How to stream live video Dan Mahoney Systems Engineer ClickstreamTV [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Streaming Blog: http://streemit.net What do I mean by “stream live video”?    You have some activity happening and you want to share a view of that activity with others, in near-real time You want to do that sharing over the Internet I will be talking about Flash streams, optionally QuickTime, but not Windows Media What do I need?  A computer (Linux, OS X, Windows)  Encoding software  A video source  An Internet connection  [Optionally] A streaming server  A player with which to display my stream Computer requirements  Linux, OS X, or Windows machine  A fair bit of RAM (1 GB minimum)  A fairly speedy CPU   Enough disk space for your video tools and any archive file you might capture A GPU won't really help with encoding Encoding software     Flash Media Live Encoder – free, not open source, pretty popular. Windows and OS X. Quicktime Broadcaster – free, open source (sort of). Mac only, discontinued with Lion. VLC – all platforms. Not as easy to use as the other two but does the job. Ffmpeg – all platforms, but mostly Linux. Not super easy buy very powerful. Commercial encoding software   Wirecast (Telestream) – around $500. Very powerful and flexible, does camera switching too. Windows and Mac. VidBlaster – various prices, ranging from $200 to stupidly expensive. Almost as capable as Wirecast, needs more CPU resources. Windows only. Video source  USB or Firewire webcam  Vid cam with digital interface  Vid cam with analog output and a capture device on the computer  Pinnacle Dazzle (Windows/Linux, USB)  Canopus ADVC series (Mac, USB & Firewire)  BlackMagic Intensity  Osprey card (PCI, PCI-x) An Internet connection  Speed needs will depend on mode – direct vs through a server  Dialup won't work!  Wireless tends to get flaky  We'll discuss bit rates and frame sizes a little later Video player  We need to put a player in a web page for our end users.  Jwplayer  FlowPlayer  OSMF player Why use a streaming server?    Streaming from PC limited by available bandwidth and CPU resources Streaming servers are purpose-built to deliver streams Additional features – autoarchive, transcode for other devices, etc Streaming servers  Services DIY  LiveStream (free) Wowza (EC2 or perpetual)  Ustream (free)  Justin.TV (free) FMS (EC2 or perpetual)  ClickstreamT V (inexpensive) Crtmpserver/Evos tream Erlyvideo Red5 Self streaming    Uses a lot of bandwidth Demands a lot of your computer Can serve very limited number of viewers Server streaming      Server/software optimized for streaming Usually have lots of bandwidth available Load down somebody else's server Can handle much larger viewer loads Run your own or pay for time on a commercial service Bit rate and frame size Remember the bandwidth of your target audience. If you have 100 Mbps pipe and encode a stream at 10 Mbps, residential DSL customers will be SOL. Also think about your audience's display size. If the majority of your audience uses older Android devices, a 1080i stream won't make you very happy. Device/codec choices Device Desktop iOS device Android (native) Android (Flash) VP6/Nellymoser VP6/MP3 H.264/MP3 H.264/AAC Works No No ? Works No No ? Works Works Works Works Works Works No Should work Gotchas   Older iPhones require audio be encoded as stereo even if only one channel Older iPhones and Androids require H.264 be configured for Baseline profile, level 3.0 or 3.1 Useful tools  Flash Media Live Encoder (http://www.adobe.com/products/flash-mediaencoder.html)  VLC (http://www.videolan.org)  Ffmpeg (http://ffmpeg.org)   Manycam (manycam.com) (does video switching, desktop, insertion of video files and stills – Windows and Mac) Rtmpdump (http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu/) Useful on-line tools     JWPlayer wizard- allows monitoring your video without having to embed a player in a web page, and makes it easier to embed a player in your web page. http://www.longtailvideo.com/support/jw-player-setup-wizard OSMF configurator – does the same thing, but using the Open Source Media Format player. http://www.osmf.org/configurator/fmp/ My streaming blog – I have tips on configuring and managing streaming servers (mostly Wowza). Http://streemit.net Or do it the easy way If you don't want to have to mess with streaming servers, just sign up for an account with ClickstreamTV (http://www.clickstreamtv.net) and let us handle the server details for you.  Live and on-demand streaming  Easy-to-use media control center  Manage video email campaigns  Pay per view accounts available  Basic accounts start at $59/month with a one-month free trial