Q1 2021 news: Cloud backups, Advertizer, Talkback, tutorials and more

Softvelum team kept working on products' improvements during Q1 of 2021 so let's see what we've got.

WMSPanel cloud service is the best way to control Nimble Streamer as it provides web UI for operating the vast majority of its features. Nimble settings are defined in the panel and synced up with Nimble instance.

Our customers always needed some way to back up their server settings, so in Q1 we introduced Nimble Cloud Backup. With cloud backups you can save streaming configs of your Nimble Streamer instances into distributed cloud database to improve redundancy. You can do it manually or automatically. If a customer needs to get back to some version of their cloud backup, he or she can restore it within WMSPanel account as a new server instance. After a backup is restored, a customer can initiate respective server instance to obtain these settings from WMSPanel, thus make new server to move into previous state. Learn more about Cloud Backups and try it in action.

Nimble Streamer Advertizer now has VOD server-side ads insertion. At the moment, HLS output with MPEG-TS and fMP4 containers is supported. Take a look at VOD SSAI overview article and also read tech spec page for full details.

We are working on other improvements for server-side ads insertion so stay tuned for updates.

SLDP protocol is actively used by our customers to provide low latency playback, especially after Flash has been officially abandoned and has put RTMP playback at denial. One of the use cases that our customers have discovered is browser-based videowall.

So we've made mosaic videowall demo page which allows playing 4 streams simultaneously. You can make your own mosaic using reference simplified version on our github. You may change it accordingly to make as many players as you need.

This quarter we also posted a number of video tutorials on our YouTube channel.

• Converting NDI to Apple Low Latency HLS. There we demonstrate how you can use Nimble NDI feature set to get NDI input and transform it into Apple Low Latency HLS output. This can be a great case for customers who need to deliver live streams with low latency, check this brief description as well.
• NDI to SRT to AWS Elemental MediaConnect via Nimble Streamer. Amazon recently introduced SRT support in their MediaConnect service. In our video we show how to take NDI input and use SRT feature set to stream live content out into AWS.
• Widevine EZDRM setup in Nimble Streamer. Nimble DRM allows protecting live, DVR and VOD content using Widevine, Playready and FairPlay using various key management providers. This video uses EZDRM to show how easily you may set up Nimble DRM.
• RTMP setup in Nimble Streamer. RTMP feature set is one of the most popular in Nimble Streamer so there we show all major scenarios related to the protocol.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get other upcoming updates.

Larix Broadcaster has got a number of significant updates this quarter.

Larix Broadcaster now supports Talkback, which is the ability to get an audio return feed. So while you generate a stream, you may get audio stream via SRT, RTMP, SLDP or even Icecast. This is a great feature for those creators who need to get a word from their studios while streaming live. Other updates of Larix include SRT Listen and Rendezvous support and some improvements for RIST protocol.

The talkback feature already got some attention. Take a look at How to: mobile reporter video demonstrating SRTMiniServer working with Larix Broadcaster by getting its live stream and returning talk back feed.

Larix Broadcaster SDK for Android and SDK for iOS pages now have architecture overview of Larix Broadcaster to make it easier to understand for beginners. They also refer to apps' sample code available on github.

Larix Player for Android and iOS was also updated with fresh libsrt and got SRT playback in Listen and Rendezvous modes.

You can learn more about Talkback, Larix SDKs updates and other features by reading this blog post.

Also, since we've mentioned MediaConnect, we've made Stream to AWS MediaConnect via SRT from Larix Broadcaster article describing the process in case you need to stream there from mobile.

That's all for now. Follow us via social networks to get our updates as they appear: Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, LinkedIn, YouTube and Reddit.

NDI to SRT to AWS Elemental MediaConnect via Nimble Streamer

AWS Elemental MediaConnect can now receive SRT streams which means a lot of streaming software is able to deliver content there.

Being an active SRT Alliance member, Softvelum is excited to see this shift. So we decided to make a simple video where we show how Nimble Streamer can get NDI stream, transform it into SRT and publish to MediaConnect.

The described use case gives flexibility for various live production teams which use NDI as their primary format and who want to deliver their content over Amazon network.

Feel free to try this approach in action.

Take a look at related materials as well:

• AWS Elemental MediaConnect User Guide
• Stream to AWS MediaConnect via SRT from Larix Broadcaster
• Nimble Streamer
• Nimble Steamer SRT support
• Nimble Steamer NDI support
• Live Transcoder overview

Also watch a workshop from Streaming Media West 2022: Improving NDI Workflows for Remote Production With SRT

Stream to AWS MediaConnect via SRT from Larix Broadcaster

AWS Elemental MediaConnect recently announced their support for SRT ingest. This makes it capable of receiving streams from all modern encoders, media servers and other SRT-powered software.

Larix Broadcaster has full support of SRT besides RTMP. RTSP and RIST, it also allows streaming simultaneously to multiple destinations.

Here's a brief instruction for how you can stream from Larix to MediaConnect using SRT.

Set up MediaConnect

First, log into your AWS account, go to MediaConnect control page and open Flows section.

Then click on Create flow to enter flow creation dialog.

First you enter a name for your flow and select availability zone if you need to. The Protocol name needs to be SRT listener. Another important field to specify is Inbound port which will be used for further connection setup. Also, White list CIDR block must be specified to allow your devices streaming into Media Connect.

Once you save the flow, you'll see the Inbound IP address, you'll need it for further connection setup.

Click on Start for your flow to get it ready to receive the content.

Now let's proceed with Larix Broadcaster setup.

Set up Larix Broadcaster via Larix Grove

If you haven't installed Larix Broadcaster yet, you can do it via Google Play and AppStore.

Now, in order to set up Larix easily, we'll use Larix Grove. Larix Grove format allows propagating streaming setting across devices using special URL. It can be distributed via QR code for easier import in your device. So we'll create QR code with our SRT ingest point.

Go to Larix Grove wizard, enter srt://ipaddress:port in URL field and select Caller mode for this connection. Click on QR code button to get the image.

Having the QR code, scan it it on our device using any app capable of that. It will open Larix Broadcaster and will import the connection settings automatically. All you'll need to do  after that it to tap on big red start button to initiate the stream.

Check MediaConnect input

Now go to MediaConnect, you'll see when your input becomes active.

You will see charts which means you have the stream up and running. You may also change flow setup if you need to make changes specific to SRT protocol, like set up latency, maxbw or other parameters.

You can use AWS Elemental MediaConnect documentation to see what you can do next with your stream.

Related documentation

SRT capabilities of Softvelum products, Larix Broadcaster, AWS Elemental MediaConnect docs

Mosaic videowall with SLDP

We've released a demo page with mosaic videowall of SLDP HTML5 players in 2*2 grid. This is a useful setup for cases when you need to manually monitor and track multiple SLDP real-time streams on the same screen. By default, the sound is muted so it would not interfere, and players instances have VU-meters to track the audio level.

You can make your own mosaic using reference simplified version on our github. You may change it accordingly to make as many players as you need.

Learn more about SLDP low latency protocol and its benefits.

Converting NDI to Apple Low Latency HLS

Nimble Streamer supports NDI processing to get real-time input and produce multiple output formats. Apple Low Latency HLS is one of the protocols that can be produced from NDI.

We've made a brief video demonstration of how Nimble Streamer can produce Apple Low Latency HLS from NDI source stream.

Here are the steps described there:

1. We use Nimble Streamer instance which has been previously installed.
2. That instance has SSL set up with HTTP/2 enabled.
3. Low Latency HLS is then enabled for a separate application.
4. Then NDI processing was set up via Nimble Live Transcoder.
5. The output is then checked for playback on Mac and iPhone.

We used default recommended settings:

• 6 seconds chunks,
• 1000ms parts duration,
• 2000ms key frame interval.

Our latency is around 4 seconds on both Apple devices. You can follow our Low Latency HLS setup article to get more details about reducing the latency and other tips and tricks.

You can also watch Low Latency HLS setup tutorial and NDI setup tutorial to see more details about these respective technologies in depth.

Follow us in social media to get updates about our new features and products: YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, Telegram

Cloud backups of Nimble Streamer configuration

With cloud backups you can save streaming configs of your Nimble Streamer instances into WMSPanel to improve redundancy. You can do it manually or automatically.

Here are basic principles of our cloud backup approach.

• Nimble Streamer streaming-related settings are defined via WMSPanel UI and stored in WMSPanel account and also locally in rules.conf file.
• So usually customers perform backup by copying rules.conf for further restoration.
• WMSPanel cloud backup allows copying all streaming-related settings into a distributed database within Softvelum cloud infrastructure.
• A customer may initiate backups manually, as well as set automated backups creation. They all will be stored in the cloud.
• If a customer needs to get back to some version of their cloud backup, he or she can restore it within WMSPanel account as a new server instance.
• After a backup is restored, a customer can initiate respective server instance to obtain these settings from WMSPanel, thus make new server to move into previous state.
• Cloud backups have multi-step removal process in order to avoid accidental damage.

The price is just 1 USD per month per backup.

More details can be found on Cloud backups page.