FEATURE -> Live Streaming ALSA device?

[blackketter]

I'm not sure if this is already possible, but I'd like to be able to live stream to FM from applications like raspotify and/or snapcast.

I imagine that the botwave local client would appear as an alsa device. Is this feasible now or is there an alternative approach.

[douxxtech]

Hey, I’ve already thought about this, but it’s not implemented at the moment.

In theory, the local client could expose an ALSA device, but the current client-server protocol doesn’t support this kind of audio streaming yet. I’d also prefer to avoid features that only work for a single component. Backend compatibility (bw_custom) would also need to be verified, even though it should be supported.

I might try to work on this in the next week or two, but I can’t guarantee anything.

[douxxtech]

I've got some time to check it a bit more, but i don't have much knowledge in alsa things, at it seem to be kinda annoying to use (less than pulseaudio tho). I have a question that you might be able to reply: how can i tell what card to use ? My pi doesn't seem to have a default one, especially as root (the script runs as root). So like do i just ask the end-user to input the capture card to capture from, and they setup themselves a loopback card or something like that ? Or is there eventually a better solution ?

[blackketter]

I'm no ALSA expert either, but for my purposes (streaming audio via my network to an FM radio), having botwave appear to the system as an ALSA audio output card for playback would be ideal. I think this may be useful for other sound playback applications.

[douxxtech]

Ok thanks, i'll check if I'm able to do that 🙂

[douxxtech]

I've done some tests and i've come to something that seems to work (at least for me) on the local client. It creates an alsa loopback card and listens from it. It's still in a very experimental state and the final update will take some more time to come since i have to adapt the protocol, but the base is there. Could you give me feedback and tell me if this was what you thought ?

To update:

# if you already had an installation, backup your important files
curl -sSL https://botwave.dpip.lol/uninstall | sudo bash # skip this if you didnt install it

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dpipstudio/botwave/refs/heads/livestream-test/scripts/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- -l --alsa

sudo reboot # reboot to setup the audio card

then to use it, run sudo bw-local and use the live command. once done, select in your other app like raspotify or whatever the sound card BotWave

Edit: finally, implementing it in server-client was pretty easy. I'm waiting on your feedback to release it

[blackketter]

wow, great! I've got a lot of unexpected obligations but will try to get some time with it this weekend. Otherwise, after the 5th.

[douxxtech]

Perfect thanks !