[LAU] ffado streaming mode

a while ago i purchased a focusrite saffire pro 26io. it has finally come to a point where it is quite reliably useful as an interface for jack/ardour (the latency isn't brilliant, but i'm pretty sure that is the fault of my firewire chipset). i found out recently that unfortunately, in order to get teh device working as a basic 'summing mixer' for live work (i wanted to essentially use it as a basic 8 in 1 out preamp to send to a small desk at a venue) it needs to be set in 'streaming mode'. i can get this working by starting jack and just leaving that running, but i was wondering if anyone knew of an easier way (maybe one of ffado's command line utilities? there seem to be a lot in there and i don't know what half of them do). if not, would it be difficult to write a small app that basically just 'turns on streaming'? or should i just keep using jack? (i am hesitant to do this as i have still had a few issues with dropouts, and as you can imagine at a live performance this could be a problem). thanks for any advice porl