Solve a buffer issue Streaming Radio

This guide concerns the buffer and latency of Streaming Radio Indeed, although latency is inevitable, the proper management of buffers allows you to optimize your diffusions while minimizing interruptions.

Preamble

• The buffer, or buffer memory, is a small memory area that must be filled before the Player starts playing the music of your audio streaming. It corresponds to a sound of a few seconds. It is intended for greater listening comfort, in order to avoid small cuts in the flow being audible, which leads to a brazen and unpleasant sound.
• The reception and broadcast servers also have buffers; real-time transmission is never instantaneous due to several technical factors:
  • The latency of 3 to 4 seconds between the sound generation and its reception is Normal.
  • Players always buffer at least 1 to 2 seconds before starting playback.
  • Icecast uses by default a 64K bytes buffer, equivalent to about 4 seconds of broadcast in 128k mp3.
  • Encoding customers also have buffers to prevent interruptions.
  • Decreasing the size of buffers may reduce latency but this practice is risky.
  • Internet connections do not guarantee a constant flow rate, smaller buffers can lead to cuts.

Analyze buffer stability

The diagnosis available on your Manager displays the amount of memory occupied by buffering each second. If the flow is working correctly, the values shall be stable:

An unstable buffer is the sign of either poor bond quality or saturation of the line. Be aware of this other guide if you are looking for resolution elements.

This test is also useful to help detect temporary saturations of an Internet line. If the buffer is sometimes stable, sometimes unstable, it may be the sign that some users sharing the Internet line saturate the line from time to time, resulting in disruption of your flow.

To check this hypothesis, launch a long-term buffer test at the full hours of use of your facilities and observe any disturbances.