Reimagining Audio Streaming: Strategic Shifts from Traditional to Modern Protocols

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Problem Statement

Current audio streaming practices rely on a wide range of technologies, many of which are outdated and not designed to meet the scalability and operational demands of modern streaming environments. These legacy methods hinder innovation and create inefficiencies in deployment and management. There is a lack of industry alignment around using modern, standardized protocols—such as HLS and DASH—that have been extensively developed and optimized for media delivery. Without a clear recommendation and industry guidance, future efforts to improve audio streaming quality, fidelity, and efficiency will continue to face unnecessary barriers. The Streaming Audio Study Group seeks to address this gap by advocating for a unified, standards-based approach.

Project Description

The Streaming Audio Study Group has identified several promising initiatives related to audio streaming. However, a key challenge emerged: many current audio streaming methods rely on outdated technologies—some dating back as far as 1998—that are not well-suited to meet modern scalability and operational efficiency requirements. Rather than retrofitting new developments onto legacy protocols, this document advocates for adopting standardized, modern streaming protocols such as HLS and DASH. These protocols benefit from extensive existing research, tooling, and optimization—particularly in the context of video—which can be leveraged to advance audio streaming as well. The group aims to build upon this foundation to pursue initiatives such as defining high-fidelity audio, establishing encoding best practices, and improving measurement standards. Achieving these goals requires a transition away from legacy protocols in favor of more capable, future-ready technologies. This document serves as a call to action for that transition.

Project Type

Document

Project Leads

Andrew Ryan

Advisors

There are no SMEs associated with this project.

Draft Documents

Estimated Publication Date: Q4 2025

More Details

(DRAFT) SVTA5107: Reimagining Audio Streaming: Strategic Shifts from Traditional to Modern Protocols

The Streaming Audio Study Group has identified several promising initiatives related to audio streaming. However, a key challenge emerged: many current audio streaming methods rely on outdated technologies—some dating back as far as 1998—that are not well-suited to meet modern scalability and operational efficiency requirements. Rather than retrofitting new developments onto legacy protocols, this document advocates for adopting standardized, modern streaming protocols such as HLS and DASH. These protocols benefit from extensive existing research, tooling, and optimization—particularly in the context of video—which can be leveraged to advance audio streaming as well. The group aims to build upon this foundation to pursue initiatives such as defining high-fidelity audio, establishing encoding best practices, and improving measurement standards. Achieving these goals requires a transition away from legacy protocols in favor of more capable, future-ready technologies. This document serves as a call to action for that transition.


Goals and Objectives

  • Publish a formal Best Practices document.
  • Advocate for the adoption of HLS and DASH as standard protocols for audio streaming.
  • Enable future initiatives by leveraging the existing ecosystem of tools and best practices built around HLS and DASH, particularly for optimizing audio streaming.

Project Scope

The scope of this project is to develop and publish a recommendations document advocating for the adoption of modern streaming protocols—specifically HLS and DASH—for audio streaming. This effort addresses the limitations of legacy audio streaming technologies, many of which are outdated, difficult to scale, and operationally inefficient. By promoting standardized protocols with broad industry support and mature tooling, the project aims to establish a solid foundation for future Streaming Audio Study Group initiatives. These future efforts include, but are not limited to, the definition and measurement of high-fidelity audio, encoding best practices, and streaming optimization techniques. The project explicitly excludes attempts to retrofit or extend legacy audio streaming protocols, focusing instead on a forward-looking approach grounded in widely adopted modern standards.

Contributors

The following members have contributed to this project. Click on their name to visit their profile. If they have not published their profile, the link will redirect to their LinkedIn profile.

Andrew Ryan

Barry Owen

Christopher Kulbakas

Dexter Doyle

Eric Klein

Additional References

There are no additional references or other required readings need to participate in this project.

Presentations

There are no presentations associated with this project.

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