Terminology

Explanation of terms used in various articles and manuals on this website

• Streaming (media)

  is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider. Specifically in this case, we use the term streaming to describe the method of audio-streaming. A common usage of audio streaming are internet radio stations.

• Multicasting

  is the delivery of a message or information to a group of destination computers simultaneously in a single transmission from the source creating copies automatically in other network elements. Multicast is most commonly implemented in IP multicast, which is often employed in Internet Protocol (IP) applications of streaming media and Internet television.

• SHOUTcast

  is a streaming media project released in 1999 by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of America Online. The SHOUTcast software uses a client–server model, with each component communicating via a network protocol that intermingles audio data with metadata such as song titles and the station name. It uses HTTP as a transport protocol, although multicast is another option.

• Icecast

  is a streaming media project released end 1998 as free software maintained by the Xiph.org Foundation. The Icecast server is capable of streaming content as Vorbis over standard HTTP, Theora over HTTP, MP3 over the protocol used by SHOUTcast, AAC, and NSV over the SHOUTcast protocol.

• Nicecast

  is a streaming media method that combines Audio Hijack's ability to capture audio with the open source Icecast streaming media system to enable users to broadcast audio from any program over the internet. Specifically it's developed for the Mac.