How do I setup an Icecast server for broadcasting audio in my network?

Broadcasting the output of the soundcard as an internet radio stream is a reliable way to stream audio in a network. This can nicely be used to e.g. transmit audio in a wireless LAN to another computer or any other device capable of playing internet radio streams.

However I did not find an easy step by step guide on how to set this up.

Solution 1:

Broadcast audio with Icecast2

1. Install Icecast2

2. Edit Icecast2 configuration

Open the file /etc/icecast2/icecast.xml as root in an editor. For security reasons you should setup passwords in the <authentication> section:

<admin-user>admin</admin-user>
<admin-password>hackme</admin-password> 

If you changed the <source-password> or <relay-password> you need to do so on the source or relay side as well. That means leave it default or change it in the ices2.xml file (see below) as well. The same will need to be done in the Ices or Darkice configuration files.

You also need to define the hostname where your stream can be reached:

<hostname>localhost</hostname>

Leave it as localhost (no need to give a resolved IP there) when you only want to stream in your local network. The default port to listen to is 8000. Change it only when needed.

3. Edit defaults

Open the /etc/default/icecast2 file as root in an editor. The last line needs to be changed to

ENABLE=true

That's all for Icecast2. Of course there are many more settings you can play with. In the configurations files there are explanatory notes on parameters.

4. Start/Stop Icecast

The server is started and stopped by the following commands:

/etc/init.d/icecast2 start
/etc/init.d/icecast2 stop

While running the Icecast server can be administrated from any browser at http://localhost:8000/admin/ after entering your administrator credentials defined in step 1. Further documentation is available from Icecast.org.

Stream2ip is a graphical frontend to quickly start and stop streams where a basic setup for Ices2, Ices or Darkice has already been done.

Ices2 for streaming OGG Vorbis audio from a local soundcard

To set up of pulseaudio to enable recording from the soundcard see note for Darkice below.

Make directories for Ices2

mkdir /var/log/ices   # in case you need logfiles.  
mkdir /etc/ices2      # for putting ices stuff in.  

Edit the Ices2 configuration .xml

Ices2 will run using an .xml file for settings. Verbous examples of configurations can be found in /usr/share/doc/ices2/examples/. These files need to be edited to meet your needs and can be copied anywhere, best in your home directory. Depending on the configuration file Ices2 uses a playlist in Ogg Vorbis format (ices-playlist.xml) or the output from your soundcard (ices-alsa.xml) as streaming source for Icecast2.

In the section <input> you may need to replace the device if you have setup your sound system to PulseAudio. To do this edit the corresponding line to:

<param name="device">pulse</param>

The name of the stream for the receiving client is defined in the following section.

<mount>/example1.ogg</mount>

Start Streaming

Streams from your soundcard will be started by first running the Icecast2 server, and then running Ices2 using the following commands:

/etc/init.d/icecast2 start
ices2 /home/user/somewhere/ices-pulse.xml # or any other name from .xml file

Setup Receiver

On the receiver side your radio "station" tunes on: <serverIP>:8000/example1.ogg where <serverIP> is the IP of your streaming server followed by the port you defined in the icecast.xml file (default 8000).

Terminate Streaming

Streams are terminated by killing Ices2 and/or stop running the Icecast2 server:

killall ices2
/etc/init.d/icecast2 stop

Ices for broadcasting mp3 playlists

Broadcasting a playlist containing mp3 files can not be done with Ices2. We need to install IceS, which we have to install from source.

After having set up the configuration file with server address, password and streaming properties (well documented example will be found in /usr/share/doc/ices/examples) we can stream mp3 audio files from playlists (e.g. in .m3u format) over an Icecast2 server by:

/etc/init.d/icecast2 start
ices -c <path_to_config_file> -F <path_to_playlist>

For further options read the documentation in the quite elaborate man page from man ices.

Darkice for live streaming

We can stream the output of the local sound card as OGG Vorbis or as mp3 stream using Darkice. To enable streaming of the local soundcard we may need to define the recording device for Darkice in pulseaudio first. This can be done with pavucontrol . In the Recording tab choose Monitor of <your soundcard> for the "ALSA plug-in [darkice]".

The configuration file (well documented example given in /usr/share/doc/darkice/examples) needs to be adapted to the Icecast server and the local sound environment:

[general]
duration        = 0      # duration in s, 0 forever
bufferSecs      = 1      # buffer, in seconds
reconnect       = yes    # reconnect if disconnected

[input]
device          = default # or `pulse' for Pulseaudio
sampleRate      = 44100   # sample rate 11025, 22050 or 44100
bitsPerSample   = 16      # bits
channel         = 2       # 2 = stereo

[icecast2-0]
bitrateMode     = vbr       # variable bit rate (`cbr' constant, `abr' average)
quality         = 1.0       # 1.0 is best quality
format          = mp3       # format. Choose `vorbis' for OGG Vorbis
bitrate         = 256       # bitrate
server          = localhost # or IP
port            = 8000      # port for IceCast2 access
password        = hackme    # source password to the IceCast2 server
mountPoint      = mystream.mp3  # mount point on the IceCast2 server .mp3 or .ogg
name            = mystream

After saving this configuration (e.g. in ~/music/darkice.cfg) we first run the Icecast server and are then able to stream pulseaudio output from the local sound card by invoking:

/etc/init.d/icecast2 start
darkice -c ~/music/darkice.cfg

On the receiver we tune to http://<localhost>:8000/mystream.mp3 for listening. <localhost> is the IP of the Icecast server.