Live Ingest

Live Ingest

Introduction

Live ingest enables content owners to push live or linear programming to Icareus Suite Cloud and to distribute it via CDN to various devices to scale their services endlessly.

Recommended Streaming Parameters

Inputs should be streamed as:
  1. H.264, 1920x1080 @ max. 8-10mbps
  2. Framerate: 25(preferably) or 50 FPS (not 30/60 or 0 FPS).
Sometime the Encoders and Streamers do not send correct FPS information OR report it as 0, and that can create problems in the streaming flow.

Live and Linear Streaming workflow

For Live streaming there are different video flows available depending on the deployment and it can be e.g.:
  1. Wirecast/FMS r --> channel's rtmp ingest point on Suite cloud -> Icareus Suite Live video or Webinar player -page 
  2. Live transcoder -> channel's rtmp ingest point on Suite platform -> Icareus Suite API <--> Custom video client 
Icareus Suite platform takes care of the packaging of the video stream to e.g. HLS and MPEG-DASH. Other protocols can be provided on request. 

Live Ingest Point

Ingest point and parameters are provide per channel under the Details -tab for a Channel as depicted below.

LIVE INGEST STREAM SOURCES 

Icareus Suite Cloud supports the ingest of live streams in RTMP -format.

Icareus does not sell or deliver video production solutions despite of Icareus Suite mobile applications, so the examples below are just examples of production alternatives. 
Icareus’ partners provide service, products, and solutions related to video production. Further information on request. 

Producing a compatible Live ingest stream 

CAMERA + COMPUTER + SW 


There are free and commercial Live -streaming software for computers, which can encode the camera stream on computer and push it to the internet address. Camera can be attached to the computer with HDMI wire. Commercial software prices are c. 500-1000 €.  
One example computer software used for streaing from PC is  Telestream Wirecast , which free evaluation version can be downloaded from here:  http://www.telestream.net/controls/wirecast/download-wirecast.htm 
Another free alternative is  Open Broadcaster Software / OBS Studio . It can be downloaded from here:  https://obsproject.com/download . 

CAMERA + ENCODER 


It is possible to work with computer also by attaching the compact stream encoder to camera with HDMI wire. This kind of encoders are provided e.g. by Teradek and Datavideo. Encoders are connected to Internet with Ethernet --cable. Encoder price is about 600-1000 €. 
One of the widely used mobile encoders for event streaming is  Teradek Vidiu  and it can be found from here:  https://teradek.com/collections/vidiu-family 

IP CAMERA 


It is also possible to buy the IP --cameras that do the Live --video encoding already in camera. Some of these cameras are so called PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras that can be directed and zoomed remotely. Price of these cameras are 100 - 2.000 €. With cheaper cameras it is not possible to get the high video quality. 

MOBILE PHONE 


For quick video production also the streaming option through mobile is possible. Icareus recommends to use the  Wowza GoCoder  application for mobile phones. The application is  free . 

Using Telestream Wirecast

In order to use Telestream Wirecast for streaming, please download and install the software on your PC/MAC. 
Configure the output of the Wirecast in the following way: 
  1. Select Output --> Output Settings 
It will open the menu shown below: 

    

  1. The output stream must be in RTMP format 
  2. Add the Icareus Streaming server URL to output Address: rtmp://origin.eu1.icareus.com:1935/suitelive
  3. Write to Stream the same number that you have in your Suite System ID / Stream Name (that identifies the correct channel). See images left & right. 
  4. Encoding must be H.264, but the quality you can select based on your Internet bandwidth (ingesting + end user receiving) 
  5. The same info can be seen under Channels AND Webinar Event page  

Using WOWZA GOCODER

 In order to use Wowza GoCoder for streaming, please download and install the software on your Android / iOS mobile phone.  
Then follow the following instructions: 

    

  1. Install Wowza GoCoder App from app store 
  2. Open the settings from Wowza logo on top right corner 
  3.  Select Streaming Engine and select the following settings: 
    1. Host: 
      Insert Ingest server URL as above 
      Insert port: 1935 
      Push “Done” 
    2. Application: 
      Insert application: ”suitelive” 
      Insert stream name: (from Suite Channels/Webinar) 
      Push “Done” 
  4. Select video settings from main page 
    Set Video Size 1280x720  
    Push “Done” 

You are ready to stream! 

Transcoding

Icareus offers as an add-on service a LIVE transcoding for your Ingest streams. 
The default set of profiles that are generated from your input are:
Low
  • 800 kbit/s
  • 96 kbit/s audio
  • 512x288
  • Frames per second: as in source
Medium
  • 1800 kbit/s
  • 128 kbit/s audio
  • 1024x576
  • Frames per second: as in source
High
  • 2800 kbit/s
  • 128 kbit/s audio
  • 1280x720
  • Frames per second: as in source
Contact your Icareus representative to activate this service.

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