I would like to open a discussion about improving the Jamulus user experience for large ensembles. My understanding is that the current Jamulus server will use only a single CPU core, and that it generates a personal mix for each connected client.

One potential solution could be a server mode in which a single mix is generated, then potentially the server would have less work to do, and could therefore handle more connected clients. I image the client who occupies the first space on the server would be in control of the mix for all participants.

A second potential solution would be the ability for a server (with mixer controls on the server UI) to also act as a client to another server. In this case all the violins could join server A, all the cellos could join server B, and servers A and B could join server Z. The conductor would connect his client to server Z and have a mixer control for each section. In this solution, larger ensembles would simply require more servers. Delay would be mitigated by having multiple servers at the same hosting centre, even indeed on the same multi-core VM, so the ping time among all the servers is 0.

A third potential solution would be to have the server use multiple threads to generate mixes in parallel.

I would appreciate hearing what people think of these approaches, and I would like to hear about any other approaches that people can think of.