Phantom Windows Media Stream Problems Resolved - Monday April 30th - Updated

SimonMaher

Hello all,

Phantoms Windows Media webstream is offline for a technical upgrade. This stream and our AAC+ stream are subject to interruption over the next couple of days while we complete the upgrade. Bear with us while the boffins do their thing!

Regards,

Simon Maher
simonmaher@phantom.ie
www.phantom.ie

BrianD

Update:

The Windows Media Player stream is now working for embedded player i.e. the pop up player that appears when you click on 'Listen Live'.

However, the stream is temporarily unavailable for those of you who wish to use the stand alone player i.e. Mediaplayer in 'full' mode. This will be rectified in the next few days.

To listen to Phantom online click here

learnerplates

Phantom,
The embedded player no longer works on Mozilla 5...when you click on the player the Microsoft download page is lauched but there's no plugin for Mozilla.

BrianD

hi

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, we won't be able to support every browser and operating system. The embedded player is a Windows Media player and thus it depends on the browser that you use to be able to support it. As an alternative, we have the stand alone players - both windows and the AAC+ stream.

learnerplates

Hi Brian,
Sure I understand completely but mozilla work up until last week.
The stream is excellent on ie6 though and windows media.
Thanks, keep up the good work.

BrianD

Has there been a change to Mozilla in recent times?

learnerplates

It was actually a bookmarked page I was using, http://www.phantom.fm/nowplaying.htm , I see you no longer have a link to it, sorry to bother you.
LP.

Snake1138

Windows media is still not working, either in IE or as a standalone.
The AAC works, but skips like a damaged CD

BrianD

We are experiencing some third party interference to our broadband link to the studio. This is outside of our control but being resolved. We expect a resolution by Monday. While the situation persists there will be problems in using both streams.

Thanks for your patience and feedback.

ozone6280

Sounding good here. Nice to have you back.

Gerard_Smith

Both the ACC+ and windows streams are skipping quite noticeably.

ozone6280

Yes they are skipping badly.

Eddie Specs

I would have used the phantom player in Mozilla previously but now It doesn't work. I imagine it's Mozilla that's changed something as I've been having a lot of problems with it recently. The winamp stream is fine though

SimonMaher

Apologies for continuing problems with the webstreams. Everything has been moved to a new dedicated connection but we're still having some problems. Hoping to have everything sorted in the next couple of days. Will keep you all posted.

Regards,

Simon Maher
simonmaher@phantom.ie
www.phantom.ie

SimonMaher

Hello all,

The source of the problem has finally been found but the repair will take a couple of days. This means we should have both webstreams back up and running later in the week and will report back then. Apologies once again for the interruption to service!

Regards,

Simon Maher
simonmaher@phantom.ie
www.phantom.ie

irishmusictv

Hi,

I would like to say how great it is that you use SHOUTcast AAC streaming. I live in Dundalk, and could only listen to Phantom via Podcasts. Now that I discovered you support SHOUTcast it is a breath of fresh air. I can start listening to radio again. The SHOUTcast stream is the best way to stream radio, it can be loaded into multiple players such as Winamp, Video LAN, XMMS, Songbird to name but a few which makes it easy to listen to Phantom online, no matter what OS you are using.

It is very frustrating on other radio stations like RTE where you can only listen online via their embedded Real Media player. For many people it is not possible to have a website open to listen to embedded players, like people in work. Why so many radion stations choose Real Media streaming over SHOUTcast is beyond me.

So please keep using SHOUTcast into the future and never switch to any other streaming platform, it is the most open, accessible and user friendly.

On the problem with the Windows Media Player in Mozilla Browsers. While I prefer the SHOUTcast option, I can see how frustrating it would be for users that prefer an embedded player and cannot use their chosen browser. From what I can see the problem is not to do with Mozilla browers, rather it is the coding on the player page. As a general rule every web designer should aim for their website to work perfectly on Mozilla browsers as Mozilla's Gecko rendering engine is standards complient and all website that meet correct W3C standards will work perfectly in them. Internet Explorer does not comply with W3C standards so just because a website works in IE does not mean it will work in all browsers.

It is not a good idea to have a policy wereby you aim to have your website only accessible to Internet Explorer and Windows users. Contrary to many ranking reports from Alexa, Internet Explorer does not have as much of the user share as Microsoft would report, Mozilla Firefox is fast growing browser on the internet, and thus you are cutting out a large proportion of your visitors if your website is not W3C standards complient. As a radio station you should be aiming to serve all your listeners online, not a portion that only use Windows and IE.

From looking at the source code of your player page, it seems your players need to use ActiveX to launch the player. This will then automaticlly block all Mozilla browers, ActiveX is known to be insecure and Mozilla does not allow the use of ActiveX controls, only IE does. The stream itself coming from http://east.streamguys.com/phantomfm works fine, its just that the page is trying to load the player via ActiveX. You should have your webdesigners change this. There are much better player controls that don't need ActiveX and therefore will play in all browsers.

All in all I love your station and its great that I can listen to it online.

Steve

SimonMaher

Hello all,

Apologies once again for webstream problems over the last couple of weeks. Move of the various technologies took longer and gave more problems than we thought possible!

Anyway, both streams are now back working normally. One is the 48k Mono Windows Media Stream (direct link east.streamguys.com/phantomfm) and the others is the new AAC+ Stream which will play in a stack of other players and is 48k Stereo. Nice. Direct link for that one is 91.121.1.11:8040/listen.pls. I use Winamp and VLC to play that one.

By the way Steve, will pass on your comments re: ActiveX etc to the boffins. Its all miles above my head so Im passing it on!

Kind Regards,

Simon Maher
simonmaher@phantom.ie
www.phantom.ie

irishmusictv

Hi Simon,

Glad to hear you have taken my points on board and I hope it resolves the issue for non Internet Explorer users trying to view the Windows Media Stream.

I am just glad you are using the AAC SHOUTcast stream technology, unlike other stations. And I can now enjoy some good radio in Dundalk.