Upstream

[Shoogle]

Hi,

How much upstream would I need to allow 100 viewers to watch without being interupted by buffering?

Thanks.

[sankt]

bandwidth required = encoding rate x 100

[Shoogle]

Thanks, but how do I find out what bandwidth is required? I am not very technical, sorry. I just want to know the ideal (rate?) of streaming to 100 people without it buffering.

[drewbar]

Originally posted by sankt
bandwidth required = encoding rate x 100

It is a function of the stream quality (bitrate) times the number of users. Bitrate is higly vairable, and is something you set when encoding the stream. Therefor, no matter how amny times you ask, there is no single number to say. It depends on the stream quality.

But it is safe to say for that many users, you are going to have to pau for the hosting. It is impossible to host a stream with that many users on a normal DSL/Cable connection, regardless of bitrate.

[Shoogle]

I see, thanks for that. Can you recomend any good hosting providers? Thanks.

[ken52787]

Since he doesn't seem to be technical enough to pick a bitrate, I'll throw some general figures out there.

Shit quality - 100 users @ 150kbps = 15 megabits/second minimum
Pretty good quality - 100users @ 300kbps = 30 megabits/second
Really good quality - 100users @ 500kbps = 50 megabits/second

So as you can see, you need a huge pipe, even at poor qualities. And since you didn't really understand how the bandwidth worked, I think its safe to assume that you don't have access to pipes this big.

To have any quality with 100 users will require you to purchase hosting from a company, and plan to pay dearly for it.

[Nick@ss]

http://djspinnercee.servemp3.com:11423/cgi-fx/bitrate?

this will help u get an idea of the info ur looking for

to sustain a 128k server u will need a 256 upload connection

anything uder that u would get away with a 128 connection but wouldnt be fantastic quality

[Shoogle]

Hi ken52787,

Thanks for your reply.

I am taking that 300kbps is upstream? My upstream at present is 246kbps.

You said "30 megabits/second", does this mean what the viewer views at it? 30 megabits/second.

Thanks again.

[Shoogle]

Hi nick@ss,

Thanks for that.

Just a question, it says "1600kbps @ 16kbps". What would I need to get to hold this?

Thanks.

[ken52787]

Shoogle, the 300kbps is the bitrate of the stream. Thats what the viewer needs to view it. The 30 megabits means you need 30,000kbps upstream to serve it to 100 people. With your upstream at 246kbps, you can't even support 1 person at that bitrate.

[rockouthippie]

Originally posted by ken52787
Shoogle, the 300kbps is the bitrate of the stream. Thats what the viewer needs to view it. The 30 megabits means you need 30,000kbps upstream to serve it to 100 people. With your upstream at 246kbps, you can't even support 1 person at that bitrate.

And don't count on the fact that because your ISP tells you you have a 100 mbps connection that that is the true bandwidth.

In practice, that may be a fraction of 100 MBPS, perhaps a small fraction.

[Inedible Bulk]

meaning burstable, as in, if you constantly use it, they'll get a mite bit pissed

[rockouthippie]

No, I didn't mean burst. I meant real.

Real is only what you can really do, theoretical is bullsomething... minus your theoretical estimate of the bullsomething that you can do.

You can buy BS. You can buy a fart in a whirlwind.

In reality, you can pull 2-4 MBPS off a server that hooks to an OC3.

You'll be able to reach most broadband users without pissing them off.

Then you'll run into bandwidth limits, do your calc.

Then run into that they count on selling you a LOT less bandwidth than you really use.