Music Streams & Busy Sims

I have spoken with a few people and this problem seems consistent with busy sims.
Basically what is going on, in a busy sim and we have somebody djing, the stream will occasionally drop at random for people.

First off, this was not doing this before the upgrade. In addition, the server is only running at 10% capacity, so it is not overloaded. I went around and contacted a few head DJ's and apparently this problem occurs in places other than just our stream.

The problem is this: When we have a dj up the music stops and we have to press stop then play to get it back.

This seems completely random and does not follow any trends, the server was just rebooted to test that theory and guess what? it wasn't that... These different busy sims use different providers as well so no chance of all being in the same area.

This is a rather urgent situation..

If any other people have experienced this problem please reply to this thread..


I am aware that sims have nothing to do with streams, however it is possible that there is an update that the sim provides and when so many people are in a sim it screws up.. there are tons of possibilities, and we are all aware the sims DO NOT serve the music.

This problem happens in Da Boom sim. I can be in Da Boom (The Edge) and lissening to live DJ on stream. The DJ drops stream and at the same time, I can have someone sittin on Delphi and Ibiza lissening to the same stream and they NEVER hear the drop. This problem has been since the new 1.7 update. I have spoken to Kenny Linden about this problem and as he suggested send in a bug report to which I havent heard anything back regarding it and its still happening. It's very botherson to our guests and to the dj's as well.

Ive noticed that if users use winamp to listen to DJ's streams the music flows uninterupted, but it seems if they listen to the same stream using the in-game audio it cuts in and out.

Exactly...

yes can confirm that, winamp works with sl loaded at that time and had low to common traffic over network. so the problem must be from 1.7.x...

All I know... as a DJ, it is extremely difficult to make everyone at the club have a great time if the streams are constantly cutting out. Meaning that the owner is missing out of lots of business potential. I constantly have people complaining about it, yet I can not do anything about it. How about SL do something, and not stand by and disregard the issue?!!?

I have also seen this occur when listenning how it drops it will be playing steady in one sim and drop off and on in another. It happens even when the sim full or just has 2 avies in it so its not a lag issue. I have seen it happen with people with great or poor connections so this problem isnt with the players their computers or connection its on sl side. Id like to see this fixed as well.

Something interesting i observed...

After being annoyed at the drops in connection i just brought the stream to winamp, as expected - perfectly fine

However in sl, the music player occasionally tries to play music (where i would normally drop) - this should not occur, stopped music should not start for no reason unless its given a trigger..


Thoughts?

Another great problem added to all the other problems that is keeping our dwell down. we are now experiencing dropped stream when we have Dj's on. Whenever you are on the stream cuts out during songs or betwen songs..ugh. nice long dead air and not only that the avies have to start and stop their stream a 1000 times while in the club. Between the lag, rezzing, and the sim crashing a million times thoughout the day. This is hurting our club alot. Whenever we report the problem to a linden you either dont get a reply or it is outragous what they say. THIS SUCKS.

Loss of stream in busy sims is not a Second Life issue.

When someone streams audio, they have a set amount of bandwidth that they pay for by user and is wholly independant of SL. As sims get busy, the demand on bandwidth increases until it reaches it's peak. Thats why it starts to clip, because the bandwidth is being shared among too many users.

Don't blame LL, blame the DJ who didn't provide enough bandwith to match the number of users.

The stream we usually use in Isabel is a crap 64 kb/s stream. Periodically, folks have to hit stop/play to get the stream back, and it gets worse when we're busy.

At all of these times, if you open & play the stream in winamp, it plays flawlessly.

From my own experice only, this problem has existed since 1.5. It was not introduced in 1.7, and seems to be an unresolved FMOD issue.

A tip:

Create an object at your location with a simple llLoadURL script in it on touch event. Folks can click the object, and open up a browser pointed at your Stream URL. An example of the script is here:

**This will only work if you point at a Playlist File (listen.pls). You can usually find a link to the playlist file on your website of choice***

default
{
    touch_start(integer total_number)
    {
        llLoadURL(llDetectedKey(0), "Connecting to MyStation!", "http://82.53.84.12:7520/listen.pls");
    }
}

Providing they have a media player installed, when the browser tries to open up the URL, it invokes their media player - and the stream plays locally.

This the failback plan I use when my stream gets all wonky.

I'll second this.

I've had a lot of music cutting out, not just in my own sim but in all of them. So I assumed it was my problem. Then I got a better computer, tested it on two different connections (a T1 and dsl) and asked others who were in the same sim as me. They also experienced the music stream cutting out and coming back in, usually when they opened the map or find menu or any other window. One of them has cable and a great computer. The other has a 5 mbps dsl and not-so-great computer. I've bug reported.


FWIW, I did not experience this problem to this degree before 1.7. When I did have it before, it was in sims where my lag was bad. Now the sim can be empty and it happens at all times...I cannot dance and listen to music at the same time. What's the use of going to clubs or hosting events in my own club?

edit add: I've started playing my own music on my computer, so I am dancing, but for all I know the land music stream could be playing a dirge and I'd still be boogying away to my own tune

But why does it work when you play the stream in winamp?

Shoutcast prioritizes it, hence hogging bandwidth from those who don't.

Lets say, I rent a server and pay for 20 users. Once the 20 user cap is met, I have some choices. One would be to downgrade the stream to allow more users, another would be to ration the stream and another would be to give priority.

If I rent a banquet hall and only supply 1 loaf of bread, alot of people will go without food. You can't blame the banquet hall.

Those (who are those) who don't...(don't what?)

Sorry, I just don't understand this statement, I did understand the rest...but this part confused me...help me understand please?

This usually happens because the stream you are listening to has reached thier max # of listeners

Those who run Winamp. Shoutcast and Winamp are one in the same software developers.