Live Streaming Server – How to Build One, and Should You Do It?
Taking a DIY approach to streaming and setting up your own video streaming server and streaming process may sound like a simple way to broadcast. The idea of everything getting done in-house and on your own terms can be incredibly appealing. Plus, you get to save money on private video streaming services. Right?
Wrong.
Unfortunately, rolling out your own video streaming server has several serious drawbacks.
Many of these drawbacks are specific to issues that arise while streaming video. For example, system admins familiar with standard web content may not be equipped to deal with the common challenges and requirements for streaming live content. Building a live streaming server and supporting it can require different skill sets.
Think of setting up and maintaining your own media streaming server as making dinner from scratch. You have to make a list, go to the store and buy all the ingredients. Then you come home, chop everything up, follow the recipe, and hopefully, it’s a success and tastes great. It’s a satisfying feeling, but it takes so much time and energy. Plus, there’s always a higher chance of messing it up.
On the other hand, using live video streaming platforms or dedicated media streaming servers is like buying a semi-cooked meal kit from the grocery store. Media streaming server software makes the video streaming process simpler. Imagine putting together that same healthy, home-cooked meal so much easier on busy weeknights, But in a quarter of the time and with much less effort.
So what do a meal kit and a live-streaming platform have in common? They both handle some of the work for you to focus on more important jobs. In the case of broadcasters, that’s creating engaging video content, be it on-demand videos or live video streaming.
If you’re still curious about what it takes, we’ll give you the rundown on how to build your own video streaming server. Then we will highlight some risks and pitfalls of creating and operating your own live stream server and provide alternatives to self-hosting video.
Let’s get to it.
What is a Video Streaming Server?
A video streaming server is a web server with built-in RTSP functionality designed to provide live or on-demand video to internet-enabled devices.
With video streaming software, the video has to be encoded and converted into a data format. Then, the information must be sent as a data stream from your origin server to your viewer’s computer.
With cloud-based server streaming, the viewer doesn’t need to store the video file on their computer on their hard drive. Instead, the cloud server delivers data as they can stream and watch the video while the file is in progress.
Who Needs a Video Streaming Server?
Anyone who wants to share videos online and allow end-users to watch those videos needs a streaming server. A streaming server is required for broadcasting live or on-demand videos over the internet.
You can make your own server for video streaming, use a third-party server, or work with a video hosting platform that provides access to servers and other tools.
How to Build a Live Streaming Server
There are some drawbacks to creating and using your own live streaming server instead of using a server hosting through a professional streaming solution.
We’ll provide you with the technical know-how and basic information you need to build a live-streaming server. You need technical knowledge and troubleshooting skills to build and maintain your own server.
Creating your own video streaming server will require you to use other operating systems to fulfill your streaming needs. Making your own video server doesn’t free you from using other people’s programs; it does free you from specifically paying for video hosting.
Let’s quickly look at how you can build your own live server streaming video.
1. Get Clean on Requirements
Before you learn how to build a live streaming server, it’s important to know what you want out of your live streaming server.
- How big is your audience?
- How important is the streaming quality?
- Are you using Windows, Linux (Ubuntu), or Mac OS? What are your operating system requirements?
- Who will have access to the video stream?
- Will you need to save copies of your video stream?
Knowing the answers to these questions will determine the specific next steps. For example, the steps for setting up a streaming server on Windows will differ from how you set up a live streaming server on Linux. Knowing these details will help you learn how to build and run your own servers.
Once you’ve gotten clear on the answers to all those questions, it’s time to learn how to build your video streaming server.
2. Choose an Open-Source Project
Why spend time and resources when many top-class open-source projects are free? To build your server, you’ll need access to a library of pre-existing code.
Choose an open-source project that supports your preferred media player and delivery protocols. There is no need to create your own code when open-source software exists to help you build your own video server.
A popular and proven pick is the Nginx web server, which can run on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS. Nginx web server also easily integrates with both HLS and RTMP via the Nginx-RTMP module. For a refresher, HLS and RTMP are two common video streaming protocols.
You can then use the library on the Ngnix web server to build a live streaming server that specifically fits your video streaming needs.
That allows you to integrate many tools and features into your video streaming server.
- Security tools
- Monetization tools
- Video controls (fast forward, rewind, etc.)
- Custom video player configurations to match your branding
- Adaptive bitrate streaming
These are just a few customizations you can make using the library feature on an Nginx web server.
3. Download OBS Studio
OBS Studio is a great media server software resource. Once your server is ready, you’ll set up your live-streaming software. OBS Studio is a free, open-source live-streaming server software that you can use for encoding and other live-streaming functions.
The correct version of OBS studio to download will depend on your operating system. After choosing the right operating system, you should run the Auto-Configuration Wizard. This wizard will test your system and adjust your settings accordingly.
To begin your video stream, you’ll need your stream key. Once you have that, go to the “Media” option and click on “Open Network Stream”. Now type in your stream key. The steam key is a specially generated code for viewing any particular stream.
Many developers recommend using OBS Studio to run with your DIY server-to-server to ensure everything works out properly.
4. Create a CDN
The next item on the list is a Content Delivery Network. CDN addresses issues of latency. In broadcasting, latency is the delay in a live stream or on-demand video. In other words, a powerful video stream CDN is essential for delivering high-quality live streams to viewers near and far.
To build your own CDN for your video streaming server, you must first decide if you’ll push your delivery through the cloud or physical remote servers. Physical servers are typically more reliable, but a cloud streaming server may be more realistic, depending on your available resources.
Once you conclude a cloud vs. physical, you’ll need to choose technology for ISP, caching software, and routing. Then, you’ll arrange the placement of your origin server and PoPs. Building a reliable CDN network is essential for your video streaming server to work.
We recommend downloading Varnish, a CDN-building tool to help tie everything together.
Pros and Cons of a DIY Live Streaming Server
Now that you know the basic steps to build a live streaming server, the question is, should you build your own streaming server?
There are many potential drawbacks when operating your own live-streaming server. These include issues with latency, buffering, fail-safes, capacity security, and more.
Let’s review some of the most common issues and challenges presented to broadcasters who decide to live stream with DIY servers.
1. Latency
Latency is the delay in a live stream from when it is recorded to when your viewer experiences it on their screens. Two primary factors impact latency:
- Distance: The main factor is distance. Streaming software takes time to process data. The further your video streaming server is from your audience, the more processing time it requires. That can make the delay or latency appear greater to your viewers, especially those located further away from your video streaming servers.
- Traffic Load: The second factor impacting video latency is your traffic load, or how many people watch your live stream simultaneously. A single server or a few servers will only be able to handle a small amount of traffic. If your video content is successful and you pull in a larger audience, your servers may not be able to handle it.
When that happens, video streams will be delayed for everyone, and you could lose your audience.
Both distance and traffic load are problems that are easy to solve using a professional CDN network. A professional content delivery network has servers spread out both nationally and globally, depending on where your target audience is located.
That way, your viewers are always close to a server, and there are more than enough servers to handle the traffic your live streams generate when they watch videos.
2. Buffering
Network slowdowns or bottlenecks between the streaming software, server, and viewer cause live video feed buffering. You’ve probably experienced buffering when trying to stream content online as a viewer, so you know how frustrating it can be.
You can mitigate buffering problems through multi-bitrate streaming and an adaptive media player. This is called adaptive streaming. However, even with adaptive video streaming, buffering issues can persist.
Adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR) is built into most online video platforms, but this feature may not be accessible to those who are self-hosting. Adaptive bitrate streaming provides viewers with the best quality video based on their internet connections. It is one of the best tools for producing a quality experience for your viewers, regardless of their internet connection
Without adaptive streaming, buffering is more likely for any user whose internet connection is less than perfect.
You risk buffering issues even more if your video goes viral and a single media server or small cluster is hit with a high volume of requests. In this scenario, streams may not even load at all.
As a result, you risk losing viewers and opportunities to reach new viewers, among other negative consequences. Most viewers will not stick around if your content is buffering.
3. Lack of Redundancy
Our recommended best practice for live streaming is always to have a backup stream. With two streams coming to your viewers from separate paths, you can bypass problems mid-broadcast. This double-stream approach is called redundancy.
This issue is generally nonexistent when using a dynamic media server network, such as a live streaming content delivery network. If one machine goes offline, your backup stream will immediately come online.
Redundancy becomes much more difficult and complex with a limited server architecture. A service dropout caused by equipment failure, a power surge, or other system-wide glitches can shut down your entire stream.
Even if you have a backup stream, it won’t matter when a problem affects your system.
4. Limits to Scale
Another issue related to running your own live streaming server is the scale of operation, especially if you run multiple channels or podcasts. Each media server has a finite number of viewers who can stream simultaneously.
As your audience grows, you will need to scale up and incorporate more media streaming servers into your setup to ensure the smooth streaming of your media content. Adding new servers can be challenging.
If a live stream goes viral, you will not be able just to add more servers at the moment to support the sudden increase in traffic. Going viral could cause your live stream to crash.
The costs and complexity of this can stifle many broadcasters, especially individuals and small businesses.
Furthermore, you could end up paying considerably more to resolve ongoing issues of scale than you would if you contracted with a professional streaming platform in the first place.
With a professional streaming platform, if you suddenly go viral and get a lot of traffic, you will have access to their entire network of media servers.
5. Security Vulnerabilities
Running your own video streaming server means you have total autonomy. That also means that the privacy and security of your streaming protocol are entirely up to you. Securing a server is a complex and demanding task in a world where ransomware, phishing attacks, and piracy run rampant.
By using a secure streaming provider, however, you can bypass the need for security knowledge and investment. Any measures you can put into place on a small scale are likely to be minor compared to the security measures that a professional video hosting platform, such as Mslive, has.
Exploring Alternatives to Self-Hosting
Did you know it’s possible to maintain complete control of your content while streaming live video on your website via a dedicated streaming service?
One great alternative is to use a video streaming hosting provider. Most platforms combine the Software as a Service (SaaS) business model with Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS).
You gain access to world-class streaming server hardware and live broadcasting software to support it by paying a simple, predictable monthly fee. You don’t have to troubleshoot building your own server from scratch. You can access the knowledge and power of a professional live broadcasting platform.
Since they are much easier to use and avoid issues tied to self-hosting, your organization may want to consider professional video hosting software solutions.
Here are the top reasons why you too should consider video-streaming software platforms for your broadcasting needs:
- Better security
- Saves time
- API customization
- Monetization options
- Analytics and feedback
- Content Delivery Network CDN
- Digital rights management DRM software
The bottom line? We recommend considering a live video streaming dedicated server. That helps circumvent the risks and mitigate the costs of live-streaming events that come with creating your own streaming solutions.
Why Choose Mslive?
Mslive is a fully cloud-based streaming service with many advantages for broadcasters and content creators. The most significant benefit is that you focus on the creative side of live streaming, such as finding great locations, showing the world around you, and bringing high-quality content to your audience.
Here are some of Mslive’s advanced features that’ll convince you to give this live-streaming platform a go:
Global Delivery
Increasing your organic reach and getting more exposure for your content is easier with Mslive thanks to its China Video Hosting and robust CDN. That way, your viewers can watch you in real-time no matter which area of the world they might belong to; that’s to its top-class proxy servers.
Flexible Plans
Mslive offers affordable live streaming plans at many different price points for its users. Meaning you get live-streaming as well as video-on-demand servers. No matter your budget, you can find a package that suits you without letting finances get in the way of your content creation.
White Label Streaming
With Dacst’s White label and branding control, your videos match your brand image and vision. When you embed videos onto your website, they blend in to match the aesthetics of your website.
Limitless Scalability
Scalability is never a problem you’ll have to worry about when you live-stream with Mslive’s robust network.
As you grow your audience, switch to a higher plan and continue streaming! Unlike video streaming servers that crash when the load gets too much.
Secure Streaming,
The most significant advantage of using a professional live-streaming server is its security benefits. Mslive offers these features always to provide secure and reliable streaming:
- Cloud-based video transcoding tools
- Advanced video security features
- Adaptive bitrate streaming
- HLS streaming
- RTMP ingest is compatible with RTMP encoders
All these broadcast quality features let your viewers stream videos more securely on their mobile devices.
Conclusion
DIYs are great. But using your own server carries risks and can cause more harm than good. Why not use a platform dedicated to that purpose instead?
The two most important things to consider are the possible complications of building your own server and the lack of support you’d have without access to when using a professional streaming solution.
Building your own video streaming server is possible if you have a skilled developer on your team. Still, it’ll likely be less cost-effective and more complex than using an established online video host. We’ve witnessed first-hand the complications that can arise, and we know that the average broadcaster doesn’t have the financial or technical means to address all those issues.
We’ve put together a thorough guide to help you troubleshoot live streaming issues and identify the root of the problems. Use the ten tips we’ve laid out to get your stream back on track in no time.
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