VibeServer for macOS — v0.3.2 Alpha
Turn a Mac with an RTL-SDR into a receiver anyone on your network can use, from a browser or from the VibeSDR app. A tuning-and-polish release on top of 0.3.1: broadcast FM costs noticeably less CPU, and the browser's media controls finally work properly.
FM stereo got cheaper
The wideband-FM decoder — the most expensive thing the server does, and what you're using on any broadcast station — now costs 26–41% less CPU, depending on sample rate. Nothing about the sound changed: stereo separation is identical, and rejection of the 19 kHz pilot tone actually improved by 22 dB, so there's less chance of it colouring the top end.
The saving comes mostly from doing the audio filtering at the audio rate instead of the full channel rate, plus hand-vectorised (NEON) maths in the FM detector and a trig-free stereo pilot loop. On a Raspberry Pi or an older Mac that's the difference between comfortable and not.
Media controls that actually work
- Safari: the macOS Now Playing card is now live and correct — station name, frequency, and the station's own logo from RDS, updating as you tune. Previously it showed stale information, because it was only refreshed at the moment you tuned — and RDS data arrives a couple of seconds later.
- Chrome / Edge (and Windows, and Android browsers): the media keys now work. Play/pause mutes and unmutes; the skip buttons tune up and down. This has never worked in Chromium before. Chromium still won't show artwork or track text for us, but the controls are there — and, unlike the previous attempt at this, it costs nothing.
- Fixed: a station logo would flash into the artwork for a split second while tuning past.
Notes
- Alpha: one SDR, one listener at a time. Best on your local network.
- Set a PIN if you port-forward it — listeners can change the dongle's hardware settings otherwise.
- Notarised, so a downloaded copy opens without a Gatekeeper warning. Drag VibeServer.app to your Applications folder.