Quick Start: Creating a Simple Live Stream using Zencoder and Video Cloud

Request a Zencoder account

1. You need to have a Zencoder account to complete this Quick Start. If you don't have a Zencoder account, you can sign up for a trial account here.

Enable your Video Cloud account for live streaming

Before you can conduct a live streaming event, you should contact Brightcove Support and let them know you would like your Video Cloud account enabled for live streaming. When your account is configured, you will receive an email with a set of credentials and configuration information to setup live streaming with Video Cloud.

2. In a browser window, navigate to Submit a Support Request and request Akamai HD + Akamai HLS Live credentials for your account.
3. When your request has been processed, you will receive an email with your credentials and configuration information. Note that it may take a day or two for support to process your request.
   
   
   

   Note: Credentials for Akamai HD are provisioned geographically based on your encoder IP. If you plan on having an event in a new location, you should provide Brightcove Support with an external and pingable IP address for the encoder at the new location. By doing so, Akamai can re-provision the entry point at the closest possible location to reduce latency and risk of interruption by travelling over as little of the public internet as possible. Brightcove Support needs to know this well in advance as the change takes some time to propagate within Akamai's network. If the encoder is not yet at the location, that is fine, so long as there is an externally pingable IP address on the network to use.

Modify the pre-built create_video API call

4. Use a text editor to edit the appropriate create_video API file.
   
   • Mac users edit: create_video_API.txt
   • Windows users edit: create_video_API_WIN.txt

   These files are included in the API call examples download file.

5. Replace BCTOKEN with your Video Cloud API write token.
   

   To get your API write token, login to the Legacy Video Cloud Studio and select Account Settings> API Management. In the Manage column, there is a Copy button you can click to copy the token to the clipboard.

6. Replace all occurrences of EVENTNAME with a name for your event. In this Quick Start we will use LiveEvent for the event name.
   

   Note: It is a best practice to name live events using an Event_Angle_Bitrate naming convention.

   • Event - name for the event
   • Angle - value to identify the camera or camera angle being used
   • Bitrate - should be the same as the bitrate that will be used in the live stream

   The create_video API files are formatted to use this naming convention.

   Note: Each live event should have a unique name.

7. Replace all occurrences of EPCODE with the entrypoint number given to you by Brightcove Customer Support. The entrypoint is contained in the Primary Entrypoint URL of your Akamai HD credentials.
8. Replace HLSCODE with the six digit code number given to you by Brightcove Support. The code is contained in the Storage URL of your Akamai HLS credentials.
9. Replace ACCOUNTID with your Brightcove publisher ID.
   

   Note: Your Publisher ID is displayed on the New Video Cloud Studio homepage under your name.

10. Mac users: Copy the entire contents of this file to the clipboard. Open the Terminal application, paste the contents of the clipboard into Terminal and press enter.
    

    Windows users: Save the changes made to the file. Open the Command Prompt and run the following command:

    curl --data @create_video_API_WIN.txt http://api.brightcove.com/services/post

    Note for Windows users: This command assumes that the curl.exe is either in your PATH or in the same directory as the create_video_API_WIN.txt file.

11. Confirm that the API call returns a result value (this is the video ID of the remote asset that was just created inside Video Cloud). The error value should be null.
    Mac Terminal application

     

    Windows Command Prompt

     

12. Login to Video Cloud Studio and confirm that a remote asset has been created for the live stream.

Create output streams using the Zencoder API

13. Use a text editor to edit the appropriate Zencoder API file.
    
    • Mac users edit: Zencoder_API_call.txt
    • Windows users edit: Zencoder_API_call_WIN.txt

    These files are included in the API call examples download file.

14. Replace all occurrences of EVENTNAME with a name for your event. In step 6 of this Quick Start, we chose LiveEvent for the event name.
15. Replace RTMPUSERNAME with the user name given to you by Brightcove Support. This is the user name for your live streaming (Akamai HD) account.
16. Replace RTMPPASSWORD with the password given to you by Brightcove Support. This is the password for your live streaming (Akamai HD) account.
17. Replace all occurrences of EPCODE with the entry point number given to you by Brightcove Support (see step 7).
18. Replace all occurrences HLSCODE with the code number given to you by Brightcove Support (see step 8).
19. Replace all occurrences of ACCOUNTID with your Brightcove publisher ID.
    

    Note: Your Publisher ID is displayed on the New Video Cloud Studio homepage under your name.

20. Mac users: Replace ZCAPIKEY with your Zencoder API key.
    

    Windows users: Locate your Zencoder API key as it will be used on the command line

    To get your Zencoder API key, login to your Zencoder account and select API on the page header. The API key is located in the Full Access API Keys section of the page.

21. (Optional). If you are located outside of the United States, you may wish to add the region parameter to the API call so your job is processed in your region, improving performance. A complete list of regions is available in the Zencoder documentation. A modified Mac API call with the region parameter is shown below.
22. (Optional). You may wish to add the reconnect_time parameter to the API call to prevent Zencoder from killing your job if there is a connection problem with the encoder. By default, the reconnect_time is 30 seconds. You can read more about the reconnect_time parameter in the Zencoder documentation. A modified Mac API call with the reconnect_time parameter set to 60 seconds is shown below.
23. Mac users: Copy the entire contents of this file to the clipboard. Open the Terminal application, paste the contents of the clipboard into Terminal and press enter.
    

    Windows users: Save the changes made to the file. Open the Command Prompt and run the following command:

    curl --header "Zencoder-Api-Key: ZCAPIKEY"--data @Zencoder_API_call_WIN.txt --insecure https://app.zencoder.com/api/v2/jobs

    Note for Windows users: Replace ZCAPIKEY with the value you noted from step 20.

24. The command will return a stream_name and stream_url. Below is the output from the Mac Terminal application.

Configure Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder

25. Launch Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder.
26. Configure the Video encoding options. Use the following guidelines when setting the rendition properties. Keep all other values at their default.

    Note:  For the best quality, we recommend configuring your encoder to output a 1280 x 720, 2000 Kbps stream.

    • Device: Select the camera you are using for the live stream
    • Format:H.264
    • Frame Rate:30 fps
    • Input Size:1280 x 720
    • Bit Rate:2000 Kbps
    • Output Size:1280 x 720
    • Audio:
      • Format:AAC
      • Channels:Stereo
      • Sample Rate:48000 Hz
      • Bit Rate:128 Kbps
27. Configure the encoding Output options. Use the following guidelines when setting the output properties. Keep all other values at their default.
    • Stream to Flash Media Server: checked
    • FMS URL: Use the stream_url value returned by the Zencoder API call (see step 24)
    • Backup URL: leave blank
    • Stream: Use the stream_name value returned by the Zencoder API call (see step 24)
    • Save to File:"Check" if you want to save the contents of the live stream to a file
28. Click the Connect button. Check the bottom left of the media encoder dialog to verify that you have connected.
29. Click the Start button to start the live stream. Check the bottom left of the media encoder dialog to verify that you have connected.

Note: There will be a slight delay from the time you start streaming to when your renditions reach reach Akamai.

Generate the publishing code for the live stream

Note: These steps assume you are using the New Video Cloud Studio.

30. Return to Video Cloud Studio and open the Media module.
31. Check the box next to the live stream video asset.
32. Click Publish.
33. Select a Brightcove Player and then click the URL to test or copy the appropriate publishing code.
34. When you are done with the live stream, return to the Flash Media Live Encoder dialog and click Stop to stop the encoder from streaming.