Hardware for a stream encoder

[Multicore]

Help me choose hardware for a stream encoder project. The completed appliance is shipped to a radio station and connected to power, LAN and their broadcast audio signal, which most usually for us is 2-channel line-level analog.

We need:

1. a low spec computer that
   • runs Debian
   • has NVRAM suitable for booting from and providing root and user fs.
   • 1000BASE-T LAN jack
   • a few USB jacks
2. USB audio interface providing two line-level XLR inputs
3. a small color display, e.g. OLED that connects to the computer and displays the boot console and, after boot, our app's display
4. 19" rack mount hardware to fit 1, 2 and 3 into, preferably 1U, max 2U.

In terms of compute resources, a Raspberry Pi would suffice for 1 when we add power supply and cooling. Something a bit hardened for 24x7 embedded apps would also be interesting.

 

[Multicore]

I can't believe none of you have rack mounted a computer with a sound card in it or an audio interface in the same rack unit.

Let's drop the small display requirement 3. (I managed to talk the team out of it. )

 

[phofman]

PC thin clients have plenty of power, often NVMe. E.g. my HP T640 runs Debian on two NVMes in ZFS mirror raid (for easy replacement of the drives), 2x32GB DDR4 DIMMs, rock solid. It's 3.5cm thick, below the 1U req (45mm), leaving space for a fixed 19" shelf to put it on.

 

[voodooless]

A Pi can do this easily. Just boot from the SD card in read-only mode. That will last for a long while. There are plenty of 1U rack mounts to be found that can mount multiple of them.

 

[Multicore]

Sure a Pi can do it and we've several deployed already. But from an HW engineering point of view it needs a lot of work. Once you've got a case, power supply, and cooling sorted out for a Pi, you might as well get a Dell Wyse or something like that.

 

[phofman]

I view it the same way. IMO/E an x86 thin client is often easier to use, cheaper, more powerful, more flexible, more reliable than RPi, if no digital interfaces unavailable on PCs are needed (I2C, SPI, I2S, etc.). Just getting a good-quality PSU for RPi which can run for years 24/7 costs like a whole refurbished thin client incl. its good-brand PSU which will run for a decade 24/7 easily. My home router HP T5741 (Atom N280) has been running in our house attic bellow roof for over 10 years (bought second hand), scorching heat in summer, freezing in winter, BIOS built in 2011. A DIY AIO https://github.com/pavhofman/plabs-player/wiki/ has been running in steamy and greasy kitchen for 10 yrs. Not a single HW issue for both.

 

[voodooless]

An Atom N280 is most definitely not more powerful than a modern Pi5. Even a pi2 is more powerful. With a read-only file system, they will
Be rock solid for 24/7 running.

As to PSU and casing: you’ll spend as much on getting a random thin client in a server enclosure. For the pi, there are a lot of options, many will include PSUs as well.

It not all as simple as it seems…

 

[phofman]

I gave my N280 as an example of the HW durability, not that OP should use one An example I have good experience with, in my area: https://hypebyte-cz.translate.goog/..._sl=cs&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp - i.e. some 60 EUR. Check the params, USB ports, number of PCI-e lines, etc. IMO very comparable performancewise to RPi5. As I said - I run two mirrored NVMes in the same model for minimum downtime with easy recovery, 64GB RAM, running a 200GB database.

There are many other thin clients by other manufacturers.

As to PSU and casing: you’ll spend as much on getting a random thin client in a server enclosure.

Why the hassle with a server enclosure, when a cheap 19" shelf solves the problem? In our racks we have non-19" devices too.

IMO when RPi is not required for I/O, I do not see the advantage (arm64 software, case, cooling, power, SD card (no SMART, no diagnostics, unreliable connector), ...

But all options are available, good for everyone.

 

[voodooless]

Why the hassle with a server enclosure, when a cheap 19" shelf solves the problem? In our racks we have non-19" devices too.

Don’t ask me, I’m not defining the specs

But if you ship this as ready made product, I can imagine that a shelf with some stuff double sided taped on it isn’t exactly the look that is expected.

 

[phofman]

But if you ship this as ready made product, I can imagine that a shelf with some stuff double sided taped on it isn’t exactly the look that is expected.

The original post did not specify it would have to be enclosed, so just installing onto a shelf would do for me (no need for taping). No idea what OP really wants.

 

[m_g_s_g]

I know it's an old thread. but I would use something like this rather than a 19" shelf: https://www.amazon.com/UCTRONICS-Raspberry-Rackmount-Supports-Models/dp/B08F9X528J