Is sound enough for this event?
Sound is enough when the words carry the event. A good commentator paints the match for someone driving home, a resident can follow a council vote while cooking, and a member who can no longer get to the building can hear the whole service. You also skip the camera, the camera operator and most of the upload a picture needs.
The other gain is on the listener's side. These figures are our own arithmetic from the bitrate, for one person listening for an hour:
| Stream quality | Data per listener per hour | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| 32 Kbps | about 14 MB | Speech |
| 128 Kbps | about 58 MB | Most music, so a service with hymns or a choir |
| 320 Kbps | about 144 MB | A concert or a DJ set, where sound quality is the point |
If people need to see the scoreboard, the slides or the speaker, sound is the wrong choice. Our event streaming page covers pictures. Our audio streaming hosting is audio over Icecast only, so it takes an Icecast or SHOUTcast encoder and not the RTMP output video tools use.
Where the sound comes from, event by event
Choose the feed with care: each event already has a sound system, and each one wants handling differently.
| Event | Best feed | What to plan for |
|---|---|---|
| Match commentary | A headset microphone close to the mouth, through a small mixer if you want a second microphone for the crowd | The connection at the ground and written permission from whoever holds the rights |
| Council meeting | A line output from the chamber's sound system, so every member's microphone is in the mix | Stopping the stream for closed sessions, and keeping a recording for the record |
| Conference | A spare output on the main room's mixing desk | Speakers agreeing to be broadcast, and long silent breaks in the schedule |
| Service | A spare output on the desk, with the choir and instruments mixed in | Music rights, and names read out in prayers |
Ask whoever runs the desk for a separate output rather than a copy of what the room hears. A room mix is balanced for the speakers on the wall, so a voice that fills a hall can sound thin on a phone, and the sound engineer's adjustments for the room then change your stream too.
A microphone on a stand at the back of the room is the fallback. It picks up coughs, chairs and echo, and your listeners have no way to look past them. For one voice, set your encoder to mono if it has the option. There is nothing useful in the second channel, and in our view a low bitrate is better spent on one.
Pick how you send it
- A laptop running BUTT, on every plan. BUTT runs on Windows, macOS and Linux and is built for exactly this job: live sound from a microphone or line input. Its manual says it keeps trying to reconnect after a lost connection until you press stop, and it can save a WAV recording on the laptop as you stream. Mixxx also works, but it is DJ software, so we would save it for shows with music.
- A hardware encoder, on every plan. A small box from our encoder guide suits a chamber or a church where you broadcast from the same spot every week. Set it up once in its web page and leave it. Boxes such as the Barix Instreamer ICE take a line input, so a microphone has to go through a mixer first.
- Your browser, on Premium and Platinum. The studio in the panel takes your microphone with nothing to install, which helps when a stand-in has to take over at the last minute.
- A guest link, on Platinum. Send one to a contributor, such as a reporter at another ground, and they go live from their own browser.
Go on air in five steps
This uses BUTT, and our encoder tutorials cover the other software and boxes.
- Open a station on the plan that fits, using the table in the next section. You do not have to call it a radio station.
- In your dashboard go to Radio, pick your station, open the Go live tab and find Encoder settings. Each value has a copy button, and Show reveals the password.
- In BUTT open Settings, press Add and choose Icecast. Enter your server (something like
ny1.radio.primcast.com), your port, the mount/stream, the usersourceand your source password. - Choose your soundcard as the input, set the channel mode to mono for a single voice, pick MP3, and set the bitrate at or under your plan's limit. On Free that limit is enforced: an encoder sending more than 32 Kbps is disconnected, so check it now and not at kick-off.
- Press play in BUTT, then open your https:// link on a phone with Wi-Fi switched off. Hearing yourself on mobile data is the only test that counts.
To hand out the stream, use the Share tab: the link for messages, a player to paste into your club or council website, and your station page if you have no website. Add your fixtures or meetings to the show line-up so people can see what is coming.
Which plan fits your crowd?
Choose by your biggest day, not your average one. Each plan has a firm ceiling on people listening at once.
| Plan | Listeners at once | Best quality | What it adds for live events |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 1,000 | 32 Kbps | Your own encoder, an https:// link, a web player and live listener figures. No recording on our side. |
| Premium | 2,500 | 128 Kbps | The browser studio, every live show saved as an MP3, an alert if you go silent, and your own iPhone and Android app. |
| Platinum | 5,000 | 320 Kbps | Guest links, a backup encoder, lighter streams for weak mobile signal, and delivery from the closest of five cities for fans abroad. |
A derby can be your biggest day of the year, and the plans are built for that: bandwidth is unmetered, so a full audience doesn't change your bill. Move up a plan before the big fixture and the link stays the same. Premium and Platinum carry a monthly allowance of listener hours, but one event barely touches it. By our arithmetic, 2,500 people listening for two hours is 5,000 of Premium's 500,000. Above 5,000 at once, tell us your expected peak and we will quote it.
Our radio hosting page lists what the paid plans give listeners during a match. They can rewind or restart the live show (up to 4 hours back on Premium, 8 on Platinum), chat in the player, and share a clip of the last 15, 30 or 60 seconds.
Check who holds the rights first
Commentary is not automatically yours to broadcast just because you can see the pitch. This is general information, not legal advice, and the rules differ by country, sport and level. Some leagues, governing bodies and venues control audio as well as video. Ticket terms vary, so read yours as well.
As one example, the Mississippi High School Activities Association's 2025-26 media policy leaves regular-season media rights to the host school. For postseason events it names an exclusive broadcast rights holder. In the sports it lists, live audio carries a fee and must be cleared with the association at least 48 hours ahead, and it advises contacting the host school at least 72 hours before the event. Other bodies set their own rules, so read the current policy for yours, and get the answer in writing before you announce the stream.
- Music is separate. Hosting a stream is not a licence to play recordings, and that includes songs on the stadium's sound system or hymns at a service. Start with our guide to internet radio licensing.
- Meetings and conferences have their own questions. Ask your clerk or organizer who has agreed to be broadcast, and what must not go out, before the first session.
What to test before the day
- The connection, in the real conditions. A connection that works in an empty ground can behave differently with a crowd in it, so test at a busy fixture if you can. Use a wired line where there is one, and keep your bitrate well under the upload speed you measure there.
- The laptop. Plug it in, and turn off sleep and automatic restarts for updates. Any of those, or a full disk, can take a laptop off air.
- Your delay. Clap by the microphone and time how long the phone takes to play it. Audio servers and players both hold some sound back: Icecast's documentation describes a burst of data sent to each new listener and a queue for those who lag. Don't try to listen to your own stream while you talk, and don't promise fans in the ground that it will match the play.
- The website player. Browsers generally block sound from starting by itself until the visitor has interacted with the page, so tell people to press play. The player also needs an https:// link on a secure site, which our secure stream link gives you on every plan.
- A way to know you are off air. Every plan emails you when the station goes off air, and Premium and Platinum also alert you if it goes silent. On Platinum you can keep a second encoder ready as a backup.
- A copy on your side. If you are on Free, turn on BUTT's recording. Its Automatic recording option starts as soon as it connects.
When this is the wrong setup
A stream runs one way. If residents have to speak at a meeting from home, you need a call or a video meeting, and the stream can only carry the result. It also won't suit anything that has to match the action exactly, such as live captions for people in the room. And when you want a full schedule with programming between events, add Auto DJ on a paid plan and treat it as a station.
Questions people ask
- Is 32 Kbps good enough for commentary?
- For speech, yes. That is the Free plan's limit, and it suits a voice. Crowd noise and music lose more at that rate, so if the sound of the ground or a choir matters, look at 128 Kbps on Premium. Try it first and listen on a phone.
- Will fans need to install an app?
- No. The https:// link plays in the browser on any phone, tablet or computer. On Premium and Platinum you can also have your own iPhone and Android app, which is worth it when people tune in every week.
- Can I keep a recording of a meeting for the minutes?
- On Premium and Platinum, switch on recording and each live show is saved as an MP3 in your library's Recordings folder. On Free we keep no recording, so save one on your own computer with BUTT, which records WAV files.
- Can someone go on air from another ground?
- Yes, on Platinum. Send them a guest link and they go live from their own browser. Try it before the match so you both know how it sounds.