Internet radio interruption when convolution engine is ON

Hi,

Roon core is installed on Ubuntu 18.4. The core version is 1.7 (build 511).
I am using the convolution engine when streaming on a Raspberry pi 3 B+ running Raspbian with Roon bridge version 1 (build 171) installed.

The connection between the core and the bridge is via ethernet trough a switch.

I use Roon to stream music in the house from files stored on a NAS, Qobuz, internet radio and analog sources (LP and radio) through a local web radio using BUTT (Broadcast using this tool open source software also installed on Ubuntu).

The trouble I have is when I want to stream internet radio to the raspberry using the convolution engine. The time delay induced by the impulse filter is very long: 10 seconds.
When I start to stream internet radio, everything goes well the first 10 seconds, then the connection to the internet radio is lost.
I tried streamIng the analog sources which ended up with the same issue.
I tried streaming without the convolution engine activated and it worked without issues.
I also tried using a shorter impulse filter (3 seconds) and the resulting issue is somewhat different as the sound from the internet radio stops for some seconds and then restarts (I did not specifically check but it seems like a lost connection followed by a reconnection). This specific case was tried also with Roon core running on MacOS (it was 6 months ago so I don’t remember the Roon core version).
When I was using the shorter impulse filter with HQ Player I had no trouble, just the 3 seconds delay.

Can you please help?

Many thanks in advance,

Ludovic

Hi @Ludovic_Boyer,

Can you please upload the two convolution files to Dropbox / Google Drive / Send.friefox.com and provide a link to them? Does this occur for any internet radio station, including entries from Roon’s Live Radio category?

Hi @noris,

Please find the link below
https://send.firefox.com/download/d931217129b44fb5/#lEtDQPa8PAHaHdvqzqY3gA

The issue occurs for any internet radio: Live Radio category, web radio from TuneIn and local web radio.

Thanks for your support.

Ludovic

Hi @noris @Ludovic_Boyer
I have exactly the same Problem. Ich think, in my case, the cause is the week NUC, i am using. If I use a stronger NUC, then the problem is gone

Hi @VolkerS and @noris,

To provide more details, I first noticed the issue in December 2018, when I started to stream my analog sources on the local network through a local web radio.

At the time, the impulse filter had a delay of 3 seconds and host computer of Roon Core was a 2009 Mac Mini (core 2 duo). The processor load was relatively low when the convolution engine was engaged (less than 20% as far as I recall). The streamed web radio was interrupted very 3 seconds or so.

With the new computer (AMD Ryzen 6 cores) and 2 impulse filters used, the processor load is less than 10% and I have the issue described in the first post. When 3 seconds long impulse filter was used, the issue was the same as with the Mac Mini.

Thus, I tend to think that, in my case, the issue is not coming from the processing power of the computer, at least for a Unix based operating system the.

I can only speculate that the issue is coming from how Roon takes in charge the buffer for web radios.

In any case, I think @noris will come back with a solution.

Ludovic

Hi @Ludovic_Boyer,

Thanks for sending the filters over, I can confirm I received them. I have requested the technical team review these filters for any obvious signs of the issue, once this reaches their queue and I have the completed report from them I will have more information to work with here. Until then, I appreciate your patience.

Hi @noris,

Thank you for your support.
Looking forward for a positive outcome.

Ludovic

Hi @noris,

Just to inform that I have reworked the filters. I have combined them into one and reduced the number of taps so now the delay is 0.3 seconds instead of 10 seconds. There is no interruption of internet radio anymore.

My point of view about this issue is that impulses inducing delays of at least 3 seconds will cause internet radio interruptions which is unfortunate.

Still, I would be interested to know if you managed to fix the issue.

Regards

Ludovic

Hi @Ludovic_Boyer,

I spoke to the technical team and they have noted that since the delay is quite large on these filters, problematic behavior is not too surprising.

Their suggestion here was the one you already implemented, which was to modify the filters to reduce the delay as much as possible.

Hi @noris,

Thanks for the answer.

It would be great then to have a warning when one wants to use a convolution filter with a huge delay saying that internet radio might not work as expected.

The reason For my suggestion is that I have spent several months wondering why internet radio was being continuously interrupted. I realized that it was due to the filter only when I switched to a filter with 10 seconds of delay. Having a warning would have helped me to narrow the cause of the issue to the filter.

Thanks again for your help

Ludovic

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