Hello team, We are experiencing an issue during livestreams where the audio sometimes cuts out and produces strange noises, similar to guitar string sounds. We tested this with the same source (e.g., OBS) streaming to another platform, and the issue did not occur, which makes us believe the problem might be on the LiveKit server side. During our testing, we also noticed that the issue occurs more frequently when the network condition is unstable. This makes us suspect that the mechanism for handling packet loss or delayed packet delivery might be causing the audio artifacts. Could you please let us know the possible reason and the appropriate way to fix this? I have attached a video generated from egress. The audio remains normal until 3:05, after which the problem continuously occurs. You can compare the difference starting from that point. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mWlwj9o_Fiyk30MTk2BQL228expz9Rxu/view?usp=sharing Livekit room SID: RM_Seo46uW8nAhh Thank you for your support!

During our testing, we also noticed that the issue occurs more frequently when the network condition is unstable. This makes us suspect that the mechanism for handling packet loss or delayed packet delivery might be causing the audio artifacts.

This seems possible. Try and improve the network connection and see if that helps

@refined-appointment-81829 Thank you for your response. Our customers (the streamers) often experience different internet conditions since their broadcasting locations are not fixed. Therefore, we hope for a solution that can also support users with weaker connections. In fact, the fact that video can still be transmitted indicates that the available bandwidth should be sufficient for audio as well. We understand that packet loss is normal in a network environment, but we are expecting a solution where the noise—similar to the sound of an electric guitar—does not occur. The videos extracted from egress still contain complete audio, so we believe that filtering out this noise could resolve the issue. Since the video and audio processing is handled on the LiveKit server side, we can only report this and request support. We look forward to receiving more detailed information about this issue from you.

We had some folks on our team using network impairment yesterday trying to reproduce this issue but have not seen it with packet drop and packet reordering. So we are not sure how to reproduce the issue you are seeing and are not seeing it in our testing. If you can provide reproducible steps it will be helpful.

@refined-appointment-81829 To reproduce this problem, I suggest using an iPhone with the Network Link Conditioner app. You can find more details in Section 2 of this document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ip7Kjy32Zbv4HcOBM5Ata6UqwT7FNIo76aIzqTQ5lHA/edit?tab=t.0 (We have already sent this document to you via email, but for quicker communication we can also share it through Slack.) Here are some important notes I would like to highlight: • You should use the iPhone’s built-in microphone rather than external devices for audio recording. (keeping some noises in the source) • The guitar-like sound tends to appear more frequently and is easier to notice when there is only background noise (with no voice). In our production environment, it often occurs when the streamer is not speaking or in the pauses between words. • To reproduce the issue, you need to switch quickly between high-speed and low-speed networks (by rapidly and repeatedly toggling the on/off button of Network Link Conditioner). This is an extreme condition, but it helps us quickly simulate the moment when network speed changes in real time. • Because the guitar-like sound is very faint and short, we recommend using earphones or headphones and turning up the volume to hear it clearly. By the way, just to be sure, I would like to confirm whether you have actually heard the noise we mentioned in the videos we sent. Could you confirm it?