The best RTMP servers for live streaming

What is an RTMP server?

By Omar Santos

Before we define RTMP let us look at what the letters stand for, RTMP = Real-Time-Messaging– and the P in RTMP stands for protocol, A streaming protocol is a method of transferring data from one screen to another over the internet.
RTMP streaming is a live streaming protocol that offers high-performance transmission of audio, video, and data from an encoder to a server that distributes the signal over the internet.
It can also be defined as an application-level protocol designed for delivering on-demand media and live media over the internet between a Flash player and RTMP Media Server.
How does it work?
First digital audio and video signals go from a camera to an encoder –> Then the encoder compresses and pushes the data to a streaming media server –> The streaming media server then manages and sends the data to a multitude of players and browsers around the world.

How to set up an RTMP server for streaming video

Step-1 connect video signals to an encoder
The first thing to do is connect the video signal to the RTMP hardware or software encoder. Connect your camera cord to the encoder SDI/HDMI cable unit if you’re using a hardware encoder. Also, some encoders connect to cameras via Wi-Fi. If you have such an encoder, all you need to do is to sync the RTMP hardware with your camera signal.
Step-2 create a new live stream in your RTMP server
Step-3 setup your encoding options in your Online video platform(OVP)
Step-4 enable RTMP delivery by setting the RTMP URL
Step-5 enable your stream name and RTMP URL in your encoder under the RTMP configuration settings
Step-6 test your live stream
Step-7 start streaming

The best RTMP servers for live streaming

Ant media server
Gives a free RTMP server and supports various protocols including RTSP, HLS, CMAF, SRT, and more.

Castr
Streaming server software to stream high-quality, low-latency RTMP live video streams anywhere in the world.

Red5server
Red5server uses the Wowza streaming engine as the best stable option for an RTMP server. It allows live streaming on mobile devices both apple and android.

Create an Online TV Channel

Another interesting use for Red5Server is the option to start TV channels, you can upload videos in mp4 format, organize playlists with time schedule and run a TV station. This same option could be just an On-demand streaming, but with the TV channel or as they call it, TV Station, you upload and stream your videos, BUT at any time, just go live, click on start streaming and you stream live. When the live streaming is finished, the system will go back to your playlist. I think this option is very cool.

RTMP vs HLS

HLS and RTMP are well-known protocols for streaming media content. HLS stands for HTTP live streaming and it is the application layer protocol. RTMP stands for real-time media protocol and it’s the transport layer protocol. The idea of HLS is to stream media over the HTTP protocol, whereas RTMP streams media over TCP or UDP protocols. There’s one variance of the RTMP – RTMPT, which is the application-level protocol, which runs over HTTP.
RTMP offers low-latency streaming with minimal buffering. But unfortunately, RTMP relies on the same Adobe Flash that was mentioned a few paragraphs above. As a result, this tool is no longer supported on web browsers or mobile devices. However, that doesn’t mean RTMP is no longer beneficial. Using RTMP remains vital since it can be transcoded into other formats like HLS, which may be distributed more efficiently.
HLS streaming offers more flexibility and safety, and performances are much more reliable than previous technologies.
The adoption of HLS has been swift because of its easy transmission and compatibility. It is supported on desktop browsers, smart TVs, and mobile devices, including Android and iOS. Its biggest drawback is latency, although there are methods to reduce HLS latency.

Let’s look at the pros and cons of both RTMP and HLS

RTMP Pros:

1. The actual installation process of a Flash Media Server is simple, effective and appears to be trustworthy since the protocol was established 10 years back.

2. RTMP has an exceptional feature where it provides low latency while transmitting live broadcasts.


3. The protocol has the potentiality to transmit audio and video on any formats and rendition.

4. It also supported universally due to its effectiveness in implementing for live streaming.

RTMP Cons:

1. It does not have native support in iOS.

2. RTMP does not work in HTML5, it differs from the HTTP Protocol.


3. The security of delivering video is minimal.

HTTP Pros:

1. HLS is a pocket-friendly protocol which is Compatible on all the platforms and supports HTML5 video player.

2. Helps to stream to reach more viewers and also the safest protocol to scale up the content to a massive base audience.


3. The biggest advantage of HLS is that it has the potentiality to deliver adaptive bitrate streaming where the quality of the content to be expected at a high pixel-rate.

HTTP Cons:

1. HLS has latency which is relatively high when compared to RTMP.

2. The performance of HLS on other platforms is minimal when compared to the performance on iOS only.

Can RTMP servers stream audio only?

Yes, they can. you can select the audio-only setting on the settings icon on live stream and then click quality, then you can choose the option audio-only.

Publishing our RTMP Server Live Streaming to Facebook

t is possible to publish your live streaming services to Facebook using our Stream Targets function on the RTMP Control Panel. You will need to ask our customer support team to enable it. Open a ticket and you should have your stream connected to Facebook in the next few hours.

The process is straightforward. The customer support will enable your stream to target Facebook. On the image below, instead of YouTube, change to Facebook. In fact, one of the advantages of our system is that it is possible to stream simultaneously to Facebook and to YouTube at the same time, as well as many other social media from a single broadcast from our RTMP Server.

Save & Restart the service to apply the changes.
Open Stream Targets

Configure your new Live Stream and press Continue with Facebook when ready. A continuous live stream supports a stream of unlimited duration. Use cases for continuous live include live feeds of aquariums, museums, and zoos. (Before streaming using continuous live, please note that continuous live streams do not generate VOD, do not send notifications to followers, and do not collect video insights for peak concurrent viewers.).

Select where you wish to publish the video, your Timeline, or a Facebook Page.

Your stream should now begin publishing to Facebook

RTMP Server in the era of HTTP video streaming

Given the growing popularity and support of HTTP video streaming, it may be tempting to consider Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) streaming obsolete. But in many cases, working with RTMP server is still very meaningful. As soon as Macromedia first pronounced RTMP with Flash Player 6 in 2002, the brand new Macromedia Flash Communication Server MX (FCS) required to stream the evolving Flash Video (FLV) format, stream was live or VOD.

However, for FCS, licensing costs were high (up to $5,000 per server), and as a result, CDN costs were high than other proprietary streaming formats. Some manufacturers in the industry have called RTMP streaming costs a “Flash tax”. But Flash Player has been a ubiquitous introduction to desktop browsers for well over a decade, much larger than other plug-ins. Though, streaming server technology has traditionally been harder for web developers to implement, and simpler HTTP delivery has mostly been easier and more cost-effective. In 2003, Macromedia enabled Flash Player 7 to support HTTP delivery of FLV files, allowing integrators to use standard web server technology to deploy online video.

So in many ways, RTMP as a VOD transport delivery has not been a requirement for web video for more than a decade. As a video solution architect, I think of business requirements as the leader in most audio video decisions. And still, in 2014, RTMP is the de facto standard for the following use cases:

Publishing live streams from software/hardware encoders: Almost all streaming devices support RTMP to publish to CDN providers and streaming servers. Some native mobile applications also use RTMP libraries to publish live video from their mobile camera.

Near-instant search/playback: One of the benefits of RTMP streaming is its enhanced search capability. With real-time streaming, the player can search anywhere in the video with less buffering than HTTP delivery. However, to enjoy this feature, you need a Flash Player on your desktop and as such, it is not possible in mobile browsers. HTML5 browsers use HTTP domain requests to facilitate faster searching of VOD files.

Content Protection: RTMP Server can facilitate different levels of content protection, from obfuscation to true DRM. RTMP streams are not stored for playback on a desktop browser.

Adaptive Streaming: One of the preferred uses of RTMP is adaptive streaming playback, where we provide the video player with more bitrates and content resolutions, providing the best resolution at the current network speed. Some HTTP adaptive streaming technologies, such as HLS and MPEG-DASH, allow similar delivery, but RTMP may be more responsive to switching one bitrate to another. Unfortunately, there is no standard for HTTP adaptive streaming between HTML5 video-enabled browsers. As such, the Flash-based display of adaptive streaming is still a requirement for adaptive streaming.

Live Streaming Playback: While live streams do not need to be adaptive, compressed video segments apply the same principle to all live streaming playback. For desktop playback within the browser, virtually every live streaming event requires a video player that supports Flash-based rendering and RTMP playback. Apple Safari on iOS natively supports HLS, and luckily, all modern streaming servers, including the Wowza Streaming Engine, support RTMP and HLS compression.

The requirement for a Live Streaming Flash Player will only change if MPEG-DASH appears everywhere as Flash currently. If Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 support is required to install live streaming, then RTMP streaming is still required. Also, if you need a delay close to zero in a live stream, then HTTP streaming will almost certainly not meet your needs while RTMP is capable; HTTP mechanisms require that multiple packets be collected on the server before being sent to the video player.

In summary, if your video workflow involves live streaming or any kind of packaged video installation, RTMP is the key to a successful video experience. HTTP delivery has already replaced most Flash VOD installs on video, but HTTP video can’t handle all RTMP video use cases.

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What’s better for non-peer-to-peer live streaming, WebRTC or RTMP?

WebRTC or RTMP

It depends on your needs but the industry is moving towards to WebRTC.

RTMP is a widely used TCP based streaming solution. WebRTC is a new solution and usually works over UDP (unless TCP/TLS TURN relay is needed).

If you need streaming to browsers, then WebRTC is a clear winner in 2018 since Flash is fading out from browsers.

Regarding quality: I don’t think that there is a clear winner at this moment. Both of them has some advantages and disadvantages, however WebRTC is an emerging technology and becomes better each year, especially by introducing better codec and eliminating early bugs in browser implementations. WebRTC usually has better quality while RTMP tends to be more stable.

HLS and RTMP are well known protocols for streaming media contents over. HLS stands for HTTP live streaming and it is the application layer protocol. … The idea of HLS is to stream media over the HTTP protocol, whereas RTMP streams media over TCP or UDP protocols.

Regarding costs: WebRTC is a bit more complicated because it need proper TURN server setup to be able to stream to networks behind firewalls and it’s stack is a bit more complex (mandatory DTLS/SRTP encryption)

If you need to build a future proof solution to stream also to browsers then the definitive answer is WebRTC.

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Red5 and wowza hosting

Red5 is a media server created with Java language. It is a free open source software but recently a new version Red5 Pro came out developed by the same people, this new version supports streaming to mobiles, Android or iOS, which red5 does not. The Red5 Pro is commercial product and costs $55 per server.

A media server allows Flash based applications connect to it using Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP). The server can send and receive data to and from the connected users who have a flash player installed. The server also allows users to receive and publish streams. This permits video chat applications, live streaming and even ondemand video streaming.

Most common Video chat software’s are:
1- Avchat
2- Videowhisper
3- Prochatrooms
4- Gchats

For live streaming the necessary tool if you already have a server with red5 installed is an encoder, an encoder is the software that will connect your computer to the red5 server using the RTMP, which your server provider will give you.
1- FMLE, it is an free Adobe product and does a good job.
2- Wirecast, it is an expensive commercial product of very high quality, absolutely necessary if you starting a TV station.

Although red5 is a free product many people prefer to use Wowza Streaming Engine or Adobe Flash Media Server which are commercial software’s and can be quite expensive, the FMS costs $4500 per server. The reason is that the developers of red5 although have created a wonderful system did not spend much time with tutorials and instructions on how to install and manage a red5 server, for this reason if you searching for a red5 server we suggest you pick a web host which specializes on red5 servers and red5 shared hosting.

1- Red5 Servers relatively cheap red5 servers starting at $15 a month.
2- Red5 Hosting, Hosting Marketers, a web host for experienced webmasters, it is the oldest hosting company specialized on Video and media servers, they also offer Wowza Streaming Engine on its shared plans. They have a very experienced customer support and a reputation for going out of their way to help customers. They starting plan with Red5 enabled costs $9.95 a month. Most other red5 hosting companies are resellers of Hosting Marketers.

Red5 is a formidable media server, extremely flexible and has the advantage of being a free product with with many people working on developing it, for now the main version does not yet work with mobiles, if that is what you need we suggest that instead of using the Red5 Pro version to use the Wowza instead. Hosting Marketers also offers Wowza, in fact they even offer a 3 days free trial.

streaming with multi-bitrate using red5

It is possible to stream a live event with red5 to different groups of people who have different internet connections with different speeds, for example for a person on dial up to stream to this person a high quality is useless because he will only see buffering, and little of the real video. Using multi bitrate it is possible to stream for dial ups, or high quality.

this is done on the fmle encoder, select more then 1 stream choose the bitrate you want to use and then on the stream name separate the stream names with a semicolon, for example:

low;medi;high

then create 3 different players, if on strobe on the video source use:

RTMP + Stream name

rtmp://server_IP/low

rtmp://server_IP/medi

rtmp://server_IP/high

this way you will have 3 players for 3 different group of viewers. More can be read at red5 hosting.