This page covers operating the stream during a show and reading whether it is healthy. Two buttons and one line of figures — but that line is the difference between “it looks fine here” and “it is arriving”.
The buttons
When a playout’s output is set to stream, two buttons appear on its transport bar, beside STOP and GO:
| Button | |
|---|---|
| STREAM | Start and stop streaming this playout. |
| REC | Start and stop recording it. |
They are independent of each other and of the cue list. Starting the stream does not start the show, and GO does not start the stream.
Hovering tells you where you stand: No server set — fill it in under Settings, Connecting to the server…, or On air — click to stop.
The status block
The playout’s block at the bottom right reports the stream:
| It says | Meaning |
|---|---|
off | Not streaming. |
connecting… | Reaching the server. |
2500 kbit/s · missed 0 (0%) | Streaming, at that rate, with that many frames the network could not carry. |
recording | Recording is running. |
“Missed” here means the network, not the machine. Frames the connection could not carry are dropped by the sender; that number rising means the upload cannot keep up with the bitrate you set.
Compare it with the missed figure on a card output, which means something different: frames the playout itself could not render in time. One points at the line, the other at the machine.
Hover the block for the upload graph and the full text.
What to watch during a show
At the start: that the block went from connecting… to a bitrate. That is the only proof the server accepted you.
During: that the dropped-frame percentage stays at zero. A few frames at the moment a big clip starts is survivable; a number that climbs is not, and the answer is a lower bitrate rather than hope.
At the end: stop the stream deliberately. Closing the program stops it too, but a deliberate stop is what makes the recording close cleanly.
When it will not connect
Three causes, in order of likelihood:
- The key. Expired, rotated, or from a different channel.
- The address. Server and key in the wrong fields, or
rtmpwhere the platform now demandsrtmps. - The network. A firewall that blocks outgoing streaming ports, which in a church or school building is more common than people expect.
The full troubleshooting page is part 14.