The release of the new version of PipeWire 0.3.33 has been announced, which develops a new generation multimedia server, which will replace PulseAudio. PipeWire expands the capabilities of PulseAudio with streaming video, low latency audio processing, and a new security model for streaming and device access control.
PipeWire expands the reach of PulseAudio by processing any media stream and it is capable of mixing and redirecting streams with video. PipeWire also provides the ability to control video sources such as video capture devices, webcams, or screen output from applications.
Pipe Wire can also act as a low latency sound server with functionality that combines the capabilities of PulseAudio and JACK, even for the needs of professional sound processing systems that PulseAudio couldn't claim.
In addition, PipeWire offers an improved security model It enables device-specific and stream-specific access control and facilitates routing of audio and video to and from isolated containers. One of the main goals is to support stand-alone applications in Flatpak format and work on the Wayland-based graphics stack.
Of the key features of the project stand out:
- Audio and video capture and playback with minimal latency.
- Tools to process video and sound in real time.
- Multi-threaded architecture that allows organizing content exchange in multiple applications.
- The presence of a plugin for GStreamer to simplify integration with existing applications.
- Support for plugins in SPA (Simple Plugin API) format and the ability to create plugins that work in real time.
- Flexible system for coordinating the multimedia formats used and allocating buffers.
- Ability to work as a sound server, a hub to provide video to applications
PipeWire 0.3.33 Key New Features
In this new version the ability to automatically switch between Bluetooth HSP profiles was implemented (headphone mode) and A2DP (high-quality audio output), plus fixed rounding errors in volume conversion Support for virtual sources and audio output devices has been improved in the Pro Audio profile.
While in the layer of PulseAudio compatibility, a switch module has been implemented than when connecting to emulate the behavior of PulseAudio when new devices are connected, plus transmission cleaning fixed and the Messages API has been updated to use the JSON format.
The new version too adds support for multiple sample ratesAdditionally, format modifier negotiation has been improved by sharing direct memory access buffers (DMA-BUF) among multiple clients.
We can also find improved support for DMA-BUF format modifier negotiation and the admission of multiple sample rates in the graph.
Of the other changes that stand out:
- Many documentation updates.
- Lots of cleanings and minor improvements.
- The latest version of libcamera is supported.
- Capture monitors already work in Ardor6.8.
- pw-top should now correctly display bluetooth devices as well
- Improve latency reporting in the loopback module.
Finally if you are interested in knowing more about it, you can check the details In the following link.
How to install PipeWire on Ubuntu and derivatives?
For those who are interested in installing PipeWire on their systems, they should know that it is included within the Ubuntu repositories, but at the moment only version 0.2.7 and version are available this new version has not yet been included, so they would have to wait a few days for this to happen.
Installation through the repositories is with the following command:
sudo apt install pipewire
While, for those who prefer to install this new version now, they will have to compile the code in your system
For this we must download it with:
git clone https://github.com/PipeWire/pipewire.git
And we proceed to compile and install with:
./autogen.sh --prefix=$PREFIX make make install
You can test PipeWire with the following command:
make run
Finally, you can consult the documentation and other information at the following link.