Transmitting multiple streams

If you wish to use "liveCaster" (or its GUI-less equivalent "lc") to output more than one independent multicast stream, then one way to do this is simply to run multiple copies of the application - each pointing to a different directory with its own "SELF.txt" file.

Alternatively, you can output multiple streams using just a single instance of "lc" (or the Windows NT Service version: "lcService.exe"). You do this using multiple files - in the same directory - named SELF*.txt. Each such SELF*.txt file represents a separate output stream.

E.g., if you want to have 3 different output streams, you can do this with three files "SELF1.txt", "SELF2.txt", and "SELF3.txt" - stored in the same directory. (If you're running "lcService", then these files must live in the same directory as "lcService.exe". If you're running "lc", then "lc.exe" can be in a separate directory, but you'd then need to run it with the "-d <SELF-files-directory-path>" option.)

Important note

The "progId" attribute must be set to a different value in each of the SELF*.txt files. (It doesn't matter what its value is, as long as it's different for each file.)

Also, the multicast address and port for each stream is given by the "GroupEId" attribute in its corresponding SELF*.txt file. The first two fields of this attribute are the multicast address and port. You will probably want these to be different for each stream. (Note that the port number should be an even number for each stream, as that's what the RTP standard specifies.)

If you are advertising your sessions in a SDP session directory, then you will probably want to use a different "nickname" value for each stream (so that the SDP advertisements show up with different names).

If each stream takes different MP3 sources, then you indicate this using a "source" line in the corresponding SELF*.txt file.

Probably the best way to do this is to set up an initial SELF.txt file by running "liveCaster" (i.e., the GUI version) with the "-s <source-dir-path>" flag. If this works OK, then after you exit from liveCaster, the SELF.txt file should contain the correct attributes (including "source") for this session. You can then use this file as a template for your other sessions.

Note that if the same HTTP input source (i.e., specified in a "source" line) happens to be used for more than one output stream, then this input source will not be shared. Instead, it will opened (& read) multiple times.

Example

If you have 3 separate MP3 directories on a CD-ROM: d:\files01, d:\files02 and d:\files03, then you could set up 3 separate streams - one reading from each MP3 directory - using 3 separate SELF*.txt files, each containing a different "source" line:

in SELF1.txt
```
source d:\files01
```
in SELF2.txt
```
source d:\files02
```
in SELF3.txt
```
source d:\files03
```

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