How Does SAM Broadcaster Cloud Work?

This section contains some very important information on how SAM Broadcaster Cloud operates.

To properly use SAM Broadcaster Cloud you will need to understand the concepts below.

SAM Broadcaster Cloud is as the name suggests, cloud-based and managed from the Web Interface at http://samcloud.spacial.com where you can start and stop your station, upload tracks, schedule events and manage almost every aspect of your station.  When you are ready, change your ON AIR status to ON and your station will continue to play, even if you shut down your computer or disconnect from the Internet.

Near Real-Time Operation

SAM Broadcaster Cloud is not meant to be a real-time DJ solution where you pick the next track seconds before the current track is about to end.  The concept for SAM Broadcaster Cloud is as an always-on, hosted broadcasting solution that you configure and then leave alone so all the hard work can happen in the cloud!

That being said it is indeed possible to operate SAM Broadcaster Cloud in a near real-time fashion where you manually build and organize the queue.

The problem is best explained with an example.
John is listening to his own station and just got a request from a listener that asks if John can play “James - Sit down” next.  John hears that the current track “Dido - Thank you” is about to end and quickly searches for “James - Sit down” in SAM Broadcaster Cloud and drags it to the top of the Queue.  But, a few seconds later “INXS - Need you tonight” starts playing and “James - Sit down” is still at the top of the queue. Why?

The reason why John’s action was not in time is because the streaming introduces a delay.  The streaming server keeps an adjustable buffer of usually between 20 and 30 seconds.  This not only allows the stream to start playing instantly when a listener first tunes in, but also protects the listener from internet problems and reduces the chance of buffering and audio anomalies - Thus what you hear is several seconds behind what is happening in the cloud currently.

A safe delay to work on is to assume that what you hear is 60 seconds behind real-time and schedule your content accordingly.

Don’t worry - after a while you will be quite used to this delay and learn how to manage your schedule accordingly.

Live Streaming Operation

Live broadcasting can be achieved by connecting any Icecast v2 compatible encoding device or software.  SAM Broadcaster is ideal for broadcasting live through SAM Broadcaster Cloud, in fact, each SAM Broadcaster Cloud service also includes a SAM Broadcaster Live-DJ license for the Station Manager as well as 5 additional licenses for DJs.