Think about if it had been potential to schedule prerecorded movies as dwell weeks upfront with the streams mechanically beginning and stopping at a selected time on each Fb Dwell and YouTube Dwell? Not solely is that this dream situation potential, it’s additionally an important workflow for a number of prospects utilizing the Wowza Streaming Cloud service.

Think about the next use case from Freeman, a worldwide dwell occasion chief that leveraged this workflow and seamlessly transformed to all digital occasions in the course of the pandemic. By scheduling tons of of prerecorded movies as dwell via Wowza, they had been in a position to accommodate a rise of over 3,000% in streaming hours with no improve in workers.

Advantages of scheduling and streaming a prerecorded video as dwell embrace:

How It Works

Wowza Streaming Cloud means that you can stream .mp3 and H.264-encoded .mp4 and .flv information as dwell on social media, however the information should be hosted on an online server, Google Storage, or an Amazon S3 bucket. With just some easy settings, the Stream Scheduler in Wowza Streaming Cloud will obtain the file from a specified URL and mechanically begin and cease the stream at a selected time in your Fb and YouTube pages.

For this tutorial, we are going to stream a file as dwell from an S3 bucket on AWS. We’ll additionally present you learn how to schedule that stream on each Fb Dwell and YouTube as Stream Targets, however it’s not required to configure each.

 Agenda:

• A. Add Your .mp4 File to an S3 Bucket in AWS
• B: Create the Supply File URL
• C. Schedule the Stream Occasion in Fb Producer
• D. Schedule the Stream Occasion in YouTube Studio
• E. Schedule the Stream to Begin and Cease in Wowza Streaming Cloud

Be aware: Making a easy spreadsheet to record the URLs we’ll be creating all through this tutorial may be fairly useful and is extremely advisable.

Okay, in case you’re prepared, let’s get began!

A. Add Your .mp4 File to an S3 Bucket in AWS

Log into your AWS console and navigate to your S3 bucket. If you don’t but have an S3 bucket, the instructions to create one may be discovered right here.

It’s important you’ve the permissions on your bucket set to public, so affirm that earlier than transferring onto the following step. On the S3 homepage, simply click on on Permissions within the nav bar throughout the highest. In case you already had it set as public, you’ll see a message: “Objects may be public” and also you’re good to go.

1. After checking your permissions, click on on Objects within the navbar and this may take you to the Objects web page. Objects are entities or information saved in Amazon S3.

2. Click on in your S3 bucket identify.
For this tutorial, you possibly can see under I’ve named my private S3 bucket rose-schedule-test.

3. When you click on your bucket identify, the following web page will seem with an orange Add button. Click on that Add button after which click on Add Recordsdata.

4. Choose the file out of your native system that you just’d prefer to add to your S3 bucket. Within the picture under, I chosen a file named DancingCass.mp4.

5. Necessary! It’ll immediate you to click on an orange Add button once more to finalize the add to your bucket, however earlier than you click on it, you could first click on on the arrow to the left of Permissions (circled in pink above).

6. Within the Permissions part, you could grant public-read entry so Wowza can have entry to your file(s). Subsequent, click on the checkbox saying you perceive the chance of constructing it public. On this case, the public is just not most people, it merely makes the file a publicly readable object.

Be aware: This step is along with your bucket permissions being set to public, so don’t skip this. You want each the bucket and the file you’re importing to be set to public to ensure that Wowza to entry them.

7. As soon as the file is ready to public, you possibly can click on the orange Add button. Your uploaded file will seem shortly with a inexperienced examine mark / success message.

B. Create the Supply File URL

Within the S3 bucket the place you’ve simply uploaded your file, click on on that file identify and it’ll take you to the Object Overview web page.

1. Within the decrease proper part of the web page, you will notice an Object URL.

3. You’ll want to repeat and paste that object URL into the Wowza Streaming Cloud Supervisor later on this tutorial, so hold this S3 bucket web page open.

Be aware: Earlier than persevering with, you’ll need to copy and paste that object URL in a browser and ensure that video file performs. To ensure that it to work in Wowza Streaming Cloud, it should work right here first in a browser, so examine this earlier than transferring onto the following step.

C. Schedule the Stream Occasion in Fb Producer

Fb Producer means that you can schedule a stream utilizing encoder software program and it’ll create an upcoming occasion put up for you. You will need to have already got a Fb account.

1. Open fb.com/dwell/producer in a browser.

2. Within the left column, choose in case you’d prefer to stream to your individual web page or to a web page you handle.

3. Choose Schedule Dwell Video Occasion and click on Subsequent.

4. You will need to enter an Occasion Identify, Description and configure the Viewers Settings based mostly in your stream kind (potential age restrictions, and many others.).

5. Remember to choose the Date and Begin Time on your occasion to start streaming on Fb.

6. Click on Create Occasion.

7. Be aware the Server URL and the Stream key that Fb generates. You’ll use these values when configuring the stream goal on your software.

D. Schedule the Stream Occasion in YouTube Studio

A YouTube channel is required to schedule a stream in YouTube Studio. In case you don’t have one, you possibly can simply create one right here earlier than persevering with to the following step under.

1. Open studio.youtube.com in a browser.

2. Within the higher proper close to your profile photograph, click on Create after which Go Dwell.

3. Click on Schedule Stream. A popup field will seem, click on Create New.

4. Enter a stream Identify and Description. Don’t change the default privateness setting, go away it as Public.

5. Remember to choose the Date and Begin Time on your occasion to start streaming.

6. Within the Viewers settings, you’re required to pick sure or no, so make your choice based mostly in your streaming content material. In case you’re undecided which to pick or need to know the way it impacts dwell chat and advertisements, you possibly can click on on the “What’s content material made for teenagers?” hyperlink.

7. Click on Create. YouTube Studio will now create your occasion web page.

8. You will need to choose to Allow Auto-start and Allow Auto-stop. In case you’d prefer to Allow DVR, choose that as properly, however it’s not required.

9. Be aware the Stream URL and the Stream key that YouTube generates. You’ll use these values when configuring the Stream Goal on your software.

Your new YouTube occasion web page will record different items of data associated to your streaming occasion. In case you click on on the Share arrow to the left of your account avatar (higher left nook of the display screen) a popup will seem with the share hyperlinks for a number of social media websites.

Okay, we’re transferring proper together with only one large step remaining! You’ll have to log into Wowza Streaming Cloud subsequent, so in case you nonetheless want a license, we’ve got a free trial right here or you possibly can take a look at our subscription month-to-month plans as properly.

Within the subsequent step, we’ll create a brand new stream within the Streaming Cloud Supervisor and schedule our prerecorded file to stream as dwell on each Fb Dwell and YouTube Dwell.

E. Schedule the Stream in Wowza Streaming Cloud

1. Log into your Wowza Streaming Cloud account and within the prime nav bar, click on on Superior.

2. Within the dropdown, choose Transcoders

3. Click on the Add Transcoder button and create a reputation for it.

4. You’ll be able to choose Passthrough as an alternative of Adaptive Bitrate because the transcoder kind since YouTube and Fb each have built-in Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) help.

5. On the Transcoder Setup web page, below Supply Protocol, choose File.

6. You’ll want to enter the Supply File Identify. That is the Object URL that we created in your AWS S3 bucket web page again in Part B: Create the Supply File URL. Find the Object URL in your S3 web page and paste into the Supply File discipline.

7. Full the remaining fields to complete creating the Transcoder. Click on Add.

When the transcoder is efficiently added, you’ll find yourself on this web page within the Streaming Cloud Supervisor.

Within the picture above, you possibly can see I’ve efficiently added a transcoder named Weblog Check. Please observe the placement of the Add a Stream Goal button, however don’t click on it simply but.

Let’s pause a second and recap what we’ve finished to this point. We created a transcoder in Wowza Streaming Cloud and likewise added our Supply File, which was the prerecorded video we uploaded earlier in AWS. We additionally created a brand new streaming occasion in each Fb Producer and YouTube Studio.

Our subsequent step is so as to add the Stream Targets in Streaming Cloud for Fb and YouTube and schedule our file to mechanically begin and cease streaming at a selected date and time.

Fb Dwell Stream Goal

1. Go forward and click on the Add a Stream Goal button within the Streaming Cloud Supervisor on the Transcoder dwelling web page. Within the dropdown, choose Customized. (Do not click on Fb Dwell from the dropdown for this specific workflow).

2. Enter a Identify for the Stream Goal. I’ll identify mine Fb Dwell.

3. Choose RTMPS because the supplier.

4. Within the Main URL discipline, enter the Server URL out of your FB occasion web page, however simply the half after the rtmps:// since Streaming Cloud already has that half pre-populated.

5. Within the Stream Identify discipline, you’ll enter the distinctive Stream Key out of your Fb occasion web page.

6. Depart each the username and password fields clean and in the event that they auto-populate, delete them.

7. Depart the RTMP Playback discipline clean, click on Add.

YouTube Dwell Stream Goal

1. Click on the Add a Stream Goal Button within the Streaming Cloud Supervisor on the Transcoder dwelling web page. Within the dropdown, choose Customized.

2. Enter a Identify for the Stream Goal. I’ll identify mine YouTube.

3. Choose RTMP because the supplier. (Not RTMPS as you probably did for Fb)

4. Within the Main URL discipline, enter the Stream URL out of your YouTube occasion web page, however simply the half after the rtmp:// since Streaming Cloud already has that half pre-populated.

5. Within the Stream Identify discipline, you’ll enter the distinctive Stream Key out of your YouTube occasion web page.

6. Depart the remainder of the fields clean and ensure the username and password don’t auto-populate. In the event that they do, delete them and go away them clean.

Half 1: Create the Schedule in Cloud to Begin the Transcoder

1. In Wowza Streaming Cloud, click on on Superior within the prime navigation bar and choose Schedules.

2. Click on on the Add Schedule button.

3. Create a schedule identify to distinguish it from some other schedule. For this tutorial, I’ll identify mine File as Dwell.

4. Within the Dwell Stream/Transcoder discipline, you possibly can click on on the dropdown arrow and choose the identify of your transcoder you created earlier since it’s already linked to the schedule. It ought to seem within the dropdown.

5. Specify the precise date and begin and cease instances. Remember to use the proper time zone.

Necessary! When selecting the beginning time, take into account that it takes a couple of minutes for Wowza Streaming Cloud to configure the dwell stream or transcoder and obtain the Supply File. In case your occasion begins at 9am on Fb or YouTube, for instance, it’s a good suggestion to set the transcoder begin time just a little earlier, say, at 8:50am.

Relying on the dimensions of the file to obtain and community situations, chances are you’ll need to schedule the transcoder to start out as much as 20 minutes earlier than the time the of the streaming occasion. You don’t want to fret that it’ll begin streaming early, it should simply be sure the file is downloaded and prepared in time.

My occasion will start at 9am and it’s not a really giant file to stream, so I’ll schedule my transcoder to start out at 8:50 a.m.

6. Click on Add to finalize the schedule.

Half 2:  Create the Schedule for the Supply File to Start Streaming

1. On the Transcoder web page in Streaming Cloud, click on on Properties within the nav bar.

2. Click on Edit.

3. Examine the field Begin Supply File at Specified Time.

4. Click on on the Calendar Icon to the fitting. It may be simple to overlook, however there’s a little clock icon to pick the time as indicated by the pink arrow.

5. Choose the date and time you’d just like the supply file to start out streaming.

Let’s summarize because it’s crucial these two steps are configured accurately.

For this tutorial, I scheduled my transcoder to start out at 8:50 a.m. to offer it time to obtain my Supply File from my S3 bucket. I then scheduled that Supply File to start streaming as dwell at 9 a.m. on each Fb and YouTube.

If you choose Play supply file on a loop, make sure you’ve it scheduled to cease, as it should loop endlessly and accumulate costs in Streaming Cloud.

Congratulations!

You’ve accomplished all of the steps to schedule a prerecorded stream as dwell on each Fb and YouTube utilizing Wowza Streaming Cloud.

Professional Tip!

When you have a recurring streaming occasion in your Fb web page and YouTube channel similar to a weekly church service and also you’d prefer to stream a brand new prerecorded video as dwell the next week, merely replace the identical Streaming Cloud transcoder and schedule within the supervisor with out repeating the entire steps we’ve simply lined.

In case you bookmark the Cloud Supervisor pages the place it’s essential make fast updates in a spreadsheet, it should prevent loads of time.

To Replace the Similar Transcoder and Schedule With a New Prerecorded File:

• On the Transcoder web page, Click on Transcoder Overview after which click on Edit.
• Paste in a brand new Supply URL file out of your S3 bucket or Wowza Streaming Cloud server of your selection.
• On the Transcoder web page, click on on Properties and Edit. Replace the particular date and begin and cease instances for Begin Supply File at a Particular Time.
• Create a brand new streaming occasion in each Fb Producer and YouTube Studio.
• From the Transcoder web page, choose Outputs & Targets, and click on Edit.
• Copy your new Stream Key from Fb and paste it within the Stream Identify discipline.
• YouTube doesn’t replace the Stream Key, so that you don’t have to do this one.
• Replace your Streaming Cloud Schedule with the brand new Streaming Occasion date and time and be sure to’ve saved your entire modifications for every step!

We hope you reap the various advantages of this highly effective workflow and in case you’d prefer to be taught extra, please go to our documentation and weblog for Streaming a Prerecorded File as Dwell in Streaming Cloud.

For info on superior schedule and transcoder settings in Wowza Streaming Cloud, please click on right here.

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Extra Assets:

• Methods to Publish a Pre-Recorded Video as a Dwell Stream With Wowza Streaming Engine
• 5 Workflows in Wowza Streaming Cloud That You Ought to Be Utilizing
• Loop a Pre-Roll Till a Dwell Stream Begins

About Rose Energy

Rose Energy is the developer neighborhood supervisor for Wowza Media Techniques. Obsessed with constructing relationships with the dev neighborhood, Rose strives to ship high quality sources for a optimistic person expertise constructed on belief. When not working, she may be discovered… View extra