What is streaming?

After you connect your camera, audio source, and set up a channel with your switched program, it’s time to stream your content live and share that with your viewers.

Pearl-2 provides many different streaming options and supports a variety of streaming protocols. Probably the easiest way to stream a single Pearl-2 channel directly to viewers on the same local network is to share the channel's live broadcast URL. Various stream types are available so users can watch using their favorite devices, including: HTTP/HTTPS, HTTP FLASH (.FLV), MPEG-TS (HTTP), and RTSP.

At the same time, Pearl-2 can stream to a multicast server or CDN and reach viewers across the globe. Pearl-2 can even stream to smart TVs in overflow rooms using SAP or UPnP. The streaming method you choose depends on factors like the number of viewers of your stream, are you broadcasting live over a local TCP-based network or streaming to a CDN over the Internet, how much bandwidth do you have available, and is live streaming security a concern?

Pearl-2 can stream to a CDN or media server using any of the following streaming protocols:

  • SRT (push)
  • HLS (push)
  • MPEG-DASH (push)
  • RTMP/RTMPS (push)
  • RTSP

A channel can support multiple streams. That means you can stream a channel to multiple destinations using different streaming protocols. Unicast and multicast streams are also supported.

Pearl-2 makes it easy to start and stop streaming using One touch control from the touch screen, see Specify channels for Single Touch streaming or directly from the Admin panel . You can also control streaming using Epiphan Cloud or using Epiphan Live from a mobile device or tablet. See Control streaming and recording using Epiphan Live for instructions to use Epiphan Live.

In addition to streaming from Pearl-2, the following streaming formats are supported as input sources that Pearl-2 can ingest:

  • SRT
  • RTSP announce
  • RTMP push

Pearl-2 also comes with APIs so you can setup third party tools to control streaming, see the Pearl System API Guide for details.

Additional considerations

  • Are you streaming live video or recorded video?
  • Do you need to stream the content to one client (peer-to-peer) or deliver a single stream to multiple clients (multicast)?
  • Do you need to provide web-based streaming that multiple clients can access using a Content Distribution Network (CDN), such as YouTube or Facebook Live?
  • Do you need to encrypt your live stream for higher security?
  • Streaming to a Content Management System (CMS) like Kaltura or Panopto? See CMS recording and webcasting control

To start/stop scheduled streams and authenticate with a CMS to create unscheduled ad hoc events using the touch screen, see CMS event controls using the touch screen.