SAM Broadcaster Encoding Connection Error

[Gabrielle Rhapsody]

While DJ'ing the other night, I experienced intermittent SAM encoder connection problems throughout my whole two-hour set.  I always turn the stream off in SL and listen to the stream within SAM.  Shortly after beginning my set, I began getting IM's that the music was skipping, stuttering, and sometimes stopping altogether.  I checked and, sure enough, I was getting encoding connection errors.  I've never experienced this before during any of my sets.  I tried a number of troubleshooting efforts, such as restarting SAM, rebooting my computer, and resetting my modem and router; none of which corrected the problem.  Needless to say, it was a very frustrating two hours.

My question is how can I determine if the problem was caused by my Internet connection or my stream provider and what might I do to prevent this from occurring in the future?

 

Thanks so much for any assistance you can provide.

[Cali Janus]

Well you can do a trace, but honestly the most liekly culprit is one of two things. 

 

SL lag is the most likely as it's been rather been in many areas for the past few weeks.

The other likely culprit is a matter of how fast you're streaming and the stream quality. You may be overunning your buffer which will cause the stream and encoder to be unable to keep up with the amount of data you're streaming out. Upload speeds can also hamper this. 

[Gabrielle Rhapsody]

Thank you for your reply.

When mentioning overrunning my buffer, are you referring to my bitrate speed?  If so, what is the prime bitrate speed in which to stream?

For anyone else who uses a stream provider in SL, is it possible the provider I'm using (no mention of any provider names) could also be the culprit?  I've used a provider that was on the expensive side (and never had any problems with them) but I recently switched to a much less expensive provider and was using that provider when the problem occurred.  I can't find ratings or reviews for stream providers so purchased the stream service blindly.  I'm wondering if this could also be an issue?

 

[Cali Janus]

What I mean is that depending on the stream rate (96, 128, 192, etc.) that you use, depending on your up and down speeds with your ISP, you may be streaming faster than your bandwidth can handle. 

For "prime" stream speeds, honestly I've found anything below 128 just doesn't have a very good sound quality. You can get away with 96 but you'll notice a huge difference in the sound quality of your stream. 

Stream providers are stream providers in my opinion. I pay 500/month for 192/kbps and 200 listeners (not giving specifics just an example) and never have an issue with stream uptime or quality. I would suggest asking around in world of other DJs and find out what they're using. 

If SL is being extremely laggy it will also cause you to have issues with your stream as well. I would also suggest clearing your cache about once a month or so if you don't already do so. I hope that helps you out!

 

 

[Gabrielle Rhapsody]

Thank you so much for your assistance, Cali!  I'll take all of your suggestions under consideration!