SRT/RIST and streaming from location

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1

We frequently stream outside broadcasts back to our remote Liquidsoap/Icecast server over 4G/5G and/or Starlink. These are often week-long events, and while the connections are generally pretty good, packet loss or brief network instability can occasionally result in audible glitches on the Icecast stream.

At the OB end, I’ve built a separate system using Raspberry Pis to bring audio from different locations back to a central server, which then outputs everything over Dante. The Pis use SRT for transport, and the packet recovery has made a huge difference. Even over fairly lossy connections, we get almost no audible glitches.

That’s got me wondering whether there might be a way of doing something similar directly from mAirList for our studio to TX transmission.

Ideally, I’d love to be able to use SRT or RIST as an encoder/streaming output from mAirList, either natively or via some sort of integration, and then receive that at the other end before feeding it into Liquidsoap/Icecast.

Has anyone looked at doing anything similar with mAirList, or found another good way of adding a resilient transport layer between mAirList and a remote Icecast server?

Or am I solving a problem nobody else really has, and standard Icecast streaming over 4G/5G/Starlink is generally reliable enough for everyone else? :slightly_smiling_face:

2

mAirlist uses the BASS audio library, which has no SRT support or plugin, which will make it very hard to integrate within mAirlist.

You can use something like CleanFeed or StudioLink, which I have read posts about good experiences with StarLink.

Alternatively, you can build something that publishes SRT to a destination by plugging into a (virtual) audio device on the transmitting end, which can be selected in mAirlist as destination for the encoder. Then also build a receiving end that either converts the SRT back into a (virtual) audio device or broadcasts to an IceCast server that can be played by mAirlist using the Stream Monitor or stream playlist item. This setup requires no extra hardware, just run the custom software on the same device as mAirlist is already running on. But building this will require technical knowledge on SRT and coding skills.

If you are looking for a contractor to build something like this, I know @tomcallebaut is working on custom SRT solutions that can integrate with mAirlist. He is also an mAirlist Sales Partner. You can find his contact details here: https://www.mairlist.com/en/about/sales/