Forum OpenACS Q&A: Real Audio on AOLserver and Bandwith Puzzle

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1: Real Audio on AOLserver and Bandwith Puzzle
Posted by Bob OConnor on 06/18/01 09:56 PM

Our Real Audio host has given us notice that they are quitting...

I could serve up the Real Audio files on our AOLServer OR host them with pair.com or another provider.

I need to understand the Math. The AOLserver HOST doesn't charge for bandwidth. He limits our connection to a fixed 128K and $25 for each extra 64K ordered.

The Real Audio files play and show that they were Encoded at 16K. Yet, one of our 30 Minute audios is 3,774,000 bytes which is 125,800 bytes per minute or 2,096 bytes per second. This is 2K is is not? So this means that I could in theory at max (nothing else happening) run 64 streams at 2K each for a total of 128K.

The other alternative is to use Pair which allows up to 400 MB per day Bandwidth for $30/month. This would allow serving 53 Hours of Audio a day (7.54 Megs / hour) of Real Audio with ??? any number of streams?

This seems like comparing Apples and Oranges.... I'd appreciate some insights here. THank you.

I assume that AOLserver is configured to serve up .ra files without trouble.

Thank you
-Bob

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2: Response to Real Audio on AOLserver and Bandwith Puzzle (response to 1)
Posted by Jonathan Ellis on 06/18/01 11:20 PM
Your math is correct, but net bandwidth is typically measured in kbps, with a lowercase b -- bits, not bytes.  So 2KB = 16 Kb, meaning you're correct that the RA files are encoded at 16 kbps.  Almost certainly your 128 kps connection is also bits.
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3: Response to Real Audio on AOLserver and Bandwith Puzzle (response to 1)
Posted by David Eison on 06/19/01 06:18 PM
re: "I assume that AOLserver is configured to serve up .ra files without trouble"

Doesn't serving Real Audio require a real audio server?  Or do they have some formats that do and some formats that don't?  I believe this is a key part of the cost of paying a 3rd party to host real audio, they have to pay for server licenses that support X # of streams.

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4: Response to Real Audio on AOLserver and Bandwith Puzzle (response to 1)
Posted by Matthew Terenzio on 06/20/01 05:19 AM
Last I saw, the basic real server for up to ten simultaneous streams(speaking from memory) was free. It is also possible to stream .ra files through HTTP.

1)You need these mime types on your server:

audio/x-pn-realaudio     rm ra ram

audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin       rpm

2)Create a metafile which points to the .ra file in this format:
http://hostname/path/filename

3)Save the metafile as a .ram file

4)link to the metafile from your web page.