Setting up a linux based church server to be placed with a collocation host.

-- Server will be used for:
--- providing .pdf files
--- live streaming of church services (audio for now audio video soon)
--- providing audio files
--- providing audio-video files
--- our internet web site

A.
Is there a preferred Linux distribution that will make this easier?
B.
What is the best format for audio and video files that will be viewed variously on Linux, Mac, and Microsoft operating systems? Files will need to be played on older versions of operating systems and may need a free or very low cost software to play (e.g. play on Win2k)
C.
What software is best for recording the audio or audio-video files? Some additional funding might be justified for this software, particularly if it can also support live streaming.
D.
What software is best for live streaming both on the file creation and the listening-viewing sides of the process?

Ideally we would like to have a single software suite to live stream, and make downloadable audio or audio-video files for later download, and not require those listening and viewing to have to install additional software. Keeping file sizes small is also desirable because some of our users will probably only have dial-up internet.

Please feel free to throw in additional comments on related points which we may not have forseen.

Hello,
I don't think you will get many answers to this post because you've jammed so many questions into one. Forum members may be intimidated by the complexity of this. That being said, I'll try to point you in the right direction.

A. There are some linux distributions that market themselves as complete, easy to configure server solutions. I can think of ClearOS and SME Server. Also, Slackware, Fedora, and Debian are popularly used as servers. Each distribution contains their own quirks and strengths. If you ask 50 linux server admins which distribution is "preferred", you will get many different answers. Distrowatch is a decent source of information regarding different distributions.

B. Audio - MP3 is the most popular compressed audio format. Linux has the great "lame" mp3 encoder (makes mp3 files from other file types). You can find by Googling "lame encoder" but it's probably available for any distribution you choose. MP3 is a proprietary format, so if you are interested in using an open source solution, look into the OGG format.
Video - I don't know much about video, but I think the AVI, MPG, or MP4 formats are very popular. Linux of course has tools to encode these as well. Google is you friend.

C and D. You may want to look into UStream at for this. I've heard it's very easy to use and even some other churches use it.

Hope this helps.

Thank you, the opinions you express are the kind of leads I am seeking for me to follow up.

I have looked on a preliminary basis at OGG and apparently that designation also covers a video option and open source is important, but what do Mac and Microsoft users have to do to play OGG files ????