Live Feeds in Timbre allow you to play out content feeds as a live, looping 24/7 stream. You can use any "simple" feed as a content source and Timbre can create live output streams in a number of different bitrates/codecs. 

You can list the streams on your website or on third-party internet radio platforms to allow listeners around the world to listen to your Timbre content in synchronicity. 

What can I use Live Feeds for?

On-demand content

Live feeds allow you to create a 24-hour playout of on-demand content at varying bitrates and outputs. This will allow you to provide an opportunity for listeners to listen to pre-recorded content as a live broadcast.

Live playout fallback for Premium Live Streaming customers

Live Feeds can also be used as a fallback service for an encoder contribution. Live feeds in Timbre have a mountpoint associated with them that can accept Icecast-type encoder contributions. This information can be retrieved in our Portal product and is available to live streaming customers with Premium Streams enabled.  

In this scenario, the feed content you set assumes the role of a backup playout and this content will only be heard on the stream if your encoder contribution fails or goes silent. An additional benefit of this feature is that only one encoder contribution is required to output multiple streams of various quality.

For more information on the premium stream redundancy options that SharpStream offers, please consult the following article: Premium Stream Redundancy Options Explained.

How to create a live feed in Timbre:

In order to create a Live Feed in Timbre, you must first create a feed which you can populate with the content you want played out on your Live Feed. To learn more about how to create feeds in Timbre, please visit our Feeds article that will guide you through this process.

Step 1: Navigate to Live Feeds and Select '+New Live Feed'

From your Home Page, simply navigate to Live Feeds and select +New Live Feed. 

This will redirect you to the Live Feed creation window. 

Step 2: Configure your live feed

Firstly, Provide a unique name - this name will be used to generate your output mount point names. 

Spaces and special characters will be replaced with underscores. The mount names will then be prepended with a unique ID number appended with the output bitrate/codec. "My live stream" -> 101_my_live_stream_128_mp3

Then specify the feed properties as follows.

Live Feed Properties:

Artwork:

Select your preferred artwork to be displayed in your personalised audio player.

Select Feed:

Select the feed you wish to associate with your live feed. This feed will be used to populate your live feed.

Feeds selected here must be set to "Simple" type to be compatible with live feeds.

Select a mode:

The following selectable modes will alter the order in which your content is played.

Normal: play the items in the order they are represented in the feed.

Shuffle: play the items in a random order every time the live feed is reloaded.

Random: With each play, a random file will be selected from the feed.

Select a reload mode:

This will determine the triggers that will reload the live feed contents.

Never: reload must be triggered manually.

Rounds: reload will be triggered after X number of playthroughs (X can be specified in the Reload box that appears when this option is selected).

Seconds: reload will be triggered after X number of seconds (X can be specified in the Reload box that appears when this option is selected).

Outputs:

In this section, you are able to specify the format and bitrate for your Live Feed streams. The outputs you select will play out the same content as individual streams in audio qualities specified.

Format:

Choose your encoding format for this output. If you require multiple outputs, simply select + Add Additional Output. Available codecs include:

MP3 

AAC-AUTO

AAC-LC

AAC-HE

AAC-HE V2

Bitrate:

Select your desired bitrate. Available bitrates are determined by the format selected. 

Higher bitrates require more bandwidth and are generally less mobile-friendly.

Once you have made your selections, click "Submit" to create your live feed. Depending on the number of outputs you have selected it may take up to 30 seconds for the success message to appear. 

Only the live feed name and artwork can be edited once you create your live feed, so make sure you double check the feed settings before clicking "Submit". If you have made an errors or need something else editing, you will need to contact our support team.

Managing my Live Feeds

You can manage your Live Feeds by heading to Live Feeds from your Homepage by using the side navigation bar. 

On the Live Feeds landing page, you are able to see key details about your Live Feed. 

Within the actions column, selecting the dropdown will provide you options to Edit, Start/Stop (based on the current connectivity status of streams) or Delete your stream. 

Stop: This will disconnect all listeners and make the stream off-air.

Start: This will start a stopped stream, allowing listeners to connect to your stream. 

Restart: This will automatically trigger a stop and start command, disconnecting all listeners and reloading the feed contents. 

These actions can be used to take a stream off-air, or as a troubleshooting step if you experience any problems.