may be limited to the number of people who can listen at any given time but it is possible.

So you think it may be cost effective for .org to cater for the3 people who use shoutcast?;)

[hotrod4]

So you think it may be cost effective for .org to cater for the3 people who use shoutcast?;)

How more cost effective can you get than free!!!!!

[Dynamic Sounds]

How more cost effective can you get than free!!!!!

I personally would love to see Caithness FM on the web, but webcasting is far from free. You may be able to play music to the world, but you may unwhittingly be doing it illegally.

To legally broadcst music over the internet, you need to pay a fee per track per stream to the PPL (Phonographic Performance Limited (http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://www.ppluk.com/)) of about 0.06p. This may not seem alot, but if you do the math on a 30 stream service broadcasting 36 hours a week playing 14 tracks per hour, this comes out to over £400 a year. There are also costs involves in fees to be payed to the MCPS-PRS, internet charges, cost of the programs to let you broadcast. To some people this may not look alot, but to a voluntary group, this is a substanstial amount.

You also need to do quarterly returns the total amount of streams taken place, and where the listeners were (the licence you get only lets you broadcast to a limited amount of countries) and you have to keep a log of ALL songs played, where they were played from (cd/lp/mp3) the cat number of the song etc etc incase the PPL want to have a look at what you play. That would take up a lot of voluntary man power.

[Niall Fernie]

Aside from all the issues pointed out above, PeerCast (http://www.peercast.org/) may solve the bandwidth issues. Its a web broadcasting system based on Peer to Peer downloading that "shares" the stream between listeners.