StreamS HTML5 MSE CMAF fMP4 HLS PADsync
REFERENCE STREAMS

HLS - The ONLY True Standard for Reliable High-Performance Audio-Only Streaming.
Reach more platforms and devices reliably to increase audience share.

Standards-based, synchronous, ontime metadata and images are displayed in the Player.
This is 100% IETF/ISO CMAF Compliant HLS.

Modern audio streams use standards-based fMP4 HLS.
As video content providers have already learned, segmented streaming, such as HLS, provides reliability over the public Internet. Now audio content providers need to follow.
Audio streaming has become synonymous with poor performance, excessive buffering, inaccurate metadata, and embarrassing content insertion breaks.
Until fairly recently, there has been no new innovative streaming audio development.
HLS overcomes all the low expectations of unreliable legacy feature-limited streaming protocols.
When HLS 4K video now works, even lossless audio is an easy reality.

These Reference Streams are produced with StreamS HLSdirect(tm) Live Encoders.
They are a set of HLS segments to simulate a live 2-minute stream.
They contain an alternating 1kHz tone, silence, 2kHz tone, silence for 2 minutes, each with alternating in-band synchronous emsg id3v2.4 metadata, then stop.

In a properly implemented player, the metadata should parse and display at exactly the start of each tone being audibly and visually aligned.

The image commonly used for cover art, logos, and ads is sent as a URL in an id3v2.4 frame. It is not sent as part of the HLS payload, and therefore is subject to any network/server delay that may pose. Although once cached through to the player client, any image display delays are usually very minimal.

For testing metadata compliance, it is necessary to observe the text metadata, as it must line up audibly and visually to the start of each tone.

Each HLS segment always contains an emsg id3v2.4 frame with current metadata, allowing new player clients to immediately receive and display current metadata. HLS segments may contain multiple emsg id3v2.4 frames.

There is nothing proprietary here.
Parse emsg using ISO BMFF MPEG4 Boxes.
Parse id3v2.4 using id3 UTF-8 parser, any language, any character set.
This method is fully extensible.
Any standard and custom id3v2.4 metadata fields may be used, and properly implemented players may only display visibly desired metadata fields.
This eliminates embarassing ugly displays with control characters and other information which should not be visible on standard players.

Depending upon the state of the browser MSE buffers at player client start, the players sometimes require a reload to properly flush and sync.

There are already several bogus non-compliant HLS metadata deployments in the wild, including those in use at some of the largest streaming audio providers. This is simply a recipe for disaster. We have a chance to advance beyond ICY and Flash limitations using HLS, yet developers, content providers, and content distribution networks fail to address this correctly. Not doing so limits your streaming coverage and frustrates your audience.

Player clients and devices can't possibly chase and keep up with every single non-standard streaming protocol and metadata scheme that content providers are using. Audiences have modern expensive mobile devices, automotive dashboards, computer systems, smart speakers, and players to consume streaming media. On the other side of this, the need for content providers to supply multiple streams in multiple formats to accomodate incompetent player clients is not a viable solution either.
Your audience expects this to "just" work! The only way is to embrace standards. Put another way, imagine needing a proprietary browser for each website you visit.
That's what will happen to audio streaming if this trend continues.
It is bad for your audience. It is bad for business.