Live audio stream

[The Little Guy]

I have been thinking about how a live radio stream works, and I have come to this conclusion:

 

A client software (Flash for example) sends a live stream to the server, the server writes it to a file, such as an mp3, then a second client software (again Flash for example) reads from the end of the file (or a few seconds before the end). If the max file size, say 50MB is reached old stuff from the stream is deleted while the new stuff is written.

 

does this sound like how a live radio stream works, or am I completely off?

 

Any thoughts are appreciated!

[MasterACE14]

This is an interesting area.

 

The following is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_media

Live streaming, more specifically, means taking the media and broadcasting it live over the Internet. The process involves a camera for the media, an encoder to digitize the content, a media publisher where the streams are made available to potential end-users and a content delivery network to distribute and deliver the content. The media can then be viewed by end-users live.

 

In general, multimedia content has a large volume, so media storage and transmission costs are still significant. To offset this somewhat, media are generally compressed for both storage and streaming.

 

A media stream can be streamed either live or on demand. Live streams are generally provided by a means called true streaming. True streaming sends the information straight to the computer or device without saving the file to a hard disk. On Demand streaming is provided by a means called progressive streaming or progressive download. Progressive streaming saves the file to a hard disk and then is played from that location. On Demand streams are often saved to hard disks and servers for extended amounts of time; while the live streams are only available at one time only (e.g. during the Football game).

 

Streaming media storage size is calculated from the streaming bandwidth and length of the media using the following formula (for a single user and file):

storage size (in mebibytes) = length (in seconds) × bit rate (in bit/s) / (8 × 1024 × 1024)

 

The audio stream is compressed using an audio codec such as MP3, Vorbis or AAC.

 

Encoded audio and video streams are assembled in a container bitstream such as FLV, WebM, ASF or ISMA.

The bitstream is delivered from a streaming server to a streaming client using a transport protocol, such as MMS or RTP.

The streaming client may interact with the streaming server using a control protocol, such as MMS or RTSP.

 

More information can be found at http://www.playstream.com/services/live_work.aspx