Wowza Community

"Keep Alive" Streams (Cube -> Wowza -> vMix)

Hi Forum, for an event with:

  • several cameras with Cubes

  • desire to use the Cube’s control button to quickly start / stop streaming

  • no LAN availability - only WAN via 4G/LTE

  • cost sensitivity, especially for cell network usage :wink:

I’d like to stream from the cubes to Wowza via RTMP, then have vMix ingest the RTMP feed(s) from Wowza for assembly to a finished telecast to be served via Wowza and/or a commercial CDN.

I actually have it very close to working - my main problem is that when I stop and start the streaming on the cube, vMix ‘kills off’ the input - black screen with ‘Connection error’. I can get it back, but only by closing and re-creating the input in vMix - not something I look forward to doing once or twice per minute…

Obvious solution #1: Contact vMix and ask them how to configure automatic recovery of RTMP input sources that frequently start and stop - in process.

Less-obvious Solution #2: Is there a way to configure a Wowza live application to present a constant “Keep Alive” stream - black screen when there’s nothing from the Cube to ingest, and actual content when there is? Basically, a constant and predictable virtual feed that’s always on, presenting a ‘stub’ of sorts when necessary in lieu of actual incoming content? It’d probably be necessary to define in advance some key stream characteristics, like size, frame rate, maybe bit rate, encoder, etc, and there’d have to be an error thrown if the actual source (Cube) streams something incompatable, but that should be easy enough to avoid through careful configuration of the Cube(s).

Why all the starting and stopping you ask? Basically, each camera is only relevant about a quarter of the time, but each cycle (rowing race in this case) is only about 5 minutes, so ability to keep the cameras off for a few minutes, with rapid and reliable response throughout the workflow, is key to saving data $$$ while not missing any action.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts - I’ve looked at configurations that tie either vMix or Wirecast direct to the Cube(s), but there’s some big cost concerns there, and (adding to injury) it all depends on LAN connectivity - I’d basically have to build a VPN over 4G - and even then there’s still issues with using the Cube(s) start / stop button - it’s basically only functional for ‘push’ protocols like RTMP.

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

David McBride

Hello David, I think you would be able to keep the streams “alive” with this module:

How to loop a pre-roll until a live stream starts

Salvadore

Hi Dave, I have been researching this a little further, you can pre-start your streams with the loop until live module, and then you can get finer control over the set up with this:

How to dynamically control Stream class streams

Salvadore

Hello David, I think you would be able to keep the streams “alive” with this module:

How to loop a pre-roll until a live stream starts

Salvadore

That looks like the right track - any idea if it’s only for ‘start up’, or handles breaks in streaming as well?

Thanks very much Salvadore!