Architecture
A26 runs on dedicated infrastructure — one server, one job. No containerization overhead. Clean separation of concerns.
Engine
Built on Liquidsoap for audio routing, processing, stream generation and source switching. Prometheus collects audio-specific metrics. Full logging enabled.
Hosted on ARM64 infrastructure, located in EU for EU clients, locations in USA and Asia available.
Content acquisition
Native RSS feed ingestion with health monitoring. System checks feed status, detects stale content, alerts on failures. New episodes appear automatically in rotation.
Supports public and private RSS feeds. Manual file uploads available. Handles common podcast hosting platforms.
Feed health metrics exported to Prometheus.
Audio processing
Professional broadcast chain using Stereotool and custom DSP. Multiband compression, limiting, EQ. Loudness normalization to EBU R128 standards.
Source management and failover
Multiple input types: RSS feeds, live SRT streams, HTTP, file-based playlists. Priority-based fallback chains. When a source fails, system switches to backup in under 200 ms.
Live source contributions via SRT — works over cellular, satellite, or unstable networks. Automatic jitter buffering. Designed for remote broadcasts over unstable networks.
AI news generation
Ingest news sources (wire services, RSS feeds, custom inputs). Generates broadcast-ready news copy using language models. Text-to-speech conversion using voice synthesis.
Automated scheduling — newscasts appear in programming at specified times. Manual triggering available.
Output integrated directly into A26 playlists, and to your AOD platform.
Monitoring and observability
Prometheus metrics for LUFS, RMS, source rotation, uptime, and dead air. Grafana dashboards available. Metrics can be exported to your own monitoring stack.
Silence detection with configurable alerting. If stream goes silent for X seconds, you get notified. Silence detection triggers failover before alerting.
Systemd service management. Automatic restart on failure.
Integration capabilities
Controlled via Telnet or HTTP.
Pairs with OB1 for remote contribution. Pairs with Scribbles for AI-assisted journalism (workflow from written and spoken notes to radio-ready spoken news article).
What's not included
Automated playout only. Host-driven shows require separate playout software.
We don't handle licensing/royalty reporting, but export a list of played songs. Podcasting equipment (microphones, mixers, interfaces) not included. Available on request.
Security and access
We handle server maintenance, security updates, and firewall configuration. You deploy content, we maintain infrastructure.
SSH access available on request in Enterprise tier. Full root access with managed support contract.
Server hardening and automatic security updates included. SOC2 compliance available in Enterprise tier.
Technology stack summary
Infrastructure: ISO 27001 certified, redundant EU datacenters
Protocols: HLS, SRT, Icecast/HTTP
Compliance: SOC2 available (Enterprise tier)
Engine: Liquidsoap 2.x, FFmpeg, Stereotool
FAQ
Can we self-host?
No. Managed infrastructure only.
What happens if your infrastructure fails?
Geographic redundancy available in Enterprise tier. Standard tiers run single-datacenter with automatic restart. SLA guarantees available at Enterprise tier.
Can we integrate with our existing systems?
API available in Professional tier and above. Enterprise tier includes custom integration support.
What's your stack's reliability track record?
Production deployments maintain 99.5%+ uptime. Downtime primarily from upstream CDN issues and scheduled maintenance.
Do you use Docker/Kubernetes?
No. Single-server architecture with systemd management.
