This article introduces the different parts of the Live Stream Details page to help you find your way around the Wowza Video user interface.

Live Stream Details page

This page contains information you can use to manage and monitor your stream as well as additional configuration options.
 

Share live stream

At the top of the live stream details page, you'll find the viewing formats that Wowza Video generates several for your stream, giving you flexibility in presentation. You can use one viewing format or combine them for a more robust viewing experience.

When you click Share live stream, you'll get access to the following viewing formats:

• JavaScript embed code — Copy this code and add it to your site to embed the specified player into your own site. 
• iFrame embed code — Copy this code and add it to your site to embed an iFrame with the specified player into your own site.
• Hosted page — Copy the Hosted page link URL and share it directly with your viewers. Wowza Video automatically generates a web page, that we host for you, and embed with the specified player. No coding required.

Video preview and statistics

At the top of the page, you have access to the video preview and other stream information that's handy to have available at a glance.

• Video Preview – The video preview displays the stream in real-time. If the stream has started but Wowza Video isn't receiving any source video, the message "stream is offline" appears in place of the video frame. 
• Statistics – Real-time connection, transcoding, and delivery details appear for running streams.

All of the metrics refresh every 10 seconds.

• Total Viewers – The total number of times the live stream has been viewed. A single unique view is one IP address receiving at least one segment of the stream on any player or device in a 24-hour period. 
• Current Viewers – The number of unique viewers in the last 5 minutes. A single unique view is one IP address receiving at least one segment of the stream on any player or device.

Overview tab

• WebRTC connection information — Only available when WebRTC is selected as the Stream input type.
  • WebRTC Publish Page – The address of the Wowza Video hosted publish page for the WebRTC live stream. The publish page automatically applies the live stream settings and allows you to start streaming right away. Click the open icon to view the page. For more information, see Deliver WebRTC streams to viewers Wowza Video.
  • WebRTC Playback Page – The address of the Wowza Video hosted webpage for the playback of the WebRTC live stream. You can give the URL to viewers so they can watch your WebRTC live stream. This playback page is only available for WebRTC. Click the open icon to view the page.  For more information, see Deliver WebRTC streams to viewers Wowza Video.
• Connection – Details needed to configure your source connection vary depending on the video source you've chosen. You may see:
  • Source Connection Information – Connection details such as the Wowza Video primary server and host port, the stream name, and authentication information that you can use to manually configure and connect the video source to the live stream.
  • Connection Code – The Connection Code can be used to easily connect Wowza Streaming Engine, Wowza GoCoder, and some Works with Wowza partner video sources to Wowza Video. Each code can be used once and expires 24 hours after it's created. If the code is expired, click Generate.
  • Source URL – The web address of the file, IP camera, or pull-connected RTMP/RTSP device specified as the video source for the live stream.
  • Disable authentication —  
    • Username and password — The credentials you need to add to your encoder to access the stream in Wowza Video. Change or disable the user name and password on the Components tab by clicking Configure in the Transcoder section.
• Playback URLs – The address that can be used to configure playback of the stream using the HLS protocol.

Note: For push streams, the Stream Name in the Connection table and the stream name used in the HLS playback URL doesn't match. This is intentional and allows certain advanced custom transcoding workflows.

Stream Health tab

The Stream Health tab displays the Stream Health Monitor, which offers a graphical visualization of connection and transcoding data that can help you assess the health of the live stream. 

The Time period or session menu lists sessions by their start and time and show how long the stream ran. To and from fields appear once a streaming session has been selected. These allow you to narrow a session for a single stream down to a particular day. 

Notes:

• If no metrics appear for an active stream, refresh the browser page.
• You can only see sessions created within the last 90 days for a given stream. 

The Stream Health Monitor displays the following metrics about the stream:

• Inbound Bitrate – The actual rate of the stream traveling from the source encoder to Wowza Video in kilobits per second (Kbps). This may differ from the configured inbound bitrate.
• Frame Rate – The rate of the video, in frames per second, at the transcoder.
• Keyframe Interval – The number of video frames compressed in a group of pictures (GOP) between keyframes at the transcoder.

Metrics update every 10 seconds. Brief irregularities might not register or be tracked and visualized.

Settings tab

The Settings tab shows stream options that you can edit to change or further configure your stream. 

• Title — Used to identify the live event you're broadcasting in Wowza Video. Not to be confused with the Stream Name that you use to set up an RTMP connection. 
• Description — Description of the live stream. Typically, you'd describe the purpose of the stream or other stream related notes.
• Stream input type — The source for your live stream.
• Region — The geographic region where Wowza Video transcodes and processes your live stream. Can't be changed after the stream is created.
• Record this stream — Records the live stream and makes the video available in the Videos section of the user interface.
• Poster image — A poster image to appear in the player before the stream begins. To prevent distortion or cropping, make sure the image has the same resolution as the source video. Poster images must be GIF, JPEG, or PNG format and no larger than 2.5 MB.
• Watermark — If your use case requires it, you can embed a watermark image in your stream. The watermark is encoded into all bitrate renditions of a transcoded stream. Watermark images must be GIF, JPEG, or PNG format and no larger than 2.5 MB.
  
  After choosing the image, specify the corner of the video frame where the watermark should appear. To resize the image, enter a width and height Then, specify the opacity by entering a percentage between 0 (completely transparent) and 100 (opaque).

  Notes:

  • Watermarks aren't available for passthrough transcoders and don't appear on passthrough output renditions.
  • Watermarks aren't embedded in Wowza Video recordings.

• Closed Captions — Wowza Video can receive closed caption data with your source stream so that captions appear when the stream is played using the HDS and HLS protocols. Choose the type of caption your video source is sending to Wowza Video: CEA-608 (digital) AND OR Action Message Format (AMF) onTextData. To omit captions from playback, leave the closed captioning option set at None.

  Note: Wowza Video supports only the digital CEA-608 portion of the CEA-708 closed captioning standard. Closed captioning isn't supported for SRT ingest.

Schedules tab

The Schedules tab shows any schedules you configured when you created the stream, and let's you set up additional schedules.

• Add schedule — Add a new schedule.
• Name — A short, descriptive identifier for the schedule that differentiates it from other schedules.
• Schedule details
  • One-time start and stop — Enter the date and the start and stop time for the stream. 
  • One-time start or stop — Enter the date and either the start or the stop time for the stream. 
  • Recurring — After setting the date and time, click Schedule repeats and indicate which days of the week the schedule should recur and when the recurring schedule takes effect and ends.
    
    While you can only set up one schedule when you create your stream, you can create additional schedules after the stream is created by clicking Add schedule. 

Security tab

The Security tab lets you control who can see your stream playback with geo-blocking, IP address allow lists, and token authentication.

• Playback Security
  • Allow or block access to this stream based on location — Select Block or Allow then select the countries you want the setting to apply to. You can select multiple countries in the pull-down menu.
  • Allow or block access to this stream based on IP addresses — Select Block or Allow then enter the IP addresses you want the setting to apply to. 
• Token Authentication
  • Protect this stream with token authentication —Token authentication protects streams by ensuring that they are accessed only by viewers who have the token. You can use token authentication to make the stream playback URL unavailable after a certain length of time, to limit access to approved IP addresses, or apply other restrictions. Token authentication prevents playback URLs from being shared by unauthorized links or player hijacking attacks. Token authentication is disabled by default.
     

    Important: After you enable token auth, you have to generate your own query parameters to secure the stream and update your HLS playback URL to use them.

    • Enter a Shared Secret or click Generate. The trusted shared secret must contain only hexadecimal characters (the digits 0 through 9 and/or the letters a through f). The length of the secret must be an even number of characters between 2 and 32.
  • Only protect the multivariant file — Multivariant file is formerly known as the master playlist. Protects the multivariant playlist only and leaves individual media playlists and media segments unprotected. This feature enables playback compatibility with media players that don't support the withCredentials property. It may also be useful when addressing token auth compatibility issues with specific browsers. 
• Source Authentication 
  • Disable authentication — Source authentication is turned on by default. If you want the encoder or camera to push video without credentials, you can click this checkbox.
  • Change source username/password — Click and then enter new values for the username and password.
  • Source username —The username the source encoder or camera needs to pass to Wowza Video.
  • Source password — The password the source encoder or camera needs to pass to Wowza Video.

Components tab

The Components tab shows the advanced components of the stream, like the transcoder and stream targets, that you can further configure to fine tune your stream performance and delivery.

You should only make adjustments on this tab if you are familiar with the Transcoder workflow from previous versions of Wowza Video.

• Transcoder — Technical details of the stream. 
  • Configure — Opens the Configure transcoder dialog box. You can edit:
    • Transcoder setup
      • Extension — For push connections only, enter the optional Extension. Some encoders automatically append an extension to their stream names. If the device you're using does this, enter the extension as a period (.) followed by alphanumeric characters.
      • Buffer size — The incoming buffer stores packets before they're processed, enabling more efficient transcoding. An optimum buffer size reduces stream jittering and helps ensure successful transmuxing. Transmuxing is the process of converting to a different container format without changing the stream's content.
      • Turn off sort packet buffer — If you want to reduce the time it takes to decode and deliver video data to the player, you can turn off the sort packet buffer. This can have an impact to stream quality.
      • Disable the stream targets on the transcoder start — By default, stream targets start when the live stream (transcoder) starts. Selecting Disable the stream targets on the transcoder start, however, keeps all stream targets disabled (not broadcasting) when you start the live stream. If selected, you must manually start the targets when you're ready for viewers to see the broadcast at your stream targets. Currently, you can only start targets through the REST API.
      • Idle timeout — Stops live stream after no video has been received for the specified length of time. The default timeout is 1200 seconds, or 20 minutes, for pay-as-you-go transcoders and 0 seconds for 24x7 transcoders. When Idle timeout is set to 0, Wowza Video doesn't stop the transcoder.
    • Properties
      • Save recording and VOD stream to asset management system — Saves the stream as an MP4 and VOD stream you can use later. These objects are stored in the Videos section.
      • AES 128 Host — Specifies the URL that devices will use to fetch the key to decrypt the stream.
      • AES 128 Secret — Specifies a 16-byte key that will be used to decrypt the stream. The key must match the key returned by the AES128 Host
      • Play source file on a loop — Play the file continuously until you stop it.
      • Start source file at a specified time — Set a time and date to start streaming the source file.
      • Record specific output — Specifies which output rendition of a transcoder to record. Enter the output ID of a transcoder, which is available in the Outputs & Targets list. Recording must be enabled for the transcoder to use this property. If this property isn't enabled, Wowza Video records the incoming source stream from an encoder instead of a transcoded output rendition.
      • Record as an MP4 file — Set to True to create a recording of the incoming source stream. The recording starts when the transcoder starts and stops automatically when the transcoder stops. The default is False.
      • Set AV sync to rtptimecode — Specifies an alternate method for synchronizing the audio and video in the RTSP/RTP source stream. Set to True to specify that Wowza Video should use timecodes in the RTP stream packets to synchronize the audio and video. If set to False (the default), Wowza Video uses Sender Report (SR) packets in the stream for synchronization information.
      • Advanced Logging — Logs extra debug information about the RTSP handshake between Wowza Video and the RTSP/RTP source stream. Set to True to create advanced logs. The default, False, generates less-detailed logs.
      • RTP Timeout (milliseconds) — Specifies how long, in milliseconds, Wowza Video will wait for Sender Report (SR) packets in the RTSP/RTP source stream to arrive. SR packets provide timing information that enables the synchronization of audio and video in the stream. If SR packets don't arrive within the specified timeout period, Wowza Video uses the Set AV Sync to rtptimecode setting, if enabled, to synchronize the audio and video. Valid values range from 2000 (the default) to 30000.
      • RTP Depacketizer Sorter Buffer — Sets the size, in milliseconds, of the jitter buffer from the default value of 500. This time adds to the overall latency of the live stream. For use if RTP Depacketizer Wrapper is set to RTPDePacketizerWrapperPacketSorter.
      • RTP Depacketizer Sorter Flush — Sets the time, in milliseconds, from the default value of 10. This is the time when the buffer will be flushed. For use when RTP Depacketizer Wrapper is set to RTPDePacketizerWrapperPacketSorter.
      • RTP Depacketizer Wrapper — Enables the ability to set properties for the depacketizer. If set to RTPDePacketizerWrapperPacketSorter, this property enables the use of a jitter buffer. A jitter buffer is an area where packets can be collected and stored before being sent to the depacketizer at regularly spaced intervals to enable more even playback. This property should be enabled when setting values for RTP Depacketizer Sorter Buffer and RTP DepacketizerSorter Flush.  
      • Ignore Profile Level ID — Attempts to derive the H.264 profile level ID from the sprop parameter data sets in the stream's Session Description Protocol (SDP) message. The ID allows a decoder to recognize the requirements to decode the stream, but many RTSP sources, especially IP cameras, publish an incorrect ID in the SDP message. Set to True to tell Wowza Video to ignore the profile level ID in the sprop parameter data sets of the stream's SDP message when decoding the stream. The default, False, uses the ID in the decoding process.
      • Ignore SProp Parameter Sets — Attempts to derive the H.264 profile level ID from SPS/PPS NAL units in the stream, if they exist. If the stream's SDP message contains incorrect sprop parameter data sets, try setting this value to True to derive the H.264 profile level ID from the SPS/PPS NAL units in the stream, instead. The default, False, instructs Wowza Video to attempt to derive the H.264 profile ID from sprop parameter sets.

        Note: Streams from many sources won't work when sprop parameter sets are ignored (when this setting is enabled and the value is True).

      • Transport Mode — Specifies the transport mode used to pull an RTSP/RTP stream from an IP camera. By default, Wowza Video uses Interleave (RTP over TCP). You can change the transport mode to another protocol supported by your camera, such as UDP (TCP over UDP).
      • Filter Unknown Tracks — If True, removes unidentifiable tracks from the RSTP/RTP source stream. The default, False, leaves unidentifiable tracks in the stream.
      • Validation Frequency — Specifies, in milliseconds, how often Wowza Video validates the RTSP/RTP connection. Specify 0 to turn off validation. The default is 2000.
      • Create HLS VOD stream — Creates the VOD stream and generates a URL that you can use to configure playback in an HLS compatible player or device
      • Enable live to VOD — Replaces the live playlist with the VOD playlist after a stream ends. Use this property if you want your viewers to access the VOD stream using the same playback URL they used to view the original stream.
• Outputs and Targets — Wowza Video creates the outputs and stream targets needed for the live stream's adaptive bitrate ladder. While you can't add outputs or create new Fastly stream targets, you can add generic RTMP stream targets to existing outputs by clicking Add external service and providing the CDN information.