E-Commerce, Distribution, WebCast

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2002 6:34 am

I'm in the process of redefining my business and am looking at some of these as viable options/value added services for artists and indie labels.Once I get my new facility built, I should have a fairly large studio complex.Here's the gist of my plan on the internet front... I'm thinking of having a T1 run to the facilty. This would be a value added service for clients who need to have net access for video conference, e-mail etc.With my own server, I could handle studio booking, regular and mixed artists' sales and distribution. Afterall it is just data file request and order processing.The booking/scheduling concept is a fairly straight forward database interface as well.I'm just wonering if there are any thoughts as to the viability of adding the webcasting. Would webcasting from the same T1 be possible?I'm confident of the expedatures and capital outlay for the e-commerce, but since webcasting is an intriguing concept that I'm not totally familiar with, I'd appreciate your thoughts on whether this is something that could be farmed out or co-ordinated with another vendor?Thanx,
xaMdaM

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2002 11:52 pm

Others may think it's overly cautious, but like audio data, IMO it's a bad idea to have the same computer handling both internet and important business data. There are database and studio organization programs that will run on any cheap little computer (which these days give you more computing power than all of the Apollo missions combined), so you won't be saving much by putting those files on your webserver.As for webcasting and e-tail, it's hard to say whether that will be a reality within the next couple years. The jury is still out on file formats, and other issues such as copy protection, scope of licensing to the end user, and continued penetration of high bandwidth. People were curious and excited enough to go down that road a few years ago, then Napster came along and really threw a spanner into it. To boot, companies like Amazon are already spending ridiculous amounts of money on advertising in order to stay on top, so it may be better to let them sell your product than to try competing. Of course you should still provide a e-storefront using whatever internet connection you end up with.If nothing else, you can use a T1 to feature high-speed delivery and transfer to and from other studios. ISDN used to be a big thing, maybe internet xfers will catch on. No more waiting for fed ex to deliver a 2", dat, or even a cd backup... everything is ftp'd right onto somebody's HD as soon as the work is done. "Get the final into the mastering engineer's hands? It doesn't even touch his hands... In fact, he already started his session, didn't you want to sit in on that? You better get goin!"Just my $0.02, YMMVG

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2002 4:22 am

I remember my first "computer" being a wire wrapped Z80 with 16kB... man was THAT a screamer, huh?Still got my TI99-4A with expansion box... Once I complete my studio, I might actually break it back out and use it to control HVAC and lighting... whadaya think?I totally agree with you about separate purposing of hardware/software.I currently have a single 350 w/256Mb RAM and 48Gb in a RAID5 - running NT4.0(SP5)... a B&W G3 350 w/.75Gb RAM and 80Gb and an iMac 350 with 256Mb and a paltry 20Gb drive.I'm currently running 100bT backplane on a Netgear Switch between the 350 and the G3. The whole system is purposed seperately.The G3 and 350 are running MOTU and DP. I use the iMac for std internet access. I'd like to tie the 350 to the T1 and a Cisco router for e-commerce and ftp, with the iMac as the FM Pro/XML interface.Then I could continue using the G3 and a new dual 750/1GHz for MOTU/ProTools. When I do the u/g I'll probably go to Red Hat, and put that on the Netgear fiber Gbit... Unless I move up to a full PT rig or a RADAR 48.The ISDN bandwidth issues showed up so quickly that I think it actually killed itself off as it was all sugar and no meat. Sure DL speeds are decent, but the UL bandwidth was all BS.By putting the T1 in, I could easily handle regular internet access, transfer of files to/from client studios, mastering and duplication facilities and e-commerce. I might be (and probably am) FOS, but it seems like it would be very feasable to build a large enough RAID to maintain mp3 samples to audition songs over the internet and then process the "high resolution" order and automatically burn, label and ship a straight single artist CD, compilation or even a pick and choose CD. I'm already working on this with digital images in the photographic and publishing industry... (the day gig)So again, I come back to the question as to whether a T1 has enough bandwidth to handle webcasting along with the e-commerce. My thinking is this; By offering a webcast facility in addition to a conventional studio environment, I could actually generate sales for the artists and create greater exposure for their music at the same time.Real Audio and Quicktime are both already accepted and integrated into the browser worlds, so why not attempt to capitalize on them?I would think by offering audio only and audio/video that the marketing potential would be able to provide both the artist and the studio added revenues.Am I stupid, crazy, both, or just a bit too far ahead of the game?xaMdaM

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2002 8:27 am

Max,It really depends on how much streaming traffic you think you'll get/generate. A T1 line handles 1.54 Mbps. Even at lower streaming rates, you can saturate a T1 fairly quickly - a realaudio file encoded for a 28.8 modem generates a file that streams at about 22 Kbps. At this rate you'd be able to handle about 70 concurrent sessions before you saturate the line. If you want to use 128Kbps MP3s for streaming you're going to only get about 12 concurrent sessions before you saturate your connection.If you're not planning on that many concurrent sessions and your usage is spread out over the course of a day, you should do fine with a T1. If you're planning on more heavy usage you may want to reconsider.- neil

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2002 8:16 pm

Max,It really depends on how much streaming traffic you think you'll get/generate. A T1 line handles 1.54 Mbps. Even at lower streaming rates, you can saturate a T1 fairly quickly - a realaudio file encoded for a 28.8 modem generates a file that streams at about 22 Kbps. At this rate you'd be able to handle about 70 concurrent sessions before you saturate the line. Well I guess that's kind of the quandry... If I utilize 3 lines of the T1 for telco/fax, that leaves about 1-1.25Mb Maximum bandwidth for everything else. Since I'm still not quite up to speed on streaming audio/video for webcasting, it sounds like I would only be able to do a delayed webcast in realaudio/quicktime formats.... if I want to still be able to handle any orders/e-commerce at the same time. Yes? No?If you want to use 128Kbps MP3s for streaming you're going to only get about 12 concurrent sessions before you saturate your connection.If you're not planning on that many concurrent sessions and your usage is spread out over the course of a day, you should do fine with a T1. If you're planning on more heavy usage you may want to reconsider.- neil[/QUOTE]Again, the video aspect is what is hammering my idea to bits... (sorry for the pun)If I do have the ability to handle a "higher quality audio" with a web-cam style video, will a T1 handle it?
Will anyone accept it?
Should I find an experienced subcontractor to handle that aspect of it?

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2002 9:07 pm

Max,Maybe I need a little more detail regarding your plan....
When I think of webcasting I think of a 1 way stream: it would originate on your end in the studio and you would be sending the audio/video to another person/location. A point-to-point connection. Depending on how 'good' the video and audio need to be for your webcasting plans will dictate how much bandwidth get's taken up on the T1 line. (I believe that a T1 is really split into 64k channels - you probably already know this but you can assume 3 x 64k for your telco/fax lines). I've worked with video transmissions of 300Kbps that I thought were quite acceptable. If you are only working with one other location at a time, then you'll be fine. If you need to broadcast to several other locations simultaneously (like a television station) you may want to look at other service providers that could allow you to send a single stream from your site and they will replicate it at various edge points on the internet. (I think Akamai does this altough I'm not certain.)If you think you may want to hold 2-way audio/video conferencing you're looking at something a bit different. That's a 2way connection, using different protocols (H323, T120), different software (i.e. NetMeeting vs. RealPlayer) and different bandwidth requirements. I guess it would be helpful if you could perhaps post a specific scenario that you would like to be able to handle in your new studio.- neil

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2002 3:17 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by nodell:
Max,Maybe I need a little more detail regarding your plan....
<SNIP>
I guess it would be helpful if you could perhaps post a specific scenario that you would like to be able to handle in your new studio.- neil<hr></blockquote>I guess my original post could have used a bit more clarification, but this little window for entering messages does have a tendancy to make it look like I'm wasting a lot of bandwidth.OK, here goes;

Standard internet access for e-mail and web browsing/chat/instant messaging; both me and client access.
FTP space on dedicated sever to transfer incomming preliminary work from clients and to transfer final 24 bit mixes to mastering failities/duplicators (and back for storage... see next item)
Dedicated sever on a firewall using FM Pro/XML - e-commerce to order "x"- number of songs from a song database. This will automatically start order entry and compile the CD in the order that selections were made and print it at off peak hours.
Standard voice over IP and/or video (multimedia) conferencing for clients (Rates or value added service?)
Streaming audio and or video for either single end user - client to say... label/AR/etc.
Streaming audio and or video for muliple users -or- to distributor for multiple users - promotional stuff - not pay per view unless I could get high enough quality.

One of the things that is the real head scratcher is whether a T1 would be able to handle a small to moderate e-commerce load, handle the FTP at a generally light load of maybe 8-16 tracks of DP/PT and still be able to swing the streaming audio - single source, on a casual use basis.I hope this make more sense now.

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2002 7:57 pm

Max,I think from what you have listed, you should be ok with a T1 line. I think you'll probably have the traffic distributed throughout the day (rather than everything happening during a single 1 or 2 hour window). If you can afford the T1 I think it makes sense to start with that, put up the services that you plan to offer and see how things go. If you start to notice that you're running low on bandwidth and you're making enough money from the various service offerings you can always upgrade to a bigger pipe.
General web/e-commerce doesn't really generate a huge load so give it a shot and upgrade when it/if it makes sense.Hope that helps.-neil

Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2002 1:01 am

How much does a full T-1 cost now a month? I know the price keeps dropping like everything else. Darren
Dixon Digital
www.dixondigital.com

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2002 6:07 am

max,dont put your ecommerce server and email servers on-site. if the T1 ISP provider drops your line or your servers crash, then your critical commerce and email business systems are offline. yukkk!you should rather co-locate the ecommerce...or....use a fail-over system that switches to an off-site server
ultradns.com

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