feat(voiceover): transcode submissions to mp3 via ffmpeg

Normalize every submission to mono 96 kbps MP3 so takes play everywhere regardless of the recording codec; falls back to storing the original file when ffmpeg is unavailable or fails.

Ultraworked with [Sisyphus](https://github.com/code-yeongyu/oh-my-openagent)

Co-authored-by: Sisyphus <clio-agent@sisyphuslabs.ai>

Dockerfile

@@ -134,7 +134,8 @@ RUN bun run build
 # `node --import tsx src/bot/index.ts` (tsx resolves the @/ + @payload-config
 # tsconfig path aliases that plain Node type-stripping cannot).
 FROM node:22-alpine AS runner
-RUN apk add --no-cache libc6-compat wget
+# ffmpeg: voiceover submissions are transcoded to MP3 in submitVoiceRecording.
+RUN apk add --no-cache libc6-compat wget ffmpeg
 WORKDIR /app
 
 ENV NODE_ENV=production \

src/app/(frontend)/voiceover/actions.ts

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import { broadcastToUser } from "@/lib/realtime/bus";
 import { notifyUser } from "@/lib/notifications";
 import hasRoles from "@/utils/access-control/hasRoles";
 import { isPayloadUser } from "@/utils/access-control/isPayloadUser";
+import { transcodeToMp3 } from "@/lib/voiceover/transcode";
 import type { VoiceScript, VoiceSubmission } from "@/payload-types";
 
 interface ActionResult<T = undefined> {
@@ -121,6 +122,28 @@ export async function submitVoiceRecording(
       return { success: false, error: "Audio recordings must be 9 MB or smaller." };
     }
 
+    const originalBuffer = Buffer.from(await file.arrayBuffer());
+    // Normalize every submission to MP3 (mono 96 kbps) so stored takes play
+    // everywhere regardless of which codec the browser recorded with. If the
+    // transcode fails (no ffmpeg binary, unsupported input, timeout) the
+    // original file is stored untouched instead of rejecting the submission.
+    const mp3 = await transcodeToMp3(originalBuffer, file.name);
+    if (mp3) {
+      payload.logger.info(
+        `Voiceover submission for script ${scriptId}: converted ${file.name} (${originalBuffer.length} bytes) to ${mp3.name} (${mp3.size} bytes)`,
+      );
+    } else {
+      payload.logger.warn(
+        `Voiceover submission for script ${scriptId}: MP3 conversion failed, storing original file ${file.name}`,
+      );
+    }
+    const audio = mp3 ?? {
+      buffer: originalBuffer,
+      name: file.name,
+      mimetype,
+      size: originalBuffer.length,
+    };
+
     const submission = await payload.create({
       collection: "voice-submissions",
       data: {
@@ -130,10 +153,10 @@ export async function submitVoiceRecording(
         description,
       },
       file: {
-        data: Buffer.from(await file.arrayBuffer()),
-        mimetype,
-        name: file.name,
-        size: file.size,
+        data: audio.buffer,
+        mimetype: audio.mimetype,
+        name: audio.name,
+        size: audio.size,
       },
       overrideAccess: true,
       depth: 0,

src/lib/voiceover/transcode.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+import { spawn } from "node:child_process";
+import { mkdtemp, readFile, rm, writeFile } from "node:fs/promises";
+import { tmpdir } from "node:os";
+import path from "node:path";
+
+export const MP3_MIMETYPE = "audio/mpeg";
+
+/** Voice-appropriate MP3 settings: mono, 44.1 kHz, 96 kbps. */
+const FFMPEG_ARGS = [
+  "-hide_banner",
+  "-loglevel",
+  "error",
+  "-y",
+  "-i",
+  "input",
+  "-vn",
+  "-ac",
+  "1",
+  "-ar",
+  "44100",
+  "-codec:a",
+  "libmp3lame",
+  "-b:a",
+  "96k",
+  "-f",
+  "mp3",
+  "output.mp3",
+];
+
+const FFMPEG_TIMEOUT_MS = 30_000;
+
+export interface Mp3Result {
+  buffer: Buffer;
+  name: string;
+  mimetype: string;
+  size: number;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Convert an uploaded audio recording (WebM/Opus, MP4/AAC, etc.) to MP3 using
+ * the system ffmpeg binary. Returns null when ffmpeg is unavailable or fails,
+ * so callers can fall back to storing the original file untouched.
+ */
+export async function transcodeToMp3(
+  buffer: Buffer,
+  originalName: string,
+): Promise<Mp3Result | null> {
+  let dir: string | null = null;
+  try {
+    dir = await mkdtemp(path.join(tmpdir(), "voiceover-"));
+    const inputPath = path.join(dir, "input");
+    const outputPath = path.join(dir, "output.mp3");
+    await writeFile(inputPath, buffer);
+
+    const ok = await runFfmpeg(inputPath, outputPath);
+    if (!ok) {
+      return null;
+    }
+
+    const mp3 = await readFile(outputPath);
+    if (mp3.length === 0) {
+      return null;
+    }
+
+    return {
+      buffer: mp3,
+      name: `${stripExtension(originalName)}.mp3`,
+      mimetype: MP3_MIMETYPE,
+      size: mp3.length,
+    };
+  } catch {
+    return null;
+  } finally {
+    if (dir) {
+      await rm(dir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+function stripExtension(name: string): string {
+  const dot = name.lastIndexOf(".");
+  return dot > 0 ? name.slice(0, dot) : name;
+}
+
+function runFfmpeg(inputPath: string, outputPath: string): Promise<boolean> {
+  // Rewrite the two path placeholders into the real temp paths.
+  const args = FFMPEG_ARGS.map((arg) =>
+    arg === "input" ? inputPath : arg === "output.mp3" ? outputPath : arg,
+  );
+
+  return new Promise((resolve) => {
+    let child: ReturnType<typeof spawn>;
+    try {
+      child = spawn("ffmpeg", args, { stdio: "ignore" });
+    } catch {
+      resolve(false);
+      return;
+    }
+
+    let settled = false;
+    const finish = (result: boolean) => {
+      if (!settled) {
+        settled = true;
+        clearTimeout(timer);
+        resolve(result);
+      }
+    };
+
+    const timer = setTimeout(() => {
+      child.kill("SIGKILL");
+      finish(false);
+    }, FFMPEG_TIMEOUT_MS);
+
+    child.on("error", () => finish(false));
+    child.on("close", (code) => finish(code === 0));
+  });
+}