Streaming audio is a very technical process and there's some basic knowledge to cover first. A good understanding of these ground floor concepts will be the foundation for your comfortable understanding of this rapidly evolving medium. The chapters in Part I will introduce and define the necessary hardware and software tools and technologies. Very likely, you have much of it already, in the same room, waiting to be hooked up. Much of the software can be downloaded (if not already included when you purchased your computer) and used affordably in some cases even free of charge. By the end of this Part, you'll have your system configured and your digital audio ready to be encoded into a choice of streaming audio formats.
