This page covers the server side: where the stream goes and how it gets in. There is no list of platforms to choose from, because you fill in the address yourself — which means any platform, and your own server just as easily.
The settings
Settings → Outputs, with the kind set to Stream / recording:
| Setting | What it is |
|---|---|
| Server | The address to send to. |
| Stream key | The key that identifies your channel. |
| Sign in to the server | For servers that want a user name and password instead of, or alongside, a key. |
| User name / Password | Shown when signing in is switched on. |
Which protocols
The address decides. Four kinds are understood:
| Prefix | |
|---|---|
rtmp:// | The classic one, understood by nearly every platform |
rtmps:// | The same, encrypted — what most large platforms now require |
srt:// | For unreliable networks: it recovers lost packets |
rist:// | The same idea, a different standard |
The last two do not go over RTMP internally but through a different output; from your side that makes no difference beyond typing a different address.
Getting the address right
Server and key are two fields. Platforms usually give them separately — “server URL” and “stream key” — and they go in as they come. Pasting the whole thing into one field does not work.
Where a platform gives you one long address with the key in it, split it at the last slash: everything before it is the server, what follows is the key.
Your own server
Nothing about this is tied to a platform. An RTMP server in the building, a media server at a hosting provider, a restreamer — all of them are just an address and, usually, a key.
That is also the route for sending one playout to several platforms at once: stream to a restreamer and let it fan out. The program sends one stream.
Practical notes
The key is a password. It appears in the settings window and is saved with the machine’s configuration. On a shared control-room PC, that is worth knowing.
Test with the real key. Streaming keys expire, get rotated and get typed wrong. A test the day before proves the key as much as the network.
A stream is one playout. Two playouts can each have their own stream, each with its own key and its own bitrate — see part 4.