diff --git a/streaming/connection.go b/streaming/connection.go
index f57112d..fbd0f26 100644
--- a/streaming/connection.go
+++ b/streaming/connection.go
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ func (conn *Connection) Close() error {
 // Serve starts serving data to a client, continuously feeding packets from the queue.
 // An optional preamble buffer can be passed that will be sent before streaming the live payload
 // (but after the HTTP response headers).
-func (conn *Connection) Serve(preamble []byte) {
+func (conn *Connection) Serve(preamble []byte) bool {
 	// set the content type (important)
 	conn.writer.Header().Set("Content-Type", "video/mpeg")
 	// a stream is always current
diff --git a/streaming/streamer.go b/streaming/streamer.go
index f825390..918c819 100644
--- a/streaming/streamer.go
+++ b/streaming/streamer.go
@@ -352,6 +352,9 @@ func (streamer *Streamer) Stream(queue <-chan protocol.MpegTsPacket) error {
 				// close all downstream connections
 				for conn := range pool {
 					conn.Close()
+					// avoid waiting for the removal round-trip, this will make us less racy
+					// double deletes are safe, so nothing bad will happen when we do get the remove command later
+					delete(pool, request.Connection)
 				}
 				// TODO implement inhibit in the check api
 			case StreamerCommandAllow:
@@ -441,6 +444,7 @@ func (streamer *Streamer) ServeHTTP(writer http.ResponseWriter, request *http.Re
 			"remote", request.RemoteAddr,
 		)
 
+		// here's where the action happens
 		start := time.Now()
 		conn.Serve(streamer.preamble)
 		duration := time.Since(start)