Streaming By the Numbers

Want to know how much bandwidth a media file is going to take? How many concurrent users you can support? What your CARP fee will be? Well, thankfully, some of the more mathematically-gifted members of the streaming media community have posted on the Web some handy "calculators" for deciphering the ciphers. Here’s a sampling:

ASCAP Licensing Fee Calculator
The ASCAP represents a wide array of composers, songwriters, and music publishers. This calculator can tell you how much you’d owe to obtain a license to "perform" music from the ASCAP’s repository.

AudioVideoWeb Media Bandwidth Usage Calculator
Use this calculator to determine the approximate bandwidth that your project needs based upon the number of viewers, bit rate of the stream, and average time that you expect these viewers to log on.

StreamingMarketplace.com Calculator
Compare your streaming needs versus the variety of plans available from BuyStreaming.com.

IWA CARP Royalty Calculator
Determine the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) rates for performance royalties by inputting the songs per hour and number of listeners per quarter hour. Input is given in terms of cost per hour, day, month, and year.

Megabits per second (mbps) to Gigabytes
Convert megabits per second to gigabytes per month, or use this calculator to determine which company really has the best bandwidth pricing.Revenue Calculator—Media Modeler
Download this revenue calculator to determine how much money you’re losing by not having an effective streaming revenue strategy, specifically Media Modeler.

StreamingCalculator
This online calculator can calculate file sizes for 8 different bit rates along with the file sizes generated by the multiple bit rate encoded files created by Real’s "Surestream" and Windows Media’s "Intelligent Stream." A downloadable version also is available on the site.