LyreBirdAudio

What is LyreBirdAudio?

LyreBirdAudio turns USB microphones into reliable, always-on RTSP audio streams. Built on top of MediaMTX and FFmpeg, it handles every aspect of long-term unattended operation: device persistence across reboots, automatic stream recovery, health monitoring, alerting, and metrics export — all without requiring Docker, Python runtimes, or complex dependencies.

Originally created to monitor bird activity using USB microphones on spare mini PCs, it has grown into a complete, production-hardened streaming suite suitable for wildlife monitoring, environmental sensing, security audio, and any scenario requiring continuous, reliable audio capture.

Key Features

• Persistent USB device naming via udev
• Automatic stream recovery & restart
• Hardware capability auto-detection
• Interactive setup wizard (Orchestrator)
• Systemd service with watchdog
• Cron-based health monitoring
• Multiplex streaming (amix / amerge)
• Opus, AAC, PCM codec support
• Prometheus metrics export
• Webhook alerts (Discord, Slack, ntfy…)
• Storage management & retention
• Git-based version management
• Atomic config file operations
• Comprehensive diagnostic suite
• Optional RTSP authentication & TLS
• No Docker, no Python, pure Bash

Architecture Overview

At its core, LyreBirdAudio uses FFmpeg to capture audio from ALSA devices and push RTSP streams to MediaMTX, which serves them to any RTSP-compatible client. USB devices are given permanent names through udev rules, so streams keep their names across reboots even when USB enumeration order changes.

Components at a Glance

Get Streaming in 5 Minutes

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/tomtom215/LyreBirdAudio.git
   cd LyreBirdAudio
   chmod +x *.sh

2. Launch the setup wizard

   sudo ./lyrebird-orchestrator.sh
   # Select: Quick Setup Wizard

3. Access your streams

   rtsp://your-server-ip:8554/device-name

The wizard installs MediaMTX, maps USB devices, generates an optimal configuration, starts streams, and runs initial diagnostics — all in one guided flow. See the Quick Start guide for more detail.

Platform Support

Project Info