Guides · Hardware audio encoders
These hardware audio encoder tutorials show you how to connect a box like the Barix InStreamer to your Primcast station, which values to type and what to check when it will not connect. Once it is set up, the encoder keeps your show on air for as long as it has power, a network cable and sound coming in.
Each tutorial follows a single box from unpacking to on air, with the screens in the order you meet them and the station values taken from your own dashboard.
Tutorial · Barix InStreamer
You find the InStreamer's address, open its web page, point it at your station, set the audio and stream format and add your stream password. Every settings screen has a screenshot, so you can match what you see on the device page.
Any hardware encoder that can send to an Icecast or SHOUTcast server works with your station. Log in to your Primcast dashboard, open Radio, pick your station and go to Go live › Encoder settings. Each value there has its own copy button, and Show reveals the password.
ny1.radio.primcast.com./streamsourceA lower bitrate helps listeners on weak mobile signals. From 20 October 2026, a Free station's encoder that sends more than its limit is disconnected, and Encoder settings tells you why.
Point the box at ingest.radio.primcast.com, port 14000. A SHOUTcast v1 encoder moves to port 14001 by itself. The Icecast mount becomes your station number followed by /stream, and a SHOUTcast v1 password is written as station number, colon, password. Your dashboard fills your station number in for you. The nearest city passes the show on to your station's server, and each listener is served from the city closest to them. How the radio CDN works
A hardware encoder for internet radio does one job, so a short checklist covers most of the decision.
Look for Icecast source or SHOUTcast source in the specification sheet. A box that only sends RTP, SRT or multicast needs something in between before it can reach your station.
Our tutorials use MP3, and it plays in every browser your listeners are likely to open.
Balanced XLR inputs keep hum out over long cable runs in a studio. RCA line inputs are fine when the box sits next to the mixer.
Plug the encoder into your router with a cable. It avoids the short drop-outs Wi-Fi can cause in the middle of a show.
Turn on the setting that reconnects after a lost connection or a power cut, so the stream comes back without anyone pressing a button.
Choose a box that lets you set the bitrate yourself, so you can match it to your plan and to your upload speed.
You add a card or PayPal when you sign up, and the first charge comes on day 15 unless you cancel before then. Both plans include Auto DJ, so the station keeps playing music whenever the encoder is switched off. Only want to see the box connect? The Free plan does that too.
A hardware audio encoder is a small box that turns the sound from your mixer into an internet stream and sends it to your radio server on its own. It has audio inputs and a network port. You set it up once from a web browser, and after that no computer has to stay switched on.
Only while you set it up. You open the encoder's web page from any computer or phone on the same network, enter your station's values and save them. From then on the box streams by itself, which is why stations use one for shows that run around the clock.
Open the encoder's settings page and choose Icecast 2 or SHOUTcast as the server type. Copy the server, port, mount, username and password from Go live › Encoder settings in your Primcast dashboard, save, and start the stream. The Barix InStreamer tutorial shows each screen, and the settings table above lists what each field means.
Yes. A new station starts on Icecast, and you can switch it to a SHOUTcast DNAS 2.6 server from your panel on any plan, Free included. Your encoder then takes the values shown in Encoder settings for that server.
Use MP3 at or under your plan's top bitrate, which the settings table above lists for each plan. Going a little lower helps listeners on mobile data, and it gives you headroom if your own upload speed is modest.
Most of the time one value is off by a character: the server name, the port, the password, or a mount typed without its leading slash. A SHOUTcast 2 box also has to be in Legacy (v1) mode. If the values are right, check that your network lets the encoder make outgoing connections on your station's port. Still stuck? Our live chat answers in seconds, can look at your station's connection for you, and hands you to a person whenever you ask.
Yes. On Premium and Platinum each DJ gets a login with encoder settings of their own, so a guest can connect a box from home without seeing your main source password.
On Premium and Platinum, Auto DJ takes over the stream from your music library, so listeners keep hearing music until the encoder reconnects. Free has no Auto DJ, so the stream stops until the box is back. With automatic reconnect turned on in the encoder, it comes back by itself after a power cut.
Start a station, copy the values from Go live and the box takes it from there. If a step does not match what you see, ask live chat and we will walk through it with you.