Step 5: Set Up Streaming Software - Amazon IVS
Streaming with the Amazon IVS Broadcast SDKStreaming with the Amazon IVS ConsoleStreaming with OBS Studio using RTMPSStreaming with OBS Studio using SRTStreaming a Recorded Video with FFmpeg using RTMPSStreaming a Recorded Video with FFmpeg using SRT

Step 5: Set Up Streaming Software

You can stream (low-latency) to Amazon IVS with:

  • The native IVS broadcast SDKs, which support RTMPS. We recommended this, especially for production scenarios.

  • The Amazon IVS console — This is suitable for testing streams.

  • Other streaming software and hardware encoders — You can use any streaming encoder that supports the RTMP, RTMPS, or SRT protocols. Several examples are described below, using Open Broadcast Software (OBS) and FFmpeg with RTMPS and SRT. RTMPS enables high security via use of an encrypted TLS stream.

Key encoder settings are keyframe interval (2 seconds) and resolution/bitrate/frame rate (which are interrelated). For more detail on encoder settings, see:

Notes:

  • The maximum duration of Amazon IVS streams is 48 hours. After that, the stream is terminated and the streaming session is disconnected. A successful reconnect (automatically or manually) starts a new stream.

  • If your encoder stops sending data (e.g., due to a temporary network issue), Amazon IVS waits for 30 seconds. If no broadcaster data is received during this time, Amazon IVS disconnects.

Streaming with the Amazon IVS Broadcast SDK

To broadcast from your iOS or Android applications, you can use the Amazon IVS broadcast SDK. The broadcast SDK leverages the Amazon IVS architecture and will see continual improvement and new features, alongside Amazon IVS. As a native mobile broadcast SDK, it is designed to minimize the performance impact on your application and on the devices with which your users access your application.

To broadcast from … You can use … Notes
Your Android or iOS applications Amazon IVS Android or iOS broadcast SDK As a native mobile broadcast SDK, it is designed to minimize the performance impact on your application and on the devices with which your users access your application.
A web environment Amazon IVS Web broadcast SDK As a web broadcast SDK, the Amazon IVS Web Broadcast SDK allows you to broadcast from web environments using WebRTC. It boasts cross-browser and cross-platform support.

For details, see IVS Broadcast SDK | Low-Latency Streaming.

Streaming with the Amazon IVS Console

  1. Open the Amazon IVS console.

    (You can also access the Amazon IVS console through the AWS Management Console.)

  2. In the navigation pane, select Channels. (If the nav pane is collapsed, expand it by selecting the hamburger icon.)

  3. Select the channel to which you want to broadcast, to go to its details page.

  4. Select the Broadcast tab. (Tabs are below the General Configuration section.)

  5. You will be prompted to grant the IVS console access to your camera and microphone; Allow those permissions.

  6. Toward the bottom of the Broadcast tab, use the dropdown boxes to select input devices for the microphone and camera.

  7. To begin streaming, select Start broadcasting.

  8. To view the live stream, go to the Playback tab.

    Note: After you start the stream, expect a brief delay (usually under 30 seconds) before it is viewable in the playback tab.

You can use this feature to simultaneously broadcast to multiple channels.

Note: Streaming from the console consumes resources, and you will incur live-video input costs. To learn more, see Live Video Input Costs on the IVS Pricing page.

Streaming with OBS Studio using RTMPS

(OBS Studio) is a free, open-source software suite for recording and live streaming. OBS provides real-time source and device capture, scene composition, encoding, recording, and streaming.

Follow these steps to get up and running quickly with OBS Studio v30.2 or later:

  1. Download and install the software: https://obsproject.com/download.

  2. Run the OBS Studio Auto-Configuration Wizard, which appears when you load OBS Studio for the first time. Follow the steps and accept the defaults.

  3. At Stream Information, choose Amazon IVS from the Service dropdown and enter the Stream Key.

    If you created the channel with the Amazon IVS console, the Stream Key you enter in OBS is the Stream key from the console: sk_us-west-2_abcd1234efgh5678ijkl

    If you created the channel with the AWS CLI, the Stream Key you enter in OBS is the streamKey value from the CLI response sk_us-west-2_abcd1234efgh5678ijkl

    If your IVS channel is configured for multitrack video input, select Enable Multitrack Video. Optionally, configure the Maximum Video Tracks and Maximum Streaming Bandwidth settings, which are used to limit automatically configured stream settings.

  4. For Video Output Resolution and Bitrate, refer to Channel Types in Amazon IVS Streaming Configuration. If either value chosen by the OBS wizard exceeds the values allowed by Amazon IVS, you should manually adjust the values to avoid a failed connection to Amazon IVS. After the wizard completes:

    1. To adjust video resolution, use Settings > Video > Output (Scaled) Resolution.

    2. To adjust video bitrate, use Settings > Output > Streaming > Video Bitrate.

      Note: This does not affect the live stream if you previously checked Enable Multitrack Video.

  5. We recommend a 2-second Keyframe Interval to improve the stream stability and avoid buffering in the viewer playback. After the wizard completes, go to Settings > Output > Output Mode, select Advanced, and on the Streaming tab, ensure that Keyframe Interval is 2.

    Note: Keyframe Interval is configured automatically if you previously checked Enable Multitrack Video.

  6. In the OBS Studio main window, choose Start Streaming.

For more on streaming with OBS Studio, see OBS Studio Quickstart.

You can modify your OBS settings manually later:

  1. Choose Settings > Stream.

  2. Choose Amazon IVS from the dropdown.

  3. Paste in the Stream Key.

You can run the wizard again at any time: choose Tools > Auto-Configuration Wizard.

Optionally, in Settings > General, enable local recording to save your live stream for later use. As mentioned earlier, network issues between the broadcast and AWS or within AWS could result in some data loss while recording your stream. In these cases, Amazon IVS prioritizes the live stream over the recording. Recording locally via your streaming tool provides redundancy.

It’s advisable to check for OBS Studio updates regularly and update to the most current version. (For instance, if you get a “Failed to connect to server” error, you may be using an old version of OBS Studio that does not support RTMPS.)

Streaming with OBS Studio using SRT

Follow these steps to get up and running quickly with the Secure Reliable Transport protocol:

  1. Download and install the software: https://obsproject.com/download.

  2. Run the OBS Studio Auto-Configuration Wizard, which appears when you load OBS Studio for the first time. Follow the steps and accept the defaults.

  3. At Stream Information, choose Custom... from the Service dropdown and enter the Server (Ingest server) and Stream Key.

    If you created the channel with the AWS CLI:

    • The Server you enter in OBS is a combination of five things:

      • An ingestion protocol: srt://

      • The endpoint from the srt struct in the CLI response:

        a1b2c3d4e5f6.srt.live-video.net

      • A port: 9000

      • A streamid, which is the streamKey value from the CLI response:

        sk_us-west-2_abcd1234efgh5678ijkl

      • A passphrase, used to encrypt the content. Use this only if insecure ingest is not enabled.

        ZU5A3yrjGAkghUNDr0c5NXBhsPrjlmtcKMNBluh7oImwJQ3ijeyClvMKxlpPcGAMziICJ

      The complete entry is:

      srt://a1b2c3d4e5f6.srt.live-video.net:9000?streamid=sk_us-west-2_abcd1234efgh5678ijkl&passphrase=ZU5A3yrjGAkghUNDr0c5NXBhsPrjlmtcKMNBluh7oImwJQ3ijeyClvMKxlpPcGAMziICJ

    • The Stream Key you enter in OBS will remain empty for the SRT protocol.

  4. For Video Output Resolution and Bitrate, refer to Channel Types in Amazon IVS Streaming Configuration. If either value chosen by the OBS wizard exceeds the values allowed by Amazon IVS, you should manually adjust the values to avoid a failed connection to Amazon IVS. After the wizard completes:

    1. To adjust video resolution, use Settings > Video > Output (Scaled) Resolution.

    2. To adjust video bitrate, use Settings > Output > Streaming > Video Bitrate.

  5. We recommend a 2-second Keyframe Interval to improve the stream stability and avoid buffering in the viewer playback. After the wizard completes, go to Settings > Output > Output Mode, select Advanced, and on the Streaming tab, ensure that Keyframe Interval is 2.

  6. In the OBS Studio main window, choose Start Streaming.

You can modify your OBS settings manually later:

  1. Choose Settings > Stream.

  2. Choose Custom from the dropdown.

  3. Paste in the Server and/or Stream Key.

You can run the wizard again at any time: choose Tools > Auto-Configuration Wizard.

Optionally, in Settings > General, enable local recording to save your live stream for later use. As mentioned earlier, network issues between the broadcast and AWS or within AWS could result in some data loss while recording your stream. In these cases, Amazon IVS prioritizes the live stream over the recording. Recording locally via your streaming tool provides redundancy.

It’s advisable to check for OBS Studio updates regularly and update to the most current version. (For instance, if you get a "Failed to connect to server" error, you may be using an old version of OBS Studio that does not support RTMPS.)

Streaming a Recorded Video with FFmpeg using RTMPS

Follow these steps:

  1. Download and install FFmpeg: https://www.ffmpeg.org/download.html.

  2. Set $VIDEO_FILEPATH to the location of an MP4 video to stream:

    VIDEO_FILEPATH=/home/test/my_video.mp4

  3. Set STREAM_KEY to your StreamKey value:

    STREAM_KEY=sk_us-west-2_abcd1234efgh5678ijkl

  4. Set INGEST_ENDPOINT to your ingestEndpoint (from the AWS CLI):

    INGEST_ENDPOINT=a1b2c3d4e5f6.global-contribute.live-video.net

  5. Start streaming with the following terminal command (this is all one line):

    ffmpeg -re -stream_loop -1 -i $VIDEO_FILEPATH -r 30 -c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -profile:v main -preset veryfast -x264opts "nal-hrd=cbr:no-scenecut" -minrate 3000 -maxrate 3000 -g 60 -c:a aac -b:a 160k -ac 2 -ar 44100 -f flv rtmps://$INGEST_ENDPOINT:443/app/$STREAM_KEY

    Note, the above command is an example. For production streaming, tune the parameters to your needs.

Streaming a Recorded Video with FFmpeg using SRT

  1. Download and install FFmpeg: https://www.ffmpeg.org/download.html. If you are using an old/compiled version of FFmpeg, build a new version with the --enable-libsrt flag.

  2. Verify that SRT is available for use in FFmpeg: run the following command and ensure that libsrt is in the output. If libsrt is not there, rebuild or get a newer version of FFmpeg which supports SRT.

    ffmpeg -version | grep enable-libsrt

  3. Set $VIDEO_FILEPATH to the location of an MP4 video to stream:

    VIDEO_FILEPATH=/home/test/my_video.mp4

  4. Set STREAM_KEY to your StreamKey value:

    STREAM_KEY=sk_us-west-2_abcd1234efgh5678ijkl

  5. Set INGEST_ENDPOINT to your endpoint (from the AWS CLI under the srt object):

    INGEST_ENDPOINT=a1b2c3d4e5f6.srt.live-video.net

  6. Set PASSPHRASE to your passphrase (from the AWS CLI under the srt object). Use passphrase only if insecure ingest is not enabled for the channel. 

    PASSPHRASE=ZU5A3yrjGAkghUNDr0c5NXBhsPrjlmtcKMNBluh7oImwJQ3ijeyClvMKxlpPcGAMziICJ

  7. Start streaming with the following terminal command (this is all one line):

    ffmpeg -re -i $VIDEO_FILEPATH -c copy -f mpegts "srt://$INGEST_ENDPOINT:9000?streamid=$STREAM_KEY&passphrase=$PASSPHRASE”