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Network

A NOMN REMOTE stream needs the same bandwidth at both ends: your upload carries one copy of the stream (in Direct and in Relay alike, however many listeners a relayed link has), and each listener downloads one copy.

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How much bandwidth

For lossless FLAC, plan on 1 Mbps per channel at both ends: 2 Mbps for stereo, 12 Mbps for 7.1.4, and 16 Mbps for 9.1.6 or third-order ambisonics.1 For LOW BANDWIDTH (Opus), the stream runs at 64 kbit/s per channel, which the plugin’s header shows as a total before START.2 A plugin in RECEIVE downloads one copy of the session it receives, as a listener does. The mixing page downloads one copy of each input and uploads the mix as Opus at 64 kbit/s a channel (0.13 Mbps for a stereo mix, 0.77 Mbps for 7.1.4). Leave headroom above these figures for anything else using the same connection (a video call alongside a review, for example).

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Connection

Use wired Ethernet at both ends for critical applications. Wi-Fi and mobile connections deliver packets in bursts and with gaps, and the listener’s buffer absorbs that variation at the cost of delay. Results vary with network conditions at both ends. A listener on an unsteady connection can raise the page’s buffer floor with buffer 500 (or up to buffer 2000), trading latency for fewer interruptions. The default floor is 300 ms.

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Direct connections and firewalls

Direct streams travel peer to peer. When a network between the two ends blocks peer-to-peer traffic, the listener’s page waits 8 seconds for a direct connection and then asks for the relay, and the plugin switches that START to the relay (see Direct and Relay). A listener who always ends up on the relay is behind such a network; for Direct to work, that network has to allow peer-to-peer connections from the browser.

Footnotes

  1. FLAC is variable rate. On music at 24 bit we measured about 0.81 Mbps a channel; quiet room recordings run higher, and click tracks, tones and silence run far lower. The 1 Mbps figure covers the music case with some margin. ↩
  2. Opus runs at a fixed rate. On music we measured about 66 kbit/s a channel. ↩