HLS streaming
RadioBOSS Cloud supports streaming in HLS format.
What is HLS
HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) is a media streaming protocol developed by Apple. It breaks the media into small segments and serves them over HTTP as files. Players download segments and then combine them for smooth streaming.
HLS advantages
- Easy network failure recovery. If segment download fails, which happens more often on mobile networks, players can seamlessly retry downloading it.
- Improved battery life for mobile devices: HLS does not require keeping a connection; it only briefly connects to the server to download the subsequent segments.
- Players can pre-buffer segments to continue playing the stream for some time without network access (this comes at the cost of increased latency, about 10-30 seconds).
HLS limitations
- In RadioBOSS Cloud, the HLS stream does not have embedded metadata (track title).
Enabling HLS in RadioBOSS Cloud
To enable HLS in RadioBOSS Cloud, you must be on a Medium or larger plan.
Navigate to the Settings area
- Select Streaming at the top
- In the Additional Encoders section, click the Add button
- Select Type – HLS at the top, configure the streaming format, and click OK.
HLS encoder will start, and you can find the listening link in the Information section.
