There are many different reasons that may cause your stream to skip or buffer for a particular listener. This article outlines a few of them and some common techniques to debugging.
1.) Listener Side Issues
If you have a single listener or small segment of listeners experiencing this issue, the main cause for these intermittent skips and buffering with streams is usually a troublesome or weak internet connection with the listeners' end device. If their signal is not strong, there may not be enough bandwidth or resources to consistently deliver the stream, which causes these intermittent skips. The main way to debug these issues is to ask the end listener to run a speed test to ensure their connection is strong, and listen to the stream again once in an area with a strong connection.
2.) Broadcaster Side Issues
On the broadcaster’s side, there may not be enough upload bandwidth available to effectively push the stream to a distribution server. Broadcasters need to ensure they have a fast and reliable connection, in addition to adequate computer resources in order to eliminate the chance of skips or buffering to your stream. If you have several listeners experienc this issue, check the connection of your encoding device by running a speed test. A weak connection coming from this point could be the cause of the issue.
These are common techniques when diagnosing stream skips or buffering. If you are experiencing a large number of listeners running into skips or buffering and your connection is strong from your encoding device, please do not hesitate to contact our Support Team through the ticket submission form or by emailing us at support@soundstack.com.