This guide introduces HLS, which segments your audio for reliable, compatible, and highly distributable HTTP streaming, ideal for mobile and large audiences.

What is HLS?

HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) is a streaming protocol that cuts audio into small segments of a few seconds and publishes a .m3u8 manifest listing these segments. The Player downloads these segments via HTTP/HTTPS (ports 80/443), which facilitates caching, recovery after interruption, and large-scale distribution.

On your Radio Streaming service, activating HLS adds an additional dedicated stream. It has its own listening URL (HLS manifest) and can be selected and prioritized in the infomaniak Player. The HLS stream coexists with your historical streams (e.g., MP3/AAC), without service disruption.

Benefits for a radio stream

• Extended compatibility: native support on iOS/iPadOS (Safari) and wide support via modern HTML5 players and third-party applications.
• Scalability and performance: streaming via HTTP(S) easily distributable by CDN and caches; better scalability than a single continuous stream.
• Robustness: in case of micro-cuts, the player can recover the following segments and resume quickly; less sensitive to temporary losses.
• Network traversal: works on 80/443, generally better accepted by corporate firewalls and proxies than certain “ICY” streams.
• Simplified HTTPS: secure delivery without plugins or exotic protocols.
• Bitrate adaptation (ABR): when multiple variants are offered, the player can automatically switch according to network quality to limit interruptions in mobility.
• Integration flexibility: a distinct listening point allows exposing HLS as the main, secondary, or backup stream in your Player.

Specificities and points of attention

• Latency: HLS adds latency generally in the order of a few tens of seconds (related to the size of the segments and buffering). This is normal for this protocol.
• Compatible player required: use the infomaniak player or a player/web SDK supporting .m3u8 manifests.
• Heterogeneous fleet: some older hardware receivers (web radios, IP car radios) only accept MP3/Icecast streams; keep their historical URLs in parallel.
• Conditional ABR: bitrate adaptation is only effective if multiple profiles are published; otherwise, the HLS stream remains functional in single quality.