Streaming Media Files
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Using Streaming Media
Updated 07/16/01

Using RealAudio/RealMedia files on your Website:

Creating and Uploading the data

You must encode your .WAV files into the RealAudio format prior to uploading.  One way to do this is with Real's free RealProducer program.  This creates a .rm file from your .wav file.

Your RealAudio files must be placed in the rmfiles folder inside your group directory.  This also adds security, as it makes it so that no one can actually download your file - they can only play it. 

So let's say your domain is whizbang.com.  The path to your group directory will be:

/home/whizbang
      ^^^^^^^^ ... since your group name is typically the first part of your domain name. Your normal web files will be:

/home/whizbang/http/

Use your FTP client to upload the RealAudio files to:

/home/whizbang/rmfiles/

Note that your home directory (the default location when you ftp or telnet in) will be inside the group directory.  So if your account name is joe, you will default to:

/home/whizbang/joe

Then you will need to go up one directory level to whizbang, then go into rmfiles.  Most ftp clients allow a "default directory" to be set, so you can have your program start in the rmfiles directory if desired.

Linking to the data - using RAMGEN

Now so that people can listen to them, use the following syntax:

http://(domain name):8080/ramgen/(group name)/(filename)

So let's say your domain is whizbang.com, and your file is called test.rm.  Here is the proper syntax:

http://whizbang.com:8080/ramgen/whizbang/test.rm

Note that using this method, you do not need to generate a .RAM file to point to the .rm file as was necessary in the past.  The :8080/ramgen automatically does this for you! 

In the past, the RealServer has let you have your files in other locations.  However, due to security problems with this behaviour, files are now limited to your rmfiles directory.   You may add additional directories inside of this directory if you wish. 

If you do have .rm files in other parts of your website and need to be able to link to them, we can place a symbolic link in your rmfiles directory to these.  Contact us for more information.

Linking to the data - using .RAM files

You can still use the old method, which is:

Using a simple text editor, create a file with the following link (from the data used in the previous example):

rtsp://whizbang.com:554/whizbang/test.rm

Now save this file as test.ram.  Upload test.ram into your website data area (/home/whizbang/http/), and reference this file (not the .rm file) as your link to play it.

 

For Live Audio Feeds:

In order to use our servers for live feeds, we need to set up a separate account for you.  Please contact your account representative for more information.  Once you obtain the RealServer account, you can use Real's RealProducer program to encode and upload your live event.

Set up the RealProducer with the following values:

RealServer:    nleinternet.net
Server Port:   4040
Filename:      <your group name>.rm    (Example: whizbang.rm)
Username:      <your username>
Password:      <your password>

Note: the older RealEncoder is not supported.  Get the latest free RealProducer from Real's site. 

Use the following link sample (modified, of course!) on your site to let people listen to this feed:

http://nleinternet.net:8080/ramgen/encoder/whizbang.rm

 

Miscellaneous Notes

We recommend using the 16k G2 Music CODEC for most of your content.  If you are only encoding speech, you can use the 11K G2 Codec.  These two provide maximum fidelity for listeners with 28.8k modems.  You can push the limit with the 20k music CODEC.  The free RealEncoder does not let you choose from every available codec!  That's the main difference between the free version and the standard version.  You can select from a few that they have chosen.  You define which codec is used by selecting the target audience type (modem speed), then select the audio format.  To see exactly what this is selecting, click on OPTIONS, then TARGET AUDIENCE SETTINGS, then FOR AUDIO CLIPS.  Make your "target audience" selection at the top.  Yes, this is a really convoluted way of selecting the codec - it's Real's attempt to idiot-proof the software, which in reality makes it a lot more complex than it needed to be.

Make sure you turn the SureStream OFF in the encoder.  This generates excessive data.  Select "Single Rate."   Make sure only one Target Audience selection is checked.

Remember that in unix, letters are case sensitive!   If you upload a file with capital letters, you will need to reference that file with capital letters.

 

Using the NLE Internet Streaming MP3 Server
Updated 01/23/01
 

Using Streaming Mpeg-3 audio files on your Website:

You must encode your files into the .MP3 format prior to uploading.  There are many public utilities that will do this for you.

We recommend placing your MP3 files in a folder called songs  inside your http directory.  This is not a requirement, but more of a convenience suggestion.

Linking to the files:

Now so that people can listen to them, use the following syntax:

http://(domain name)/(songs)/(filename).m3u?play=1

So let's say your domain is whizbang.com, and your file is called test.mp3, inside a directory called songs.  Here is the proper syntax:

http://whizbang.com/songs/test.m3u?play=1

Note that if you specify the filename as test.mp3, the file will download without streaming.

The advantage to having all the files in a separate directory is that you can get a cool directory listing of the MP3 files, along with the file attributes (encoded bit rate, length), and even create a play list by simply specifying the directory (without a filename).  Example:

http://whizbang.com/songs

Beware however that MP3 files can take up a LOT of bandwidth, and may not be playable on dialup connections. For example, most of the files on http://nleaudio.com/songs are encoded at least at 64k, which precludes any dialup users. You can encode at lower bitrates, but of course the quality suffers. 64k mono is closer to CD quality. Stereo takes up twice more the bandwidth (and file size).