Need advice on doing live streaming from website

[gutterboy]

We are wanting to provide live streaming via our website which may run from multiple locations (different people will run streams into the website) and whilst it's rare we would stream multiple streams at once, it's still possible.

We have been looking into our options such as:

Streaming to YouTube via Google Hangouts
JW Player
Sprout Video
Hey Watch Encoding
Wowza

But we are just getting confused by it all and if all these places do live streaming or are they only on-demand?

We just wanna live stream them and then afterwards provide them as on-demand as well, which we would be happy to just upload to youtube for the on-demand purpose.

Will we need anything special on our server or do these places provide it all?

Will the people that record the streams need anything special?

We also read about Apple's HLS and that sounds great - does it sound like what we need?

Thanks a lot for any help and advice!

[Baldrick]

Have you consider using a third party streaming service like ustream, bambuser, etc?


See http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/Ustream-Justin.tv-L...ged-83016.aspx

You can stream live and also on-demand after.

[gutterboy]

Yes, but we definitely want it on our site, not on a third party site.

[Baldrick]

I doubt you will find much help here. We are mostly recording streams.

But I would checkout apples hls or adobes media server.

[gutterboy]

Oh ok....... having trouble figuring out the best place to post this question haha

[TreeTops]

And don't forget that streaming multiple streams at once, especially in Hi Def, will eat up enormous amounts of bandwidth. So we hope you have discussed this with your web host first.

[gutterboy]

And don't forget that streaming multiple streams at once, especially in Hi Def, will eat up enormous amounts of bandwidth. So we hope you have discussed this with your web host first.

I don't think it will have much effect on our actual web host as they won't be the ones streaming it; the files will be embedded via some method from a third-party service, hence the questions on the options mentioned above.

[TreeTops]

Then you better clarify post #3 as that post implies that you want to stream it from your website and your post thread title clearly says LIVE STREAMING from website.

[gutterboy]

Then you better clarify post #3 as that post implies that you want to stream it from your website and your post thread title clearly says LIVE STREAMING from website.

Sorry, what I meant by that is it will be viewable from our site (they won't need to visit a external site to view it) but the actual feed will be streamed from a third-party service.

[TreeTops]

That's OK, just upload to Vimeo or youtube, (or the video hosting site of your choice) and embed the code they give you into your website. That way it looks like the vids are coming from your website. Just be sure to use the embed code they provide and not a link to the video.

[gutterboy]

That's OK, just upload to Vimeo or youtube, (or the video hosting site of your choice) and embed the code they give you into your website. That way it looks like the vids are coming from your website. Just be sure to use the embed code they provide and not a link to the video.

But it has to be streamed (viewable) from our site live.

[Baldrick]

Doesn't your third party service provide methods to embed it on your site?

Or else must you provide more information about the actual stream.

Ustream pro can for example embed it with a custom player, https://ustream.zendesk.com/entries/22434927-How-to-embed-a-stream-or-video-on-your-site

[gutterboy]

Doesn't your third party service provide methods to embed it on your site?

Or else must you provide more information about the actual stream.

Ustream pro can for example embed it with a custom player, https://ustream.zendesk.com/entries/22434927-How-to-embed-a-stream-or-video-on-your-site

Well that's what I was trying to get help on on what services we can do this with as reading all those sites just got rather confusing on if we could embed live streams or not.

Btw... thanks for the ustream link, wasn't aware you could do that with them.

[BrianX]

There are a few useful streaming tips here http://www.wilkie.tv/news/item/19/Article%3A+10+Top+Tips+for+Live+Video+Streaming+Events

[gutterboy]

There are a few useful streaming tips here http://www.wilkie.tv/news/item/19/Article%3A+10+Top+Tips+for+Live+Video+Streaming+Events

Thanks! After doing some more reading we may just end up using youtube live events or something.

[BrianX]

Youtube is great for Live and actually them offering for free what many others are charging for features wise is a big game changer.You do need a decent account with them though, it must have had some uploads/been around a while as they won't let new accounts stream by default