Deliver real-time streams with the Wowza Video REST API

Wowza Video™ Real-Time Streaming at Scale provides half-second latency to all your viewers, no matter where they are. Real-time streaming is perfect for interactive use cases like video chats, auctions, e-sports, fitness, e-commerce, gambling, and more.

If your audience is fewer than 300 viewers or you want to stream in near real-time alongside other delivery protocols, you may choose to use our standard WebRTC solution.

Streaming using Real-Time Streaming at Scale requires that you provision the stream. The stream can be supplied from Wowza Video using the UI or API. This article has instructions on how to use the Wowza Video UI to create a Real-Time stream.

We have three options for configuring your streaming publish and playback clients: the Javascript SDK for Real-Time Streaming, OBS fo Real-Time Streaming at Scale, and RTMP. You need to create and host a viewer page using HMTL and Javascript to use Real-Time Streaming at Scale with any configuration.

You must use the Javascript SDK to stream playback.

Before you start

You should be familiar with the following concepts:

• API authentication methods . We use JSON web tokens for API authentication. See Authentication for more information.
• Environment variables . We use environment variables for the API version ${WV_VERSION} and your JWT ${WV_JWT} in the cURL API request examples in this topic to make it easier for you to copy, paste, and run commands in your Terminal or Command Prompt window. If you don't set environment variables for these values, you'll need to manually enter the correct values in the code samples throughout this tutorial. See Tools for testing the API for instructions.
• Real-time streaming workflows . See About real-time streaming for more information.
• HTML and Javascript .

You should have access to the following items:

• A RTS@S license . Contact us for more information. To enable and purchase capacity for Real-Time Streaming at Scale for your account and access the /real_time operations, schedule a call .

1. Create a real-time stream

Create a real-time stream by sending a POST request to the /real_time endpoint.

You can use the following sample request, making sure to:

• Set name to a descriptive name for your real-time stream.
• Set enable_secure_viewer to true and set an expires_on date if you would like to add a security token that must be passed by viewers for playback.
• Change any values unique to your broadcast, using the API reference documentation as a resource. See the Endpoint Reference button below for a full list of options. Some examples:
  • You might set recording to true so you'll have an MP4 of the stream you can download later. See Record a real-time stream with the Wowza Video REST API for more information.
  • If your broadcast location is closest to Europe, Middle East, or Africa, set region to amsterdam for the best stream performance possible. The default is phoenix .
  • If your broadcast location is closest to East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, or Oceania, set region to singapore or bangalore . The default is phoenix .
• See the Javascript SDK reference for additional configuration options.

Sample request

Endpoint Reference

curl -X POST \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ${WV_JWT}" \
-d '{
   "real_time_stream": {
     "name": "MyRealTimeStream",
     "enable_secure_viewer": false
   }
}' "${WV_HOST}/api/${WV_VERSION}/real_time"

Sample response

The response includes:

• An ID that you can use to perform other actions on the stream, like getting the details or deleting it. This is also used to configure the viewer page.
• The stream_name generated by Wowza Video. This is used to configure the viewer page.

{
  "real_time_stream": {
    "id": "2adffc17",
    "name": "MyRealTimeStream",
    "stream_name": "8d304b93f1684320a54f2798666eeca7",
    "token": "97e52731bc21ef66e4c05a8ee1e28b64bf5f9db728573d94e690277cea9215bc",
    "subscribe_token": "50e161bfa42fbd581a0dfe5f632596b86c2c577a56bd439b38f8c904aabad04d",
    "rtmp_url": "rtmp://[primary_server]:[host_port]/[sub-domain]/[stream_name]?[token]",
    "enable_secure_viewer": true,
    "state": "active",
    "recording": false,
    "disable_vod_encoder": false,
    "created_at": "2021-06-30T18:02:20.00Z",
    "updated_at": "2021-06-30T20:03:16.00Z",
    "region": "phoenix"
  }
}

Wowza Video creates a real-time stream and provides a token property for publishing security, a subscribe_token property for viewing security, and stream_name you will need to configure your source.

2. Configure your video source

Now that you have created your stream, you have three options for configuring input to your real-time stream:

• Javascript SDK for Real-Time streaming – Embeds your browser-based capture into a web page.
• OBS for Real-Time Streaming at Scale – Wowza WebRTC – Gives you the flexibility to use multiple inputs, transitions, and other production tools traditionally provided by OBS.
• RTMP – Supports all professional devices. This protocol is not optimized for low latency, so it is likely to increase the streaming delay by approximately 1 second.

<html>
  <head>
    <script src='https://www.wowza.com/downloads/rts-sdk/wowza.umd.js'></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div>
        <h1>Publish</h1>

        <video autoplay playsinline controls muted id="my-video" width="1280" height="720"></video>

        <script>
            const wowza = window.wowza
            const streamID = 'my-stream-name'
            const tokenID = 'my-publish-token'

            //Define callback for generate new tokens
            const tokenGenerator = () => wowza.Director.getPublisher({
                token: tokenID,
                streamName: streamID
              })

            //Create a new instance
            const wowzaPublish = new wowza.Publish(streamID, tokenGenerator)

            //Get User camera and microphone
            navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia({ audio: true, video: true }).then(
                (mediaStream) => {
                    //Publishing Options
                    const broadcastOptions = {
                        mediaStream
                    }

                    document.getElementById('my-video').srcObject = mediaStream

                    //Start broadcast
                    try {
                        wowzaPublish.connect(broadcastOptions)
                    } catch (e) {
                        console.log('Connection failed, handle error', e)
                    }
                }
            )

        </script>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

3. Configure your viewer page

The Javascript SDK lets you build your own custom viewer page. We provide sample code below to get you started.

Use this viewer page sample code, making sure to:

• Set 'my-stream-name' to the stream_name for the stream, for example: 11ad1f62a39a4287895d13ac28c0a820

<html>
  <head>
        <script src='https://www.wowza.com/downloads/rts-sdk/wowza.umd.js'></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <video controls autoplay id="my-video"></video>

    <script>
        const wowza = window.wowza

        // Get Media Element
        const video = document.getElementById('my-video')

        const streamName = "my-stream-name"

        //Define callback for generate new token
        const tokenGenerator = () => wowza.Director.getSubscriber({
            streamName: streamName, subscriberToken: tokenId
        })

        //Create a new instance
        const wowzaView = new wowza.View(streamName, tokenGenerator, video)

        //Start connection to publisher
        try {
            wowzaView.connect()
        } catch (e) {

            console.log('Connection failed, handle error', e)
        }
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

4. Test the connection

1. Start your video source from the publisher page, OBS, or the encoder.
2. Open the file that contains the viewer page code in a web browser to confirm the stream is running.

Related API requests

• GET/real_time — View all real-time streams for an account.
• GET/real_time/ID — View the details of a real-time stream.
• PATCH/real_time/ID — Update a real-time stream.
• DELETE/real_time/ID — Delete a real-time stream.

More resources

• Record a real-time stream with the Wowza Video REST API