Stream service requirements
  • 10 May 2021
  • 2 Minutes to read
  • Contributors
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Stream service requirements

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Article Summary

Streaming requires a reliable internet connection from the studio where audio is captured and sent as a contribution stream to a dedicated endpoint on our platform.

The public internet is not 100% reliable for delivering a continuous stream 24x7. Customers may experience intermittent errors when streaming into our platform based on the internet connection they use to send the contribution stream.

Internet requirements

The internet connection used for sending a contribution stream must:

  • Be able to sustain a constant upload speed of at least 25% more than the bitrate of the contribution stream. If you are sending a 64kbps stream, you need at least 80kbps internet connection.
  • Support for 25Gb (at 64kbps) of outgoing traffic per month, up to 60Gb (at 128kbps).
  • Firewalls must allow a connection to be established to TCP port 8000 on an IP we provide.

Internet recommendations

  • We strongly recommend using a dedicated internet connection for streaming. Other devices using the same connection may cause skipping to occur if they saturate the available bandwidth even for short durations.
  • The hardware or software sending the stream must be capable of automatically reconnecting after any network disconnect. (Our dedicated hardware does this automatically)

Validate network access

Prior to connecting our streaming device, validate the internet connection by following these steps:

  • Connect a normal laptop or desktop machine to the router the device will be connected to.
  • Use the same network cable the device will be using to.
  • Ensure normal internet browsing works by visiting https://iono.fm/ in a browser.
  • Ensure port 8000 is open by visiting http://iono.fm:8000/ in a browser.
  • Test how fast your internet connection is. Visit bandwidthplace.com in your browser.
  • Click on "Server: Auto Select Server" and change the server to "Europe" / "Frankfurt, DE".
  • After running the test the Upload speed must be at least 0.20Mbps and the Ping must be below 200ms.

users-stream-bandwidth-test

Input endpoint and format

Customers must send their contribution stream as:

  • Icecast 2 on port 8000

At the start of your trial we will provide unique connection setting for sending your stream:

  • the IP address to send to
  • a mount point name
  • a username and password

Any bitrate is acceptable as long as it can be pushed reliably with your available upstream bandwidth. We recommend:

  • For streams on our "Community" package, a bitrate of 64k.
  • For streams on our "Commercial" package, a bitrate of 160k.

We recommend using AAC as an encoding format, but MP3 and Opus are also supported.

What software can i use to publish my stream ?

Free and commercial software are widely available that can send compatible Icecast audio streams into our platform.

Some examples: