>>>>>Hi All,
>>>>>
>>>>>I have usually programmed using VFP but the app I am now involved with seems to need to be multi-threaded and Fox doesn't do that.
>>>>>
>>>>>I need to stream via multicast, multiple live audio streams over a local intranet. We will need both server and player software and my boss is pretty hot about getting it done. This is not a school project, monies will be paid to qualified programmers.
>>>>>
>>>>>Anyone interested?
>>>>
>>>>I've been using this for several years with great success.
>>>>
>>>>www.orb.com
>>>
>>>Thanks Victor,
>>>
>>>Orb looks interesting but I'm not sure it would meet our needs. All of the solutions I've checked into so far use a certain amount of buffering that increases the stream latency. We want to stream live audio with as low latency as possible. Most apps have no problem with latency and are usually stream over the internet, we will be streaming over an intranet and need the server and players to occupy the same sub-net.
>>
>>It's pretty easy to broadcast with the Windows Media Encoder - I've done it before with both audio & video.
>>
>>There is going to be some latency no matter what you do, but there is some info to help you deal with it. FYI there are ways to get it down to almost nothing.
>>http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/BroadcastDelay.aspx
>>
>>And some more stuff:
>>http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=000a16f5-d62b-4303-bb22-f0c0861be25b&DisplayLang=en
>>http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5691ba02-e496-465a-bba9-b2f1182cdf24&displaylang=en
>>http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/features.aspx
>
>Your network may play a role in this especially since it sounds like it is entirely in house. I installed some VOIP within a city government (I used to be the IT Director there) where I needed to pass through several routers to get out to where the phones were. Most routers have a priority setting for traffic that you can set that would reduce the latency quite a bit. I ultimately segmented some fiber optic (mux) to get the VOIP stuff seperated from all the other network traffic. You may want to discuss with your net guys ahead of time about what is between your server and your clients that could contribute to any latency.
>Tim

Thanks Tim,

No routers will be involved. This app will be totally local intranet. I am currently working on the server side of the software, I expect the major costs will be the player side (hundreds - thousands each channel).

I looked into VOIP, the latency looked promising but I didn't find much software available. If I could find a "off the shelf" solution available I would certainly consider it.

Thanks again, I appreciate the input.