Introduction
 

To put it simply, Internet Radio is a way of receiving streamed radio stations through your PC and Internet connection.  Also, with the right equipment, you can broadcast your own radio station across the Internet.  This site aims to examine some of the issues, both technical and legal, about receiving and/or broadcasting Internet Radio stations.
 

Here is a simplified overview of how live audio broadcasting works:

1.  The audio signal enters the encoding computer through an installed sound card. 

2.  The encoder system translates the audio from the sound card into a streaming format and sends it to the server. 

3.  The server sends the audio data stream over the Internet to the player software on the listener's computer. 
 

Instead of going through each element seperately, we will examine them in them in relation to which side of the broadcast they are used in.

• The Listener (the easy part)

Listening to broadcasts from around the world - what equipment do I need?

• The Broadcaster (the hard part)

How do the radio stations broadcast across the Internet?
 
• Bandwidth

Will it sound any good?
 
• Summary / Sources

I'd like to thank the director...