| Firefly Media Server Internet Radio Broadcasting Software |
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Streaming music over the internet is one of the most popular reasons why people prefer to stay connected. There are a number of solutions that power the streaming radio stations.
Firefly Media Server can be considered as a top of the line internet radio broadcasting software. It has a number of advantages which give it the upper hand in comparison to rival technologies like Shoutcast or Windows Media Services. The main advantage of Firefly is that it is free software. It is not only free as in free beer; it is also free as in freedom of speech. It is released under the GNU General Public License. This means that you can download the source code of Firefly and if you have any idea about computer programming, you can tweak and tamper Firefly media server so that it fits you requirements. This is not possible in almost all other internet radio broadcasting software due to their proprietary nature. Firefly is designed in such a manner that it can integrate with iTunes which is arguably the most popular music playing solution all over the world. It can also integrate with Roku SoundBridge. The protocols supported by Firefly are Roku Server Protocol and Digital Audio Access Protocol. The latter is especially designed to be used for streaming of audio content over the internet. Roku compliance is marked by the RSP compatibility of Firefly media server. Like Shoutcast, Firefly can be used on a number of platforms. This includes a number of POSIX systems, Apple's Mac OS X and Windows platform. It can also be run on iPod touch and iPhone. The fact that Firefly comes with a web based configuration system is what makes it stand apart from other internet radio broadcasting software solutions. It can be administered from anywhere in the world and not only from the machine on which Firefly is actually installed. The mainstay of Firefly media server is its great file format support and superb automation features. The solution comes with support for MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC and Ogg with some serious on the fly transcoding capability. All platforms come with on the fly transcoding of Ogg, ALAC, WMA and FLAC. When used on Windows platform, the transcoding capabilities add WMA Pro, Lossless and voice to its gamut. Further automation features are provided by the ability to handle user generated playlists and accept iTunes library playlists. For the people who want to start their own online radio station, there are few which beat the ease of use and feature support of Firefly internet radio broadcasting software. It is easy to configure and administer and more that that it is free and customizable to the core. Related Articles
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