What is Steamcast?
Steamcast is a streaming media server which has the capabilities of both SHOUTcast and Icecast2 with some extra features I thought should be a part of any streaming media server. Steamcast is written to be extremely light, stable and scalable. If you have any problems use the "Community" link above and let me know so I can squash it before next release. At this time I have tested Liquid Soap, Edcast, SAM Broadcaster 2013 and SHOUTcast DSP with Steamcast so if you use something else, try it out and let me know the results!This directory now supports the following file formats: Mp3, OGG(Vorbis and Opus), NSV, NSA(AAC), aacPlus, if you are using another codec please let me know through our forums. The Steamcast directory is an open directory based off the Icecast2 YP framework.
Why Steamcast?
I have been in the streaming radio business for a while, and one of the tools that seems to be lacking any creativity or imagination is the server. The vision I have for a server is to make it far more powerful then to cobble elements of HTTP/ICY into one server and letting the station figure out the rest. A radio station expects and needs more information then most servers are willing to give. Frankly I think working with a Streaming platform should be an immediately gratifying experience. Most server platforms leave me sitting and thinking now what? Then you invest lots of time and energy into actually building a listening experience. All the server acheived was to make copying my media to thousands of listeners possible. This was rather ground breaking 20 years ago. However I damand more, and expect more. Steamcast's original intent was to fill in the gaps where SHOUTcast and Icecast have failed the radio station. I drove this home back when I originally started this project in 2004. Icecast2 showed a lot of promise to be what I wanted Steamcast to be. However, I feel they haven't gone far enough. SHOUTcast is just now working on v2 and frankly I am not sure they have much of a direction now that Winamp has closed down.My hope, is that perhaps those great ideas I have swirling in my head will be implemented in these key products. However, I won't wait for it. I will yet again, prove that these features are necessary. With Steamcast I will, once again, be implementing rather experimental concepts and even further traditional concepts that we have all seen done with HTML make their way into a streaming platform. HTML5 brings a promise not yet seen in the Streaming radio business. I personally feel server technologies are waiting on standards bodies to figure it out before investing in some of the ideas I have. However, much like SHOUTcast did in 1999. I think it is the streaming platform that needs to lead. Show need and let the standards work themselves out.
A 2010s multimedia server should be and have everything you need for site integration. It should go further than just a bunch of XML sheets and a prayer. All transactional dicisions should be left to the server. With Steamcast, or any modern server. You shouldn't need to list play options, it should just work.