Trent Radio streams its signal in Ogg Vorbis & MP3, so you need a something that can play those formats. For Windows 9x/ME/2000/XP we recommend WinAmp. Non-Windoze users can try xAudic for MacIntosh and XMMS for Unix. You may have to close down your browser to install the software after you download it, so make a note of where you saved the downloaded file.
A Warning: Evil competitor Windows software such as Real Player/Jukebox, Sonique, and Microsoft Windows Media Player aggressively steal "file associations" from WinAmp, and then report errors when trying to play our stream. If you do use Winamp, you can try to fix this by opening up Winamp, then press Ctrl-P, select Agent, and mark "Enable Winamp agent" and "Maintain Files associations". This will make WinAmp agent load when you start your computer and protect you from the evilness of those who try to make their player load instead of Winamp.
We stream at a variety of "bitrates" so even those who connect to the Internet using unreliable plain old telephone service (POTS) can tune in from Hungary, Ecuador, Tasmania, or across town. (A low bitrate can make high frequency sounds, like cymbals, sound "swishy".)
If you experience "stream stutter", or audio break up, it may be that your connection is not fast enough. On the other hand, if the sound is non-existent or the quality is poor, or it all just seems too frustrating, please email me at jkmuir@trentradio.ca. Let me know what kind of computer (speed and operating system) and internet connection you have and we can try to sort it out together, okay?
Technical Note: Trent Radio's
stream is created by connecting the audio output of our On-Air Studio into the
sound card of a Linux based computer running an IceCast
server and using a LAME
MP3 & an OGG
encoder. The stream is then poured into a cogeco cable internet connection and
wends and winds its way to you.
This is a huge improvement to our previous attempts. My esteemed thanks to Rik
Ling at PIPCOM
for information in helping us set everthing up, and the truly amazing Steve
McNabb at Radio
Free Peterborough for making it *all* work so WELL!
All the best // John K Muir, General
Manager
revised 26 Oct 2004