Kinda OT: Streaming Audio/Video

[techlists <techlists@techgod.net>]

I have a client that among other things is about to start a Web-based
Talk audio show.  His early needs would be to Stream the audio from the
webserver.  Has anyone had experience in this area? I would love some
advice on software plus hardware.

My first thoughts would be to use icecast on the web-server.  but use a
seperate machine for the encoding.  Although I'm not exactly sure what
to use for encoding the stream.  I briefly looked at Helix DNA producer
for encoding, and freedomaudio on the webpage. The box for encoding
currently has a Soundblaster PCI 128, but I would assume it would be
better to have some sort of other hardware, besides just pluging the mic
in to the mic jack.  any recommendations on descent hardware would be
great, but since this is just a test project, we really don't want to
spend alot of cash.  As far as the OS, the webserver is running stable,
and the encoding machine is running unstable.

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Wayne