Earshot
Earshot is a free and open-source RTMP → DASH transcoder for live streaming Higher-Order Ambisonics. It enables artists to stream Ambisonics audio up to 14th order (up to 255 audio channels), with optional video stream. Built on nginx and developed by the nonprofit organisation Envelop, it's designed to solve a specific gap: while tools such as Envelop for Live make it straightforward to compose and perform Ambisonic content, live streaming that content beyond first order to a standard web browser has remained difficult. Earshot ships as a containerised package with a web interface for monitoring and debugging active streams, and includes tools to preview and test different Dash.js client player settings before going live. It's typically paired with OBS Studio Music Edition or FFmpeg on the streaming end, and with tools such as Ableton Live paired with Envelop for Live to generate the multichannel Ambisonic source signal in the first place.
tech specs
history
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Earshot was developed by Roddy Lindsay and released as open source under the GNU GPLv2 licence, published through Envelop, the nonprofit dedicated to immersive listening spaces and open-source spatial audio software. It was shown publicly on Hacker News in August 2020 as a solution to a specific technical gap: getting audio or video with non-standard, beyond-stereo or beyond-5.1 channel configurations from a source computer through to a web browser reliably. The tool has since been used in practical multichannel livestreaming projects, including a livestream by Gdańsk University of Technology's Multimedia Systems Department, where Earshot was combined with an Insta360 Pro 2 camera and a Zylia ZM-1 Ambisonic microphone, alongside the HOAST360 360-degree Ambisonic video player, to stream a full spatial audio-visual event.
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