Web Hosting "Over Saturated" New Stuff..

I am not sure but based on readings there are way too many hosting companies out there and everything seems to get 'saturated'.
I have no interest in hosting but if needed I need to provide something. Much I cannot provide because of the speed.

Everyone can now plug a Cobalt RAQ in their T1 lines or maybe a collated data center that charges 125/month for a T3 line
or a DS3.

I would prefer more, I would ask for more and want more. I would like to huge bursts of bandwidth. Right now slowly I am
disabling accounts off our servers. We offer free hosting for few months after we finish the design. Right now the server(s) are
mostly empty. I would like to plug IceCast or ShoutCast and use the server as a broadcasting server and no longer a "web"
site hosting server. No many out there can provide that.

I would like to plug in 128kbps streams of stereo music via the web. I would like to support 100-300 users at one time.
Maybe multiply that by 24 hours a day.

Now and than I get a call or email (spam) asking me to co-locate with some company I never herd of before. They do have good
pricing (100-150$/month) or they tell me they have OC192 and I burst in laughter.


When asked to move my server I always ask. "In that price, if web site hosting is not working out, Can I use my SuperMicro
SuperServer as a multimedia/music bouncer/streamer." 90% or so of the time... they step down.

Right now we've got a SuperMicro server collecting dust. Cobalt RAQ is nice. It has GUI, Panels and such. The new one
can only be used as a bare multimedia server where no CPanel is required.

I believe there is some money to be made in the multimedia / web related content. Have users stream media/music
from home on their DSL/Cable modem bounce it off the colocated server and broadcast to 10, 100, 1000 users; and
charge anywhere from 1-3$ per stream. That can also depend on how many streams, what stream rate, and some other
factors...

Monthly traffic is not bad. 40-50mb per user but the problem is when you have 250 users listening at the same time.

One thing though.... more people browse web sites than 'online radio' stations. But maybe one day "your" station can be listed by Real Networks, Spinner, ShoutCast, and other major networks. But if listed be ready for some major traffic.

I was just thinking about such a solution this morning, but targeted at larger customers like radio and tv stations.

Have you checked the ultimate broadcast server? The Xserve (http://www.apple.com/xserve/)

You should also check out the server introduction where you see the load it can handle while streaming. Xserve Introduction (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/xserve/index.html)

Also checkout the Quicktime Live Conference (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/qtlive02/.) You can see the demo of a product called Quicktime Broadcaster (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/preview/broadcaster/) which captures audio and video from a source, streams it to Quicktime Streaming Server (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/products/qtss/) which broadcasts it around to the users using Quicktime Player (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/preview/quicktime6/.), even to mobile devices.

All of the quicktime software is free and uses MPEG-4.

In the quicktime live conference broadcast you also see a demo of quicktime streaming servers used with itunes (http://www.apple.com/itunes/) which is apple's app for listening to audio (mp-3, cd, ...), and the playlist is controlled remotelly via a web browser.

If you haven't seen this, check it out, it is the ultimate solution to what you were thinking.

And no, I don't work for Apple... If you want to discuss this more feel free to send me a private message. As I said it is something I am considering putting into practice.

Originally posted by ricardo
I was just thinking about such a solution this morning, but targeted at larger customers like radio and tv stations.

Have you checked the ultimate broadcast server? The Xserve (http://www.apple.com/xserve/)

You should also check out the server introduction where you see the load it can handle while streaming. Xserve Introduction (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/xserve/index.html)

Also checkout the Quicktime Live Conference (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/qtlive02/.) You can see the demo of a product called Quicktime Broadcaster (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/preview/broadcaster/) which captures audio and video from a source, streams it to Quicktime Streaming Server (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/products/qtss/) which broadcasts it around to the users using Quicktime Player (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/preview/quicktime6/.), even to mobile devices.

All of the quicktime software is free and uses MPEG-4.

In the quicktime live conference broadcast you also see a demo of quicktime streaming servers used with itunes (http://www.apple.com/itunes/) which is apple's app for listening to audio (mp-3, cd, ...), and the playlist is controlled remotelly via a web browser.

If you haven't seen this, check it out, it is the ultimate solution to what you were thinking.

And no, I don't work for Apple... If you want to discuss this more feel free to send me a private message. As I said it is something I am considering putting into practice.

It's a nice slick machine. It came out after I built the server. It's a very nice appliance. I am also surprised the Apple is getting into the 'web' appliance market.

It reminds me of Cobalt, you get Chili!Soft for free if you buy the hardware along with the c-panel. You get free QuickTime server/license if you buy XServer.

... the plain "hosting" has gotten a bit "dusty"
One of the reasons we decided some time ago to do IRC on special circuits and servers. I must say that THIS is atm the only fun part... will look into mm-content though, sounds good :)

Well, you get more things for free with the xserve, like, php, mysql, mail server(pop and imap), webojects deployment, remote monitoring tools( for the hardware), tomcat, etc.

I know some of these things are also free to other platforms, but they come standard with the xserve and are integrated in the operating system by apple.

:)

Originally posted by ricardo
Well, you get more things for free with the xserve, like, php, mysql, mail server(pop and imap), webojects deployment, remote monitoring tools( for the hardware), tomcat, etc.

I know some of these things are also free to other platforms, but they come standard with the xserve and are integrated in the operating system by apple.

:)

It's hard to believe that they are comming out with some "good" stuff though. Suddenly from a good graphical / multimedia background machines to WEB...

They sort of got on the boat a little late but not bad...

SHOUTcast can certainly eat through your bandwidth. 100 - 300 users can easily burn through 4,052 - 12,155 Gigabytes per month. Trust me, I know first hand. If your going to get into the streaming side of things, you have to be ready to compete. People like streamguys.com, make it a little hard to compete with at the prices they offer.