Altacast

Altacast (formerly known as Edcast and Oddcast) is a free and open-source audio encoder that can be used to create Internet streams of varying types. Many independent and commercial broadcasters use Altacast to create Internet radio stations, such as those listed on the Icecast, Loudcaster and Shoutcast station directories.

Altacast
Original author(s)Ed Zaleski
Developer(s)Altacast.com
Initial releaseApril 2001 (2001-04)[1]
Stable release(s)
Standalone, DSP1.0 / September 3, 2012 (2012-09-03)
RadioDJ plugin2.5.5 / March 19, 2016 (2016-03-19)
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows[2]
PlatformIA-32, x64[2]
Size2.2 MB
TypeStreaming media
License
Websitealtacast.com
OddSock
Nonprofit
IndustryInternet Radio Software
FoundedChicago, IL (60067)
HeadquartersChicago, IL, United States
Key people
Ed Zaleski, Founder
Number of employees
1
Websitewww.altacast.com 

Development

The original streaming software, Oddcast, was developed from 2000 to 2010. The official site at Oddsock.org hosted streaming media tools, which included Oddcast, Stream Transcoder, Icecast Station Browser plugin, Song Requester plugin and Do Something plugin.[4] In late November 2010, Oddsock.org was shut down.[5]

Edcast, a fork of Oddcast, is being updated and hosted at Club RIO. In early 2012, development of Edcast was moved to Google Code and SourceForge. As of October 30, 2011, the latest stable version is 3.33.2011.1026 and the latest beta version is 3.37.2011.1214.

In September 2012, a second fork, Altacast was released. The Standalone & DSP edition are derived from GPL software and is available on GitHub,[6] while the RadioDJ edition is written in .NET Framework and developed separately. A version 2.0 for the Standalone & DSP edition that will be SHOUTcast v2 compatible is planned for the future.

Altacast plugin for RadioDJ will no longer function with new versions of RadioDJv2 - Altacast is not supported by the developer of RadioDJ due to legal issues.[7]

Features

Altacast is supported on Windows. It will run in conjunction with various media players compatible with Winamp plugins, such as AIMP, JetAudio, KMPlayer, MediaMonkey, MusicBee and foobar2000, as well as a standalone encoder.

Altacast Standalone & DSP can stream to Icecast and SHOUTcast servers in Ogg Vorbis and Ogg FLAC out-of-the-box. MP3, AAC and AAC+ support can be added via the LAME encoder (lame_enc.dll), FAAC encoder (libFAAC.dll), and CT-aacPlus encoder (enc_aacplus.dll obtainable from Winamp 5.61)[8] respectively. Adjustable settings for each encoder include bitrate (for MP3, AAC+, Ogg Vorbis), quality (for AAC, Ogg Vorbis), sample rate (22050 Hz or 44100 Hz) and channels (Parametric Stereo is available for AAC+ up till 56kbps).

SHOUTcast v2 is currently not officially supported in Altacast Standalone & DSP. However, it is possible to connect to stream ID no. 1 of a SHOUTcast v2 server in legacy (v1) mode. As a temporary workaround, the SHOUTcast DSP 1.9.2 plugin for Winamp-compatible media players may be used to broadcast to alternate mount points (e.g. stream ID no. 2).

SHOUTcast v2 and Opus support is available in v1.4 onwards in the plugin.

Reception

In 2007 Oddcast was used in a document from the Department of Audio Communication of the Technical University of Berlin as part of description to set up an internet radio broadcast system.[9] Use of edcast for a similar purpose was described in a 2010 article in the PCWorld magazine.[10] A 2016 thesis for Oulu University of Applied Sciences has described the used of Altacast in the implementation of an internet radio station[2] while the for a 2018 article in the Linux Journal recommended it as a compatible source client for Microsoft Windows in setting up a freeware internet radio station using Liquidsoap, icecast and open standards.[11] Académie d'Orléans-Tours has used web radio (internet radio) for broadcasts for students and the use of edcast subsequently altacast in the system has been described.[12][13][14]

gollark: Good* news! Calls are now on the live instance.
gollark: ++tel info
gollark: Oops.
gollark: ++tel status
gollark: Maybe graphviz should be integratized™.

See also

References
  1. "It's all free dammit!". oddsock.org. Archived from the original on 28 April 2001.
  2. Kosola, Heikki (2016). Internet-radion toteutus Radio Inarille (Thesis) (in Finnish). Oulu University of Applied Sciences. Archived from the original on 2017-09-04. Retrieved 2018-10-22.
  3. "houseRadioDJ - Free Radio Automation Software Forum » More or Less Radio Talk » Altacast - The new Edcast (Moderator: SnowHow) » AltaCast Source Code and Clarification". RadioDJ. 16 February 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-06-07. Retrieved 2015-09-20.
  4. "oddsock.org Steaming Media Tools - tools". Oddsock.org. Archived from the original on 11 November 2010.
  5. Ed. "The time has come for me to close oddsock.org". oddsock.org. Archived from the original on 24 April 2012.
  6. "DustyDrifter/AltaCast". GitHubaccess-date=2 October 2018. Archived from the original on 11 June 2018.
  7. "Issue 72 - edcast-reborn - Will Edcast support other file types?". Google Project Hosting. Archived from the original on 2016-01-04. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  8. Franzke, Nico; Damrau, Robert (17 July 2007). "Anleitung zur Installation eines Streaming-Servers innerhalb eines LAN mit DSL Anbindung am Beispiel von Icecast32 und Oddcast" (PDF) (in German). Technical University of Berlin. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 September 2015.
  9. Miller, Patrick (3 March 2010). "Start Your Own Internet Radio Station for Free". PCWorld. IDG. Step 3: Configure the Source App & Step 4: Play That Funky Music. Archived from the original on 30 August 2017.
  10. Dengler, Bill (August 2017). "Creating an Internet Radio Station with Icecast and Liquidsoap". Linux Journal. 2017 (280). Article No. 1. Archived from the original on 2 July 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  11. "Using edcast". Webradio de l'académie d'Orléans-Tours (in French). Archived from the original on 28 August 2016.
  12. "Using altacast". Webradio de l'académie d'Orléans-Tours (in French). Archived from the original on 10 October 2018. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  13. "Webradio de l'académie d'Orléans-Tours". Webradio de l'académie d'Orléans-Tours (in French). Archived from the original on 10 October 2018. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
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