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Did you ever dream of being a DJ radio star or nightly news anchor? Streaming audio/video technology and Apple's QuickTime Streaming Server can make this happen, at least over the Internet.

Apple's QuickTime Streaming Server (QTSS) is available to download and works with Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server. The ready-made OpenSource Darwin versions of QTSS are also available for Red Hat Linux, Solaris and Windows NT, but this is an OS X column, so we'll keep on track. Apple only supports installs on Mac OS X Server, however, it runs just fine under OS X. QuickTime Streaming Server allows us to stream movies and MP3 files over the Internet, which can then be viewed remotely via QuickTime Player or iTunes.

Media Basics

There are principally two methods for sending video and audio over the Internet. First is what's called a progressive download and second, real-time streaming. Most of us are familiar with the two, even if we don't know what they are. Progressive downloading is essentially when you have a file on a server and you download it to your computer for viewing. There are two ways to view the file, one is to completely download it and then view it, or you can start viewing the file as it downloads. Here you basically give the download a head start then begin viewing it at a point where the file should finish downloading before you reach the end of the file.

Streaming is completely different. Anyone can do progressive download, provided the media is saved correctly. To stream a file, a special server is required. Streaming is a live feed delivered from a server. No file is ever downloaded or saved on the remote machine -- data is presented as it's downloaded. Typically streaming is best for live events, which allow users to tune in live rather than waiting for the event to be finished, rendered and then offered for download. You can also stream "canned" media, such as archived video or audio. To end users, differences between streaming canned media and downloading a file isn't particularly significant. One example of where you would want to stream canned media is with an Internet radio or TV station.

Your Radio/TV Station

QTSS lets you set up preprogrammed videos and audio files. Using playlists, you can configure programming to last all day. Similar to an iTune's playlists, QTSS playlists allow you to pick media that can be played sequentially, randomly or looped.

So for example, lets say you rip your 50 favorite tracks in iTunes from your CD collection. You set them up to run in sequential order and continuously loop. Between the songs, you put in some of your own tracks, such as "station" ID and commercials. Maybe you could even do some self-promotion.

Anyone can then tune into your station 24 hours a day to hear your favorite tunes. Lets say a full rotation of your playlist takes three hours to run. You can tune in at any point of the playlist and the files will keep streaming whether you're listening or not.

The same can be done with video files, using either QuickTime or MPEG-4 video formats. MPEG-4 is still steeped in controversy over its licensing fees. QuickTime 6, due later this summer, will include support for MPEG-4 playback. The differences between Apple's QuickTime video and MPEG-4 pretty much comes down to compatibility. Windows users will be more likely to view an MPEG-4 video than a QuickTime video, therefore, MPEG-4 is an attractive cross-platform option.

QuickTime Streaming Server is pretty robust and attractively priced. QTSS can handle up to 4000 simultaneous streams. The price is right too as QTSS has no licensing fees. This makes it the same price (free) to stream 1 or 4000 clients.

A good example of an application of QuickTime Streaming Server is Shawn King, who broadcasts his weekly shows with QTSS. His Your Mac Life show broadcasts every Wednesday at 9 PM eastern. Shawn told me that if you want to do any type of streaming on the Mac, QuickTime Streaming Server is a must. Weekly, Shawn can broadcast from multiple locations and send his stream to a central QuickTime Streaming Server, where his listeners dial in to pick up the stream. Using Sorenson Broadcaster, Shawn can deliver a live feed from practically anywhere with an Internet connection. "Without QTSS, we wouldn't be able to do our show or be able to do it from a variety of locations," Shawn told IGM. "It's bullet proof and a great tool."

When serving streams, the real limiting factor is network bandwidth. This is the reason people like Shawn link up with a hosting provider to distribute their content. Most broadband Internet services have limited upstream capabilities, so running a streaming server from your home is probably not the best idea. Conveniently, QTSS offers relaying. This allows one QTSS to forward content to other servers for distribution. Ideally you could set up one Mac as the originating server, and then forward your stream to another server, such as an Xserve, typically co-located across town or across the world in a dark room with plenty of bandwidth.

CARP

Before you run out and start up your own radio station, there is some fine print. For the past few years a copyright battle has been brewing over Internet radio stations. The Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) is working to implement royalty fees for music broadcasted over the Internet.

The initial proposal was just recently shot down, which would require broadcasters to pay $0.0014 per listener, per song. This is in addition to retroactive fees, which would go back to October 1998, which is when the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) became law and established that Internet broadcasters must pay royalties to record labels. The final rates are expected to be set on June 20. It will certainly be interesting to see what those rates are, and how they will shape the model of Internet broadcasting.

DIY

So lets get to it. Apple has made streaming cheap and easy through Mac OS X and QuickTime Streaming Server. In minutes you can be up and running, but there can be a few snags. Here're some step-by-step instructions.

When installing the QTSS, I'd recommend enabling port 80 to get things going. You'll want to go into your System Preferences, and disable Web Sharing under Sharing. We're going to set us up to broadcast on port 80, which is the same Internet port Mac OS X uses for Web serving. If you use your Web server on this machine, you can use an alternate port for the streaming server, but for now this seems to be the easiest way to get things going. After you install the server, fire up the administrator application and check out the settings. Make sure the server is running in the top left corner of the window and also Under Port Settings, ensure that Streaming on Port 80 is enabled.

As a test, lets use the media that's included with the server. From there you can add in your own movies and MP3s. Lets jump right to the Playlists and click the New MP3 Playlist. We should see some sample files in the left column. These files are saved in /Library/QuickTimeStreaming/Movies. This location can be changed in the General Settings, if you wish. All files that you intend to stream need to be in this directory.

Lets select these sample files and drag them over to the right column. We've now told QTSS to stream these files. Next, lets enter a name for our playlist and mount point. The mount point indicates this playlist. You can have multiple playlists running, each with particular content. I called mine mike, you can call it what you want. One other option is the Play Mode. I'd select Sequential Looped for now, feel free to change that and the Weight options later. After you have your playlists set up, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes. In the Playlists menu, you should see your playlist in the Available Playlists box with a status of Stopped. Click the play button to the right and you're off.

To test our server lets open iTunes. Under Advanced, select Open Stream. In the box, type in http://localhost/mike/ (mike being the name of your share point). That should do it, you're now streaming your own radio station. Others can reach your server by typing in your Mac's IP address instead of localhost.

To do video, it's essentially the same, with a couple exceptions. Instead of a directory, your share point is a specific file like name.sdp. Feel free to set up a movie playlist similarly to the MP3. To view your play list, open QuickTime Player and under File select Open new URL. Type in rtsp://localhost/name.sdp (name.sdp being the name of your share point) and now you have a TV station.



If you want to use QTSS with OS X's Web server, QTSS can use ports 554 and 7070 rather than 80. You'll want to disable port 80 in the QTSS settings, then for example in iTunes use http://localhost:554/mike and similarly with QuickTime Player, rtsp://localhost:554/name.sdp.

That's it! You're now an Internet broadcaster. If you're looking to do live broadcasting, you'll need a separate program to handle encoding, which then will connect to a QTSS to distribute your content. Sorenson Broadcaster is the best one that I know of. Apple has a list of tools for broadcasts, which also include Backbone Radio, cast:stream, Live Channel and MagaSeg.