ApsaraVideo Live supports multiple approaches for stream ingest and playback with Real-Time Streaming (RTS). Choose the one that fits your use case, technical stack, and audience.
Overview
RTS minimizes live streaming latency. It supports four approaches for stream ingest and playback:
Native RTS: embed RTS stream ingest and playback directly into iOS or Android apps using the SDK.
Web RTS: add RTS stream ingest and playback to a web page using HTML5 and JavaScript — no app installation required.
Open Broadcaster Software (OBS): push RTS streams from OBS without writing any code.
RTMP ingest + ARTC playback: ingest the stream over RTMP with FFmpeg and play it back over ARTC on platforms that have no native RTS SDK, such as Ubuntu.
Native RTS
Integrate the RTS SDK into your iOS or Android app to give users full stream ingest and playback capabilities on mobile.
Strengths:
High performance: low-level APIs deliver high efficiency and low latency.
Flexible customization: fine-tune parameters and logic to meet specific requirements.
Scenarios
Best for latency-sensitive applications with high streaming performance requirements — such as international sports broadcasts or premium online education platforms.
This approach suits engineering teams with the resources to develop and maintain separate iOS and Android codebases.
Web RTS
Add RTS stream ingest and playback to any web page using HTML5 and JavaScript. Users can stream and watch in a mainstream browser without installing additional software.
Strengths
Cross-platform compatibility: works on any device with a mainstream browser — no app download needed.
Zero-friction updates: deploy changes server-side and they take effect immediately for all users, with no client-side update required.
Scenarios
A strong fit for teams that want to ship RTS quickly across diverse devices and platforms, or validate market demand before committing to a native app.
OBS
OBS is an open-source tool for video recording and live streaming. It supports RTS through built-in support or plug-ins — no custom development required.
Strengths
Easy to set up: an intuitive interface and rich built-in features get you streaming quickly.
Extensible: a large community and extensive plug-in ecosystem let you add capabilities as your needs grow.
Cross-platform: runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Scenarios
Suited for individual content creators, small teams, and streamers who need flexible live production tools without writing code.
RTMP ingest + ARTC playback for platforms without an SDK
If your platform, such as Ubuntu, has no native RTS SDK, use FFmpeg to ingest the stream over RTMP and play it back over ARTC for low-latency live streaming.
Stream ingest
Run the following command to ingest the stream to your ingest domain. The video codec is H.264 and the audio codec is AAC.
ffmpeg -re -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -f flv rtmp://<ingest domain>/AppName/StreamNamePlayback
On the playback side, use the ARTC playback URL: artc://<streaming domain>/AppName/StreamName.
The audio codec must be AAC. During web playback, the system automatically transcodes AAC to Opus to ensure playback compatibility.
Scenarios
This approach uses the RTS sub-second latency mode, with end-to-end latency of 400 ms to 800 ms, and is forward-compatible with standard live streaming. A good fit for platforms that need low-latency live streaming but have no native RTS SDK.