Beer - Low Latency Audio Streamer

February 16, 2025 ยท View on GitHub

A cross-platform (Windows & macOS) desktop audio streaming application written in Rust, focusing on low latency.

Features

  • Capture system-wide audio (desktop audio)
  • Stream audio over the network with minimal latency
  • Auto-discovery of streaming servers on the local network
  • Cross-platform support (Windows and macOS)

Installation

Pre-built Binaries

Download the latest release for your platform from the Releases page.

Building from Source

  1. Install Rust (if you haven't already):

    curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

  2. Clone the repository:

    git clone https://github.com/alii/beer.git
cd beer

  3. Build in release mode:

    cargo build --release

The binary will be available in target/release/audio_streamer_cli (or audio_streamer_cli.exe on Windows).

Usage

Broadcasting Audio (Server)

To start broadcasting your desktop audio:

# Default settings (binds to 0.0.0.0:50001)
audio_streamer_cli broadcast

# Custom bind address
audio_streamer_cli broadcast -b "192.168.1.100:50001"

Listening to Audio (Client)

To start receiving and playing audio:

# Auto-discover and connect to server
audio_streamer_cli listen

# Custom bind address
audio_streamer_cli listen -b "192.168.1.101:50001"

Platform-Specific Notes

Windows

  • Uses WASAPI for system audio capture
  • No additional setup required
  • May need to allow the application through Windows Firewall on first run

macOS

  • Requires a virtual audio driver for system audio capture
  • Recommended options:

Network Requirements

  • UDP ports used:
    • 50000: Auto-discovery service
    • 50001: Audio streaming (default, configurable)
  • Both the server and clients must be on the same local network
  • Firewall must allow UDP traffic on the above ports

Building

The project uses GitHub Actions to automatically build releases for both Windows and macOS. Each push to the master branch creates a new release with platform-specific binaries.

To build manually for a specific platform:

# For the current platform
cargo build --release

# For Windows (requires cross-compilation setup)
cargo build --release --target x86_64-pc-windows-msvc

# For macOS (requires macOS)
cargo build --release --target x86_64-apple-darwin

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details