ADSL Connection Video Broadcasting

Problem: When using Live Streaming solutions, live streams from some broadcasters have big frame loss, huge latency and sometimes don’t show at all.

Many home user internet connections are ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), meaning they have low upload bitrate compared to download: In ADSL, Bandwidth and bitrate are said to be asymmetric, meaning greater toward the customer premises (downstream) than the reverse (upstream). Providers usually market ADSL as a service for consumers for Internet access for primarily downloading content from the Internet, but not serving content accessed by others.

This causes issues when trying to upload content like broadcasting live video. For live broadcasts, streaming bitrate is limited by broadcaster’s upload bitrate. Broadcasters with such connections will encounter severe issues (frame loss, long interruptions, big latency) if they try to live stream a stream with bitrate very close or greater than connection limit.

How to determine your connection type and limits (for adjusting streaming settings)? Measure Connection Speed
Do a speed test from broadcasting location to a location near streaming server (rtmp) using SpeedTest.net .
On new version use Change Server and search for a server in Montreal, in example.
In legacy version if latest does not work, drag and zoom to a server in North America and select it to test for our demos .
Check upload bitrate. Divide by 8 to obtain transfer rate in bytes/second as bitrate is often displayed in bits/second.
Then adjust streaming settings so video, sound and interactions fit in upload bitrate (leave 10-25% margins).

If your site targets users from certain areas, browse some stats and identify common upload bitrate to adjust default streaming settings.

Also see:
Recommended h264 Video Bitrate Based on Resolution
VideoWhisper Web Application Client Requirements

Schedule Videos as Live Streaming Channels

In latest Broadcast Live Video solution, channel owners can schedule existing videos to play as live streaming channels.  This can be used to simulate a live stream / broadcast from previously recorded videos.

This is based on Wowza Streaming Engine SMIL playlist functionality (requires Wowza Hosting). Plugin includes an editor to easily schedule videos from Video Share VOD in a playlist.
lb-playlistsYou can create an elaborate schedule with many playlists of videos scheduled to play on each channel:

  • For on-demand stream sources, use either 0 or a positive number for thestart parameter. A positive number will start that number of seconds into the video.
  • To play the source until the end, use -1 for the length parameter. Any positive value will play the source for that number of seconds.
  • To loop through the schedule, set repeat to true. Setting repeat to falsewill shut down the stream after the playlist has finished. Later playlists aren’t loaded unless they start before the non-repeating playlist ends.
  • Set the scheduled parameter to start the playlist at a specific time. If the begin time is in the past, each playlist is loaded in order and immediately replaces the previous playlist for the stream.