2. digital
  3. 154436-20253

Streamers and bit rot.

In audio land, I see streamers as being complicated and subject to what we call "bit rot" in the software industry. It really means that over time, the code that used to work may no longer work because the environment around them is moving on. It doesn't mean the code becomes buggy, but fails to keep up. A modern streamer has three different areas where code must interface to the outside world:

  1. The services being streamed (Quboz, Spotify, Tidal, etc.)
  2. The USB DAC - Drivers must exist for each chipset.
  3. The user interface - iOS, Android, web
If you are an audio manufacturer, say, Parasound or Ayre and you want to make a streamer you have to solve all of these issues. Those require developers. OK, so you pay your Android and Tidal developer. They go away, and Tidal adds a new feature or a new service like Amazon streaming comes in. Got to go find developers again.  Apple releases a new iOS and your old Android app is now dead. What are you going to do?  This happens with some frequency and all but the most basic of apps "rot" over time.

This is very different than the software-less EE world in which your core expertise may lie in. I mean, even if you use some microcontroller to handle your inputs/levels and bass management it's still a lot simpler, and fewer lines of code to manage and keep up. 

So, my dear fellow A'goners, what brands to you trust to keep up and how did you solve this issue?
erik_squires
sfseay's avatar
sfseay
496 posts
 
PS Audio, Aurender, and dCS come to mind
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,977 posts
 
Are you buying a streamer or getting married to one?! That aside, any company that relies on software for the proper operation of their product - which basically covers almost all technology and consumer electronics manufacturers, would have to be very dumb to just count on the continuity of employment of their software developers to sustain a successful business model. As I'm sure you know, there are significant amounts of structure around software control and management to ensure some level of continuity if/when employees leave, which happens all the time. As for updates, even a $500 Bluesound Node2/2i pushes updates to their devices regularly with no issues. Hardware/firmware updates are also managed by a board replacement or remotely, e.g., FPGA, etc., respectively. Not to worry...
corelli
974 posts
 
CD's
erik_squires OP
16,039 posts
 
That aside, any company that relies on software for the proper operation of their product - which basically covers almost all technology and consumer electronics manufacturers, would have to be very dumb to just count on the continuity of employment of their software developers to sustain a successful business model.

I'm not exactly sure what you are getting at. I don't mean that you have to be prepared for developers to leave. I mean that from a product development lifecycle, there isn't really enough work to keep developers in all areas fully employed, so as a result anyone who isn't Harman sized has to hire consultants. A change will require a new project.

So, either you are in constant product development, justifying developers or you are on a project by project basis, and have serious fees incurred each time.

Unlike, say, an amplifier, which you pay to design once, and then you pretty much run it for 10 years if you can, or 20.
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,422 posts
 
The OP has a knack of over analyzing things...that’s all I am going to say. 
More to discover