I believe I read somewhere that you can use a Wi-Fi router to “broadcast” audio directly to other computers in your area. Has anyone here done this? What software did you use to stream the audio? How well did it work? What kind of range did you get? Did you get any listeners?
I’ve got a spare Linksys 802.11b router and I think I’d like to give this a try. All suggestions welcome!
Exploring the Matter
Your question is one I’ve also had. Here is the text of an e-mail I just sent a family member who has WiFi, to get his opinion:
“On the part15.us website where I follow the blogs and forum on low power radio, a member asked about using WiFi to broadcast radio programming to other people’s computers. He said he had heard it could be done. I’ll speculate a little now, but your answer might shed more light on the subject.
“Since you have a WiFi ISP connection, would you be able to also receive transmissions from other people’s computers in your neighborhood? I can’t imagine people installing WiFi in their computers strictly for radio reception.
“At ccrane.com their are a growing number of WiFi radios available, which is another approach to the situation, but probably responds to specific software on the base computer which is where the radio stations are assigned.
I think the basic question being asked is whether there’s a standard way to transmit WiFi radio that people with WiFi would easily detect.”
When I get a reply I will add it to this thread.
Nothing Learned
My contact gave the opinion that a WiFi receiver at the computer could select EITHER the incoming ISP, OR a neighbor’s radio broadcast, but probably not both at the same time. Also, it would be necessary to know in advance that there was a broadcast to look for and to install the correct software to receive the broadcast.
That information is NOT conclusive. Maybe there’s a better way.
It’s a start
Carl,
I think I know how to address a couple of the concerns.
To create awareness, you set the SSID to your station call letters or slogan; i.e. “Oldies 106”. Yes, it would be necessary for someone to connect to your access point rather than another one. No, they would not be able to surf the web unless you gave them an unsecured connection (possibly not a good idea). I would stick to streaming using either the Windows Media or Real Media encoding. Beyond that point, I am unsure what to do. Presumably, when people connect to your AP and open up a browser, you want them to see a slide about your station with a “click here to listen” link. Hotels do something similar when you connect to the internet through their systems. I’m not sure how to set that up.