The Hindu Business Line : Play the tech tune

Music on the Internet isn’t new. But Internet radio certainly is. It was this relatively untapped potential of Internet radio that made Ashraf Abir, Mostafa Zaki Haider, Shams Shumon and Zaki in Bangladesh think about ways to make it a tool of development.

Development workers with degrees in developmental studies and graphic design, they put together www.netbetar.com, an Internet radio station that beams programmes from and across Bangladesh over the superhighway. Their team of NJ (Net jockeys) has Tania, Kibria, Nudrat, Sayem, Biplob, Polash, Nahid, Simi and Amina.

“Young people in Bangladesh today are hooked onto the FM radio channels here. From mobiles to car radios, there is a proliferation of radio in people’s lives here. It’s a fun and unobtrusive medium,” says Abir, CEO, netbetar.com.

unique advantages

Internet radio has certain unique advantages. “Radio is no longer just a ‘linear’ flow emanating from an emission mast — audio files are now available on demand or stored locally for time-shifted play out. It is convenience for the user, rather than the broadcaster-imposed schedule, that matters now,” says Mostafa Zaki Haider, Director, Marketing & Branding, Netbetar.

Besides, their radio will play an important role in developmental activities and also keep Bengalis scattered the world over more in touch with their culture.

“Bangladesh has telecentres in most rural areas, which are small offices equipped with a computer, Internet and phone. Villagers who can’t read and have never surfed the Internet come here for information on various topics, ranging from bank loans, college admission, medical worries and anything else you can think of. These centres form an integral part of their lives.

Evenings after work are spent here and important issues facing them are discussed. Often, educational movies are screened and health workers come to educate them on matters of hygiene.

Our radio can play here at specified times in the centre. We have programmes planned that will focus on health and education with an entertainment value. Programmes dealing with bad debts, AIDS or acid violence will be played between music programmes or as breaks between radios dramas,” says Zaki.

Technical requirements

It’s easy to set up your station, if they are to be believed.

“The most common way to distribute Internet radio is via streaming technology using audio codec. Popular streaming audio formats include MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Windows Media Audio, RealAudio and aacPlus”, they explain.

They built a customised audio macromedia flash player for their Web site as it has over 85 per cent penetration and is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris and all Unix variations. “Those who do not have the technical support to build their own stream player can get the help of Flash Media Server for $4,500 or open source software such as PeerCast, Firefly or FreeCast for free,” explains Abir.

The process of programme production is just like any other professional radio station. The fundamental difference is at the post-production broadcasting stage.

“Our programme producers from the studio send us wav files after recording and editing.

We convert them into mp3 format, which is a widely compatible format while being much smaller in size,” says Zaki.

Better sound

They could have used Mp3 Pro or Real Media formats, but mostly use MPEG-3 format as the sound quality is better, they say.

“To make the file size smaller, we reduce the CBR (constant bit rate) to 80/96 kbps depending on the quality and speed requirements.

As an example, in the case of live net-casting, the chance of lagging is high and it is possible to miss out vital chunks of the programmes.

So, in that case, we must reduce CBR to 64 kbps if necessary. A careful balance must be maintained, keeping in mind the Internet speed available to the general listeners,” cautions Abir.

They try to limit their file size to a level where a general programme of one hour will not exceed 30 megabyte. A listener with an Internet connection of 8.53 kbps can easily listen to the radio without being interrupted. “We have conducted research on the Internet connectivity speed issue and the survey shows that people with 5 kbps lines are also satisfied despite the small amount of lag they encounter,” says Zaki.

Another important aspect is server requirement.

“A classical approach to radio streaming is Unicasting. Requests from clients (users) to receive a stream are managed by a server or a cluster of servers.

In the case of clustering, load balancing is used to improve reliability of the stream delivery, especially if one of the servers breaks down.

The server cluster feeds a common Internet line used to transmit the streams to the clients. The total bandwidth provided by such a server farm is proportional to the number of clients and the bitrate of the streams.

This means that doubling the number of clients or doubling the bitrate will double the system capacity and thus the costs,” they explain.

They plan to take their radio places. “Right now, each telecentre has a connection through GPRS modems, which varies from 5 to 8 kbps.

This isn’t enough, yet villagers are requesting telecentres to tune into our channel. So obviously if we can ensure better connectivity, the potential for Internet radio is endless,” sign off Abir and Zaki.

paromita.pain@gmail.com