# The Broadcast Window

### Basics

The Broadcast window is the operations center of Nicecast, your command post on Starship USS Your-Own-Radio-Station. From this window, you can adjust most of the relevant settings for your broadcast, get your broadcast started, and watch its progress. The basic controls of the Broadcast window, as well as its drawers is detailed below.

### Main

Start/Stop Broadcast - Toggles the state of your broadcast. When clicked, this causes Nicecast to take audio from the Source, encode it and send it to the server as set in the Server window.

State - Shows the Broadcast's current state, between waiting to take Source audio and broadcast (Standby) and sending audio from the source to the Server (On Air).

Level - Shows the audio level of audio. Click to switch between 4 modes, or turn the meters off.

Volume Adjuster - This volume slider affects ONLY the local volume, as you hear it come out of your speakers. It will NOT affect the volume your listeners hear. Keep in mind that the volume of the Source, such as iTunes' volume slider, will affect the stream's volume. Usage example: Silence your automated broadcast for the night.

Info Scroller - Shows the current status of your broadcast, your current source application, and if available, information about the current track the source application is playing. Nicecast automatically reads track information from iTunes, Audion, MacAmp Lite X, MegaSeg, and Ask The DJ.

### Source Drawer

The Source Drawer adjusts the source from which Nicecast gets its audio. A source can be an application, such as iTunes, a hardware input device, such as a mixer or a microphone, or the System Audio option, pulling in all audio playing through OS X. Note: No need to change the input for simple voiceovers, just use the VoiceOver Effect.

Advanced... - The Advanced button provides access to advanced options for each source type. Generally, these should be left in their default states.

When used with a standard Application as the source, the following settings will be available from the Advanced window.

Include audio inputs: This setting enables Nicecast to grab audio from input devices like microphones, in addition to the selected application.

Split between channels: With this active, input devices will be placed on the audio's left channel, while the application source's audio will be placed on the right channel.

Limit audio capture to: By default, when an application is playing to multiple output devices, audio from all these devices will be captured and mixed together. Use this setting to instead select a specific audio device to capture.

When used with an Audio Device as the source, the following settings will be available from the Advanced window.

### Input Device Settings

Device: Displays the device name selected in the main window for the input.

Left Channel: For devices with more than two channels, select the channel which will serve as the left.

Right Channel: For devices with more than two channels, select the channel which will serve as the right.

Buffering: Adjusts the size of the audio buffer for the input, in frames. A larger buffer is less prone to skipping but has higher latency (delay), while a smaller buffer has lower latency but may be more prone to skipping. This is best left at Default to start.

### Output Device Settings

Device: Displays the device name selected in the main window for the output.

Left Channel: For devices with more than two channels, select the channel which will serve as the left.

Right Channel: For devices with more than two channels, select the channel which will serve as the right.

Buffering: Adjusts the size of the audio buffer for the output, in frames. A larger buffer is less prone to skipping but has higher latency (delay), while a smaller buffer has lower latency but may be more prone to skipping. This is best left at Default to start.

### Info Drawer

The Info drawer contains information which will be received by listeners of your stream, as well as the Stream Tracker (see "Share Drawer" below).

Name - Stream Name, anything you desire. Make it memorable.

URL - Enter the website of your stream's homepage here.

Genre - Used to sort your broadcast on the Stream Tracker, and to draw in listeners.

AIM - Enter your AOL Instant Messenger/Messages or other screenname here, so listeners can contact you.

Description - Enter a longer description of your station, used by trackers which list your stream

Titles Drawer

The Titles drawer shows the currently playing track info, as well as previous tracks. Nicecast automatically reads track information from iTunes, Audion, MacAmp Lite X, MegaSeg, and Ask The DJ.

### Quality Drawer

This drawer allows you to set the quality of your stream. The higher the number, the better the quality. However, it is crucial to remember that each listener is using bandwidth, and your bandwidth is limited. The connection types next to each quality level are guides, i.e. if you have DSL or a Cable modem, a stream of 56 or 128 Kbps will work to give you up to about 8 listeners. The lower the quality, the more listeners your connection can support.

For local servers, if you wish to support more than one listener, divide the stream bitrate by the number of listeners you wish to be able to support, and adjust the Listener Limit in the Server window. If you have a cable modem with 128 Kbps of bandwidth and two listeners, each listener can receive at most 56kbps of data. This means your stream's bitrate needs to factor in the number of listeners to whom you will be serving.

Example: If you have a cable modem, and you wish to be able to support 4 listeners, divide 128Kbps by 4 listeners, which equals 32 Kbps per listener. In this case, your stream's bitrate should be no higher than 32 Kbps, an audio quality which is still high enough to be listened to.

The Custom... setting allows you to choose from many different bitrate choices. Even more useful is the CPU Usage/Audio Quality slider - this slider allows you to raise the quality of your stream at the same bitrate, at the expense of CPU power. If nothing else will be running on the machine which Nicecast runs on, try turning this slider all the way up. Otherwise, find a healthy balance.

### Share Drawer

Address

Internet Address - Copy the address to IM to a friend or post to a webpage. Save it to a file which will play the stream when double-clicked, and email this file around.

Local Address - Use the address to listen to the stream on your own LAN.

Server Checker - This tool initiates a connection from the outside world to your server, and reports back on its success. Use it to determine if your stream is accessible from the outside world. If not, see the LAN Troubles sections.

### Effects button

Opens the Effects window, for adding audio effects.