KA Radio streams rental

F.A.Q.

1. How to use the manager ?
2. Where is the management vendor ?
3. I received a message stating that I'm on grace period, what does it mean ?
4. How can I stream ?
5. My Stream keeps jumping, my listeners start to be annoyed
6. I have restarted my stream server, and previous listeners can't listen anymore
7. I'm playing the stream, but, unlike through winamp, it doesn't work in SL
8. My computer is a Linux box, are there any broadcasting solutions for me ?
9. What about Mac OS ?
10. I've lost my infos, how can I retrieve them ?

1 - How to use the manager ?

Once you buy a stream at KA Radio, you will have access to the "MANAGE" vendor, that will allow you to control your stream. First you have to click on the vendor to pick one of your streams (if you have more than one). It's hovering text will change to your stream's infos. If you click another time on the vendor, it will give you an extended menu. Here is a description of each buttons :

RESTART : Restarts your stream and resets the ATM to reflect your stream's settings
This button shouldn't have to be used, unless you state that the stream server is stuck (which shouldn't happen hopefully).

HELP : Gives this notecard to you.

CHECK : Performs a check on stream's state and updates the ATM if it's necessary.
Normally an automatic check is made every few minutes. This button is intended to perform a check before next automatic one.

NEW PASS : Generates some new passwords, in case you forgot yours, or for some security reasons.
Your stream will also be restarted automatically.

RELABEL : Let's you modify your stream's name.
Once you touch this button, type the new name in public chat then hit enter key. The stream will restart with updated information.

EXIT: To exit the management of your stream (and eventually switch to another of your streams).

PAY: Just to display how to renew the rental of the selected stream.

2 - Where is the management vendor ?

Teleport to one of these stores:

• KA Radio Streams Rental Store @ Severy
• KA Radio Streams Rental Store @ Sand Dunes

You should be able to find it there.

3 - I received a message stating that I'm on grace period, what does it mean ?

It means that your available time on the stream has expired and that you need pay the due as soon as possible, before it shutdowns.
Grace period still allows you to perform streaming. Though your extended menu will be disabled until your ATM get paid.

The length of the grace period depends on the length of your total time on the ATM (at a ratio of 1/10).
For example, for a total amount of 24hours, your grace period will be 2hours and 24minutes. For a total time of 3 months, your grace period will be 9 days.
Once your grace period has ended, your stream will be automatically closed and you will loose your paswords, stream access lists and stream name infos.

When you pay the stream to recover it while in a grace period, the used grace time will be deducted from the time that you have bought.

4 - How can I stream ?

There are various software to allow you to stream.
The easiest way is maybe to use Winamp with the DSP Shoutcast plugin.
Here is a link to a tutorial : http://www.errorfm.com/djfaq.htm
Other available broadcasters :
- SAM - http://www.spacialaudio.com
- Virtual DJ - http://www.virtualdj.com

N.B. : It has been reported some problems with SAM version >= 4.0

5 - My Stream keeps jumping, my listeners start to be annoyed

Before blaming the provider (*smile*), check if you don't have any active peer-to-peer software, like LimeWire (well known to eat upload bandwidth), Soulseek, eMule, or even Skype. All these software eat more or less the upload bandwidth of your connection, which lets less bandwidth for the stream.

Also, try to restart your stream from the "MANAGE" booth. It will reset the logfile, which tends to become huge over time. It will also reset the allocated memory, as the shoutcast server can suffer from some memory leaks.

It's also strongly advised to do a malware check on the broadcasting computer. Malwares can eat up a large amount of bandwidth.
By malware, we mean virus, worms, trojans, backdoors, adware, to make it short all the unwanted software.

In major cases it solves the problem. Though, if the stream is still skipping, there might be an issue on the connection between your computer and the shoutcast server, or between the shoutcast server and listeners.

There are various pages on the web to check your internet connection. Here is one :
http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest?more=1
Our shoutcast servers are located in France, so it maybe a good idea to check the speed from a french website.

From now, you know your upload rate and can now finely set the bitrate of your stream. In a general basis, it is strongly advised to never use a bitrate higher than 128kbps.
You can lower it to 96kbps or even 80 kbps, without too much loss of quality, if your upload bandwidth is only of 128kbps (heh, SL also uploads data).

Now, if there are still some problems, you can start to blame the stream provider ^^

6 - I have restarted my stream server, and previous listeners can't listen anymore

Yes, they have to restart their player, as their player are still stuck on previous session.
For it to properly work, listeners should restart their player around 30 secs after the stream server's restarts (because of buffering issues).

7 - I'm playing the stream, but, unlike through winamp, it doesn't work in SL

If someone can listen to your stream through winamp (or some other player) but not in SL, it probably means that your stream is using an encoding that is not supported by SL player. It's especially true with aac and aac+.
If you want to be sure to have a working stream on SL, tie to mp3 encoding. Avoid ogg, wma, mp3pro, aac and aac+.
To change it in winamp shoutcast plugin, there is an encoder tab in the output window. display it and switch the encoder type to mp3.

8 - My computer is a Linux box, are there any broadcasting solutions for me ?

Of course. You should have a look to these pages:
- DarkIce website
- LiquidSoap website

9 - What about Mac OS ?

Nicecast of course.

10 - I've lost my infos, how can I retrieve them ?

you can retrieve your infos by using the "MANAGE" booth in the store, click on it once to bind it to your stream, and touch it a second time to obtain the menu. On the menu you'll see a button called "RESTART", click on it. It will restart your stream server and will give you its infos.