I use VLC to stream audio to the network. Typical setup XLR output via Focusrite USB Audio interface as input on laptop and then stream with VLC as MP3 to a local port (for example 23456) which then can be listened to with any browser (on smartphone or laptop) that can connect to ip:23456.
Of course the connection between laptop and SQ-mixer could also be done with USB, but I use the mixer also to record the conference.
I use this mostly for conferences to stream audio from interpreters to listeners. The number of languages usually varies between 2 to 8. The numbers of listeners between 6 and 50. I use a Draytek router with wifi to allow listeners to connect.
MP3 has the benefit of compressed streamed audio and therefore less network congestion with many listeners. But can easily be replaced with a free codec as OGG. WAV can work too but is actually to heavy for my use.
The feature request: could it be possible to provide streaming over IP directly from the mixers ethernet-RJ45 connection? With a fixed or configurable IP-ports connected to the mixers output ports. And if possible with a compressed audio stream.
Such a feature would greatly simplify things in my setup, and remove the configuring of several VLC instances.