Bitrate is the bandwidth used to send a stream to the listener. If you are going to broadcast via the internet you must choose a bitrate to send the content to the listener. When choosing bitrate you must take into consideration your target audience. Will my listeners be using a broadband connection such as dsl or cable, or will they be using a dial up connection.

Streaming at a bitrate higher than the listener can download results in buffering. This basically means the stream is stopped while the listeners player downloads enough of the stream to resume playing. Obviously the listener will not want to continue listening to the stream if he has to wait 30 seconds or so in the middle of a song.

Generally a dial up listener can listen to a stream that broadcasts between 8kbs and 32kbs without experiencing buffering depending on the individual listeners connection. Dial up modems can accomodate a maximum band width of 56k although the actual bitrate can vary from 21k to around 52k dependant on the phone line.

Broadband listeners can listen to audio streams at a much higher bitrate. The highest bitrate recommended to stream music to broadband listeners is 128kbs. Why? Music cd’s are recorded at 128kbs. Any streaming above this bitrate is just a waste of your bandwidth. Of course you can choose any rate between 8kbs and 128kbs to stream to broadband.

Whats the alternative if you wish to include multiple bitrates? The alternative is to get stream hosting that allows you to broadcast at multiple bitrates. Many stream hosts offer packages that include several different bitrates to effectively let you stream to a larger audience. You send the stream from your computer to said stream server and it sends the stream to your listeners at the multiple bitrates. You can also send your stream to multiple stream servers if you choose in the event that one stream server fails, your stream will still be up and running.

One of the most popular types of small business opportunities is the franchise. If you are not certain what type of franchise would do well in the area that you are located, simply look at what is popular with the majority of the population. For example, if you live near a college campus that does not have a great deal of pizza places nearby, what better business to open than a pizza shop? Pizza Hut, Dominos, and Papa John’s Pizza are all widely popular with college students. Pizza is fairly inexpensive and can be afforded on a college student’s budget. It is also a quick meal for students to grab in between classes.

If you are still having a difficult time figuring out what small business opportunities would be the wisest to pursue, simply take a look in the phonebook of a nearby city or large town. The Yellow Pages will tell you what business already exist, how many of their kind are around, and where they are located. So, if you see that there is a gym in the north section of the city, but no gym in the southern part where you know a large part of the population lives, perhaps it would be profitable to open a gym where this population boom is. If you are unsure about how many people would actually visit your business, consider how many schools, colleges, places of business, and highways are in the area that you are looking at. The more people that are around, the greater your business’s chances are of succeeding.

If you want to take advantage of small business opportunities, but don’t have very much money to invest in one, you can always start a part-time or weekend business. For example, you can work a few hours a week doing medical transcription, desktop publishing, or catering services. The possibilities are limitless. Oftentimes, small business opportunities can simply be things that you are good at and excel in.