Live Streaming from A-Z

Live Streaming from A to ZCarl Rutman, Senior Solutions Engineer

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Agenda

Live Streaming A to Z

Signal Flow & Workflow

Encoding Options

Connectivity & CDN

Players

Demo

Q & A

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Live Streaming A to Z

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What is Live Streaming?

Live Streaming is the ability for you to send a video signal, in real time, to your viewers.

For example:

As a Brightcove publisher, I want to stream my events Live!

As a Brightcove publisher, I want to have a Live, 24/7 Internet Video Stream.

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Steps to stream live

1 You must have some type of video source, this can be either live video or pre-recorded content.

2 You must have some type of encoder, either software based or hardware based.

3 You must have an entry-point and an exit point on a CDN.

4 You must have a player which plays the stream appropriate to the device.

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Signal Flow & Workflow

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Live Streaming Overview

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On-site vs. in-cloud

On-Site Advantages;

Reliable hardware

Less risk for well connected locations

Complete control of signal quality to encoder

In-Cloud Advantages;– Best for locations with low connectivity– Deliver to all devices at a much lower cost– Increased stream quality due to scalability

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On-site detailed overview

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In-cloud Detailed overview

Encoding Options

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Options for live streaming

• Software Only Encoding On Site– This is great for low budget productions, and has the ability to deliver a live stream to almost any Flash

Enabled device.

• Software Encoding On Site with In-Cloud Transcoding– This is perfect for sites with poor connectivity, or low cost solutions that require delivery to all devices.

• Hardware Encoding On Site– Are essential for a mission critical live event, with high quality, high availability bandwidth and a large

production.

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What do you send?

• You have many options for encoding live streams. How do you decide which are right?

– Best Practices;• Understand the various devices and their native screen sizes you plan to deliver to.• Estimate the bandwidth available for your target audience.• Evaluate the size of the player as it will be displayed on the web page. • In most cases, a top rendition of 1280x720p feed, at about 2 – 2.5 Mbps will very high quality.• Test and confirm the bandwidth available to you on site.• Review budgets to understand if limiting the streaming options will be required to stay on budget for

bandwidth consumption by users.

• Choose up to 10 renditions from the following list and modify their sizing to match your player and device displays;

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List of common renditions, based on various needs

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Connectivity & CDN

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The Internet

• What’s Required?– A high speed, high quality, rock solid connection. Most hardware encoders will need at least a 10 Mbps “up” pipe

available for them, to stream 6-10 renditions.

• What if that’s not available?– Then you should consider using an in-cloud transcoding service, like Zencoder. This allows you to send up a 2 Mbps

720p rendition (best practice) and receiving multiple renditions and multiple formats, delivered to all devices.

• What if that’s not available either?– You can try to send a smaller, and lower quality signal up to the cloud for transcoding. Some customers have reported

descent results by sending a 500kbps 640x360, and having it transcoded to all devices.

• Wi-Fi? LTE? 4G?– While these technologies are becoming more and more common, their connectivity is still spotty, and ultimately, they

may not be able to sustain a single, solid stream. However, there are ways to leverage several of these together, to get a solid connection.

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CDN

• To stream your live event, you’ll need a Content Delivery Network to deliver the resulting live stream.– Some key items to considers;

• The number of Points of Presence in your target region or, the world• The ability to deliver live stream HLS segments (HTTP Live Streaming Protocol)• The capacity to support a large amount of concurrent viewers• The availability of DVR for your live stream• Various security options for Live Streams (i.e.: HLSe AES-128, SWF+V, RTMPe, TTL, etc)

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Players

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Playing back your live stream, to your viewers

• Ultimately, after you’ve created all of your renditions for your live stream, you still have to deliver them to the end user in a way in which their device can ingest it, and offer a manual or automated option to switch between these renditions, based on screen size, connectivity and CPU Utilization.

– For example, the Brightcove Player loads, and performs the following checks;• Detects user agent, and loads in Flash or HTML5, based on device capability.• Receives rendition list, and has the ability to move between the renditions based on needs.• Evaluates the display size and CPU utilization to ensure a smooth playback experience.

• You will also want to ensure that the player has the ability to monetize your content, based on your needs.– Advertising Delivery to all platforms– Paywall options for all platforms– App Compatibility for App Delivered content

Demo

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To get started

• Here is what you need to get started– An Entry Point– A Username and Password for that Entry Point– Rendition List– A Stream Name (or Names, based on your Rendition List)

• This, you make up, but may need to formulate based on requirements (event_angle_bitrate@epcode)– An Exit Point

– Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder or Wirecast (for our demo purposes)– A Brightcove Account (for CDN info and Player Playback)– Zencoder (optional, but for delivery to all devices)

Q&A

Thank you