Audio Streaming

Navigation apps are allowed to stream raw audio to be played by the head unit. The audio received this way is played immediately, and the current audio source will be attenuated. The raw audio has to be played with the following parameters:

• Format: PCM
• Sample Rate: 16k
• Number of Channels: 1
• Bits Per Second (BPS): 16 bits per sample / 2 bytes per sample

In order to stream audio from a SDL app, we focus on the SDLStreamingMediaManager class. A reference to this class is available from an SDLProxy property streamingMediaManager.

Audio Stream Lifecycle

Like the lifecycle of the video stream, the lifecycle of the audio stream is maintained by the SDL library. When you recieve the SDLAudioStreamDidStartNotification, you can begin streaming audio.

SDLAudioStreamManager

If you do not already have raw PCM data ready at hand, the SDLAudioStreamManager can help. The SDLAudioStreamManager will help you to do on-the-fly transcoding and streaming of your files in mp3 or other formats.

Objective-C

[self.sdlManager.streamManager.audioManager pushWithFileURL:audioFileURL];
[self.sdlManager.streamManager.audioManager playNextWhenReady];

Swift

self.sdlManager.streamManager?.audioManager.push(withFileURL: url)
self.sdlManager.streamManager?.audioManager.playNextWhenReady()

Implementing the Delegate

Objective-C

- (void)audioStreamManager:(SDLAudioStreamManager *)audioManager errorDidOccurForFile:(NSURL *)fileURL error:(NSError *)error {
}

- (void)audioStreamManager:(SDLAudioStreamManager *)audioManager fileDidFinishPlaying:(NSURL *)fileURL successfully:(BOOL)successfully {
    if (audioManager.queue.count != 0) {
        [audioManager playNextWhenReady];
    }
}

Swift

public func audioStreamManager(_ audioManager: SDLAudioStreamManager, errorDidOccurForFile fileURL: URL, error: Error) {

}

public func audioStreamManager(_ audioManager: SDLAudioStreamManager, fileDidFinishPlaying fileURL: URL, successfully: Bool) {
    if audioManager.queue.count != 0 {
        audioManager.playNextWhenReady()
    }
}

Manually Sending Data

Once the audio stream is connected, data may be easily passed to the Head Unit. The function sendAudioData: provides us with whether or not the PCM Audio Data was successfully transferred to the Head Unit. If your app is in a state that it is unable to send audio data, this method will return a failure.

Objective-C

NSData* audioData = <#Acquire Audio Data#>;

if ([self.sdlManager.streamManager sendAudioData:audioData] == NO) {
  NSLog(@"Could not send Audio Data");
}

Swift

let audioData = <#Acquire Audio Data#>;

guard let streamManager = self.sdlManager.streamManager, streamManager.isAudioConnected else { return }

if streamManager.sendAudioData(audioData) == false {
    print("Could not send Audio Data")
}