RadioFeed Software Audio Delay when web st

[darenjanes]

Is it possible to reduce the audio delay with RadioFeed Software? On my setup it sits at around a delay of 40 seconds. I would like to half that.

 

[Deziel0495]

I would say that is normal. I have found with my feed there is anywhere from a 20-60 second delay. Have to take in account internet speeds, server load, audio processing, ect.

 

[darenjanes]

I have visibility to the server and even if I connect to the web server via localhost (same server), there is a delay. It sure seems like a buffer delay built into Radiofeed to me. Maybe it's required (I've never attempted to code such a thing, I'm just asking. The guy that developed Radiofeed got back to me via email and indicated that it's built into the player. There might very well be a delay built into the player, but it's nowhere near 40 seconds. Maybe one or two seconds at most.

 

[Ubbe]

It's probably not sending the audio bit by bit. It's big chunks, the bigger the less stress on the network. It "collects" audio samples and when it has built up a pile it sends it. When the other end receives it it will wait for the next pile or even several more as a buffer before converting the first one to audio, to stop any stuttering and hesitation in the decoded audio. Todays networks are fairly consistance at higher bit rates so it would probably work with a much smaller pile and no buffer piles but are probably set to a fixed value in a complete module that you use pre made and do not code yourself.

/Ubbe

 

[flythunderbird]

I have visibility to the server and even if I connect to the web server via localhost (same server), there is a delay. It sure seems like a buffer delay built into Radiofeed to me. Maybe it's required (I've never attempted to code such a thing, I'm just asking. The guy that developed Radiofeed got back to me via email and indicated that it's built into the player. There might very well be a delay built into the player, but it's nowhere near 40 seconds. Maybe one or two seconds at most.

The delay is due to network latency between your scanner/computer, the Broadcastify servers, time to process the data into a stream/send it back out, and your stream receiving software. Streaming is not an instantaneous, or nearly instantaneous, thing. Radiofeed itself doesn't have a delay built into it.

As Bob said, your streaming audio player may have a buffer setting. If so, reducing the size of the buffer may reduce the delay to an extent - but you will never be able to completely get rid of the delay due to the nature of streaming over the Internet. Reducing the size of the player's buffer may also cause your streamed audio to become choppy. If your player has a 'direct streaming' setting or something similar, you can try that to see if the delay is reduced.

 

[darenjanes]

Thanks Glenn. I realize it would never be real-time, I was just looking to reduce it down from 40 seconds. But obviously, I need to educate myself in the world of audio streaming.

 

[Ubbe]

I have 11 surveilance cameras and most of them have audio capabilities. Everyone tested had long delay in audio, normally 3-4 seconds when using a phone app in the same LAN and I can hear my self saying the last couple of words when the app switches to listening. Last week I got a new camera and that app had almost no delay, less than 0.5 sec. When I facetime someone on the other end of town it's someting like 1 sec delay. I don't buy that network lagging have something to do with a 40 sec streaming delay. It would be impossible to play networked games if the delay was more than a second.

/Ubbe

 

[ProScan]

Like flythunderbird advised, all media players has a network buffer built in to prevent dropouts. It appears the metadata(or text tags) are pulled out before the network buffer which makes the audio delayed with respect to the metadata. Using ProScan Web Server feature, the Web Page has an option "Display & Metadata Delay" that delays the text tags so the metadata will appear in sync with the audio.

I shall add that RadioFeed & ProScan does not have any buffering that delays the audio. The ProScan RSOIP (Remote Scanner Over IP) feature uses the same method of getting the audio from the sound device and sending it out to the internet. The RSOIP doesn't have any significant delay on the far end.