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.

Info

Real-Time Streaming at Scale is available only through the 1.7 version of the Wowza Video REST API or later.

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

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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.
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{
  "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.
Javascript SDK for Real-Time Streaming

JavaScript SDK for Real-Time Streaming

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

Info

You can also use NPM to build your publication and viewer pages. See the Javascript SDK reference for more information.

Use the publisher page sample code, making sure to:

  • Set 'my-stream-name' to the stream_name generated by Wowza for your real-time stream, for example:
    8d304b93f1684320a54f2798666eeca7
  • Set 'my-publish-token' to the token generated by Wowza for your real-time stream, for example: 97e52731bc21ef66e4c05a8ee1e28b64bf5f9db728573d94e690277cea9215bc
  • See the Javascript SDK reference for additional configuration options.
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<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>
OBS - Wowza WebRTC

OBS – Wowza WebRTC

  1. Install OBS for Real-Time Streaming at Scale for your operating system.

    Debian/Ubuntu:
    https://www.wowza.com/downloads/wowza-obs/wowza-obs-1.4.2-28.1.2-m104-Linux-2004.deb
    Debian/Ubuntu:
    https://www.wowza.com/downloads/wowza-obs/wowza-obs-1.4.2-28.1.2-m104-Linux-2204.deb

    Info

    If you see the following error when you install, the installation likely still succeeded: N: Download is performed unsandboxed as root as file '/home/user/wowza-obs-1.4.2-28.1.2-m104-Linux-2204.deb' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)

    Windows:
    https://www.wowza.com/downloads/wowza-obs/wowza-obs-x64-1.4.2-28.1.2-m104.msi
    Mac:
    https://www.wowza.com/downloads/wowza-obs/Wowza-OBS-Real-Time-1.4.2-28.1.2-m104-macos-arm64.dmg
    Mac:
    https://www.wowza.com/downloads/wowza-obs/Wowza-OBS-Real-Time-1.4.2-28.1.2-m104-macos-x86_64.dmg

  2. Click Settings , click Stream , and select Wowza WebRTC as the Service .
  3. Enter the Stream Name and Publishing Token provided by Wowza Video.
  4. Switch to the Output tab, click Enable Custom Encoder Settings (Advanced) and enter bframes=0 in the Custom Encoder Setting field.
  5. Click OK .
RTMP

RTMP

Use the rtmp_url from the live stream response to configure your RTMP encoder. You'll need to refer to documentation for your specific encoder to determine where to input the rtmp_url settings.

Info

Be sure you have the latest firmware installed for your encoder.

Common stream settings for encoders include:

  • [primary_server] is the ingest location of the server, such as rtmp://rtmp-realtime1.wowza.com:1935/v2/pub/
  • [host_port] is the port (by default 1935 )
  • Stream key is the stream_name value, such as 6c6f5e28cfaa4467b16b47716199847c?token=70gee2f5f208615428acb633c2485d8595c90f98e677e11c55ae2c7fd71ecea2

Other encoders might use different names in their user interface, like Address instead of URL and Stream instead of Stream key. Make sure to refer to your encoder's documentation to determine the correct locations.

Info

This topic uses the push delivery method. If you use the pull delivery method, configure the source by determining and providing the source_url value when creating the stream. The source_url must be an RTMP URL with a publicly accessible hostname or IP address.

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
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<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

More resources