Architecture
A26 runs on dedicated infrastructure — one server, one job. No containerization overhead. Clean separation of concerns. Simple to debug when something goes wrong.
Engine
Built on Liquidsoap for audio routing, processing, stream generation and source switching. Audio-specific metrics are collected by Prometheus. Everything is monitored, everything is logged.
​
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 before they cause dead air. New episodes appear automatically in rotation.
​
Supports public and private RSS feeds. Manual file uploads available if needed. Handles common podcast hosting platforms without special configuration.
​
Feed health metrics exported to Prometheus. You know when something's wrong before your listeners do.
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 from locations with terrible connectivity.
AI news generation
Ingest news sources (wire services, RSS feeds, custom inputs). Generates broadcast-ready news copy using language models. Text-to-speech conversion with natural-sounding voice synthesis.
​
Automated scheduling — newscasts appear in programming at specified times without human intervention. Or trigger manually when breaking news happens.
​
Output integrated directly into A26 playlists, and to your AOD platform. No separate systems to manage.
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, so you're only notified when there's an actual problem.
​
Systemd service management. Automatic restart on failure.
Integration capabilities
Can be controlled over 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
We do not provide any playout software. We don't handle licensing/royalty reporting, but export a list of played songs. By default, the delivery scope of A26 doesn't include any hardware, but options for basic podcasting equipment are available, please contact us.
Security and access
SSH access available to your instance in Enterprise tier. Full root access available with managed support contract.
​
Or, even better: we handle everything and you never touch terminal.
​
Server hardening, automatic security updates, firewall configuration included. SOC2 compliance available in Enterprise tier.
Technology stack summary
Engine: Liquidsoap 2.x, FFmpeg, Stereotool
Monitoring: Prometheus, Grafana, Netdata
Infrastructure: Redundant datacenter infrastructure in European locations (EU data residency) (ISO 27001)
Content delivery: Global CDN, geo-restrictions available
Protocols: HLS, SRT, Icecast/HTTP
Scripting: Liquidsoap, Python, Bash
FAQ
Can we self host?
​
No. Our IP stays on our infrastructure.
​
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 (Professional tiers and above). Standard protocols throughout. For custom integrations, choose Enterprise tier.
​
What's your stack's reliability track record?
​
Current production deployments: more than 99.5% uptime, downtime primarily due to upstream CDN issues (beyond our control), and scheduled maintenance.
​
Do you use Docker/Kubernetes?
​
No. One server, one function, systemd management. Anti-complexity by design. This makes debugging at 3am possible instead of a nightmare.