Suggestions for Streaming Noob

[soundesigner]

Hey...
The community college where I teach has long wanted a campus radio station, so I'm putting one together. We're gonna run Part 15 xmtrs on both AM and FM (the AM should cover most of the campus once I stick it on what passes for a bell tower on our student center; the FM will probably radiate as far as I can spit). One of my colleagues wrote a grant and in addition to the respective transmitters, we scored a couple of way-overkill Dell Studio desk-top computers (I don't remember model or CPU size off-hand, just that they were preposterously expensive and far more computer than we need). Also got StationPlaylist software, a phone patch, and a couple thousand feet of Belden audio cable in the deal.

Meanwhile, a friend passed along three Wheatstone consoles; sure they're state-of-the-art circa 1990, but they'll do fine for our situation (and we'll have spare parts for years). Add the mics and the dual-CD player we got with some "hurry up and spend it" money last year, and I think we have enough toys to do some peanut-whistle broadcasting.

In addition to the RF stuff, I think it important that we stream on the 'net as well. So, here are my questions:
Any thoughts on what all can or should run on a single computer? Any problems with automation-->processing-->streaming software running at the same time on one machine?
Any thoughts on stream-hosting? How about all-in-one music-licensing/streaming (a la Loudcaster, Live365, etc.) vs. separate music licensing and streaming deals?

Ideas, suggestions, and recipes will be appreciated. Likewise, any "didja think about...?" items I may have overlooked. Despite all the money spent on toys, we don't really have an operating budget, so everything we do from here out has to be "on the cheap".

Tnx!

[BroadcastDoc]

I know that SAM broadcaster has the playback, processing, and streaming modules all in one program. Works great on any modern-ish computer. It also imports music logs and has scripts to automate many tasks.

As for licensing, there are many options out there. I generally opt for the all-in-one approach...over time, it's usually cheaper to do it that way. Just make sure that whatever playback software you get can stream title and artist for royalty data.

[soundesigner]

Thanks, Doc.
Any thoughts on best way for a live DJ to send DMCA-compliant metadata when streaming? That is, if a jock is doing a live show playing CDs, vinyl, cassettes, wire-recordings ( ), etc., how does he or she inject the necessary tags into the stream to avoid the wrath of the music police?

Also, I guess since we already have StationPlaylist, SAM isn't going to be an option we can pursue at this point. When I started working on this project, I approached it from a live radio perspective; probably should've given more thought to the Internet aspects.

Again, thanks.
Bob

[wb9fhr]

Good source of information and licensing info for School & College stations
Think inexpensive streaming rights.

http://www.askcbi.org/

Good luck
Dave Janzer
Milwaukee

[eadler]

My main concern with running automation and stream sourcing on one machine would be that if you had an automation failure and needed to perform maintenance, you would likely need to take down your stream as well. If the stream encoder is separate, you can always play CDs and/or run a talk show during maintenance.