Advanced Content Delivery, Streaming, and Cloud Services

Chapter 3Practical Systems for Live Streaming

Dom Robinson

id3as-company Ltd., Rottingdean, Brighton, Sussex, UK

3.1 Introduction

If we have a look at the key influences and drivers in the past two decades of the evolution of live streaming, it will make sense to focus on practical explorations of setting up live streams. It is only through practical experience that the reader can appreciate the diversity of skills that are required to produce a live stream. When producing a live stream, the engineer must know about everything from the commercial and technical nuances of provisioning the right telecommunications links, through the production values expected by the group for whom the content is produced, right down to the code ensuring that various technologies integrate well. While traversing through the commercial and technical details, an engineer should also understand the audio and video lighting production problems that may need to be resolved under time pressure, as well as manage crew nerves and team spirit that are all essential ingredients to a successful webcast.

Toward this objective, we can explore a few streaming technologies that can be used for free or at least for a free trial period. The aim of this chapter is to give the reader some hands-on experience in setting up real live streams. In particular, the following platforms are explored to set up a live stream:

• A live radio stream with the free BUTT tool as the encoder, Shoutcast DNAS as the server, and almost ...