Get started with ApsaraVideo Live - ApsaraVideo Live - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center

When a host starts a live stream, viewers are notified and can join to watch. This topic simplifies the integration process to help you quickly build a live streaming application with ApsaraVideo Live.

Key concepts

Before you start, familiarize yourself with the key concepts of ApsaraVideo Live:

Before you begin

Before you begin, create an account and add funds as instructed. For more information, see Activate and purchase ApsaraVideo Live.

Prepare an account

If you do not have an Alibaba Cloud account, follow the on-screen instructions on the Registration page to create one. An Alibaba Cloud account, which is the paying entity for your cloud resources, is required for this tutorial.
This service supports two billing methods: pay-as-you-go and resource plan.
- For a quick trial, we recommend the pay-as-you-go billing method. If your test traffic does not exceed 10 GB, the estimated cost is about USD 0.42.
  Note
  This estimate does not include fees for domain registration, SSL certificates, or ICP filing. The final cost may vary based on factors such as the region and billing method. The prices displayed in the console and the final bill prevail.
- Before using this service, ensure your account has a sufficient balance.

Workflow overview

Add ingest and streaming domains: ApsaraVideo Live is a domain-based service. In this step, you will prepare your domains and configure them in the ApsaraVideo Live console.
Configure a CNAME record to enable live streaming acceleration: In this step, you bind your custom domain to an accelerated domain name assigned by Alibaba Cloud to enable the fast and stable ApsaraVideo Live service.
Associate ingest and streaming domains: Live streaming typically uses two separate domains. In this step, you will associate your ingest domain with your streaming domain.
Generate ingest and streaming URLs: In this step, you use the URL generator to create ingest and streaming URLs from your configured domains.
Ingest and play a stream: This step shows you how to ingest a stream with the ApsaraVideo Live demo app and play it with VLC media player.

Step 1: Add ingest and streaming domains

Before you can use ApsaraVideo Live, you need at least one domain name. The ingest domain and streaming domain cannot be the same, but they can be two different subdomains of the same root domain.

For example, if your root domain is test.com, you can configure two subdomains, a.test.com and b.test.com, to use as the ingest and streaming domains, respectively.

Prepare your domain names.
- If you do not have a domain name, you can register one on the Alibaba Cloud Domains platform. For more information, see Register a domain name on Alibaba Cloud.
- After registering a domain name, you may need to apply for an ICP filing depending on your usage. For more information, see ICP filing procedure.
  Note
  - To quickly test the basic features of ApsaraVideo Live, you can select a live center region outside the Chinese mainland and set the acceleration region to Outside Chinese Mainland. In this case, an ICP filing is not required for your domain name.
  - If the ingest domain and streaming domain are two subdomains of the same root domain, you only need to obtain an ICP filing for the root domain.
Log on to the ApsaraVideo Live console.
In the left navigation pane, click Domain Names. The Domain Management page appears.
Click Add Domain.
Note
To add a subdomain, add a prefix to your registered domain name. A subdomain does not need to be registered separately. Make sure to distinguish between the ingest domain and the streaming domain.

Configure the required domain name parameters.

Important

When you add a domain name to ApsaraVideo Live for the first time, you must verify its ownership. For more information, see Verify domain ownership.

Show parameters

Parameter	Value	Description
Domain Type	Streaming Domain Ingest Domain	The acceleration type for the domain name. An ingest domain accelerates stream ingest, while a streaming domain accelerates stream delivery. You cannot change this setting after you configure it. Note When you add an ingest domain, set Domain Type to Ingest Domain. When you add a streaming domain, set Domain Type to Streaming Domain. You cannot use the same domain name as both an ingest domain and a streaming domain.
Domain Name	N/A	Enter the domain name to accelerate. Note the following: Use a subdomain for the accelerated domain name, such as `demo.aliyundoc.com`. ApsaraVideo Live does not support wildcard domain names, such as `.aliyundoc.com`. An accelerated domain name must be unique. If you receive the message The specified domain already exists, verify that the domain name is not already used in another Alibaba Cloud service, such as ApsaraVideo VOD. After you activate ApsaraVideo Live, you can add up to 20 domain names per account. If the average daily peak bandwidth of your domain names exceeds 50 Mbps and your business is risk-free, you can submit a ticket to request a quota increase. For more information, see Contact Us. All accelerated content must comply with legal requirements and business standards. For details, see Domain name review standards. Note* The subdomain must belong to the same Alibaba Cloud account. ApsaraVideo Live checks this when you add the domain name. If the subdomain belongs to a different account, the system reports an error.
Acceleration Region	Chinese Mainland	Select Chinese Mainland for the ingest domain if your streamers are located in the Chinese Mainland. Select Chinese Mainland for the streaming domain if your viewers are located in the Chinese Mainland. The domain name requires an ICP filing. We recommend that you use the Alibaba Cloud ICP Filing system to apply for an ICP filing.
	Global	Select Global for the ingest domain if your streamers are located worldwide, including in the Chinese Mainland. Select Global for the streaming domain if your viewers are located worldwide, including in the Chinese Mainland. The domain name requires an ICP filing. We recommend that you use the Alibaba Cloud ICP Filing system to apply for an ICP filing.
	Outside Chinese Mainland	Select Outside Chinese Mainland for the ingest domain if your streamers are located outside the Chinese Mainland. Select Outside Chinese Mainland for the streaming domain if your viewers are located outside the Chinese Mainland. If you select Outside Chinese Mainland and the live center is also outside the Chinese Mainland, an ICP filing is not required for your domain name. If you select Outside Chinese Mainland but the live center is in the Chinese Mainland, an ICP filing is required for your domain name. We recommend that you use the Alibaba Cloud ICP Filing system to apply for an ICP filing. Note For more information about how to select an acceleration region, see How do I select an acceleration region for a domain name?.
Live Center	N/A	A live center provides cloud-based media processing services, such as snapshot capture, recording, transcoding, and production studio. The ingest domain and its associated streaming domain must use the same live center region. You cannot change this setting after it is configured. For more information about how to select a live center, see How do I select a live center?.

Record the generated CNAME record value for the next step.
After you add the domain, a configuration table appears. This table includes the streaming domain, record type (CNAME), hostname, and CNAME record value. You must add this CNAME record value at your DNS provider to enable CDN acceleration. You can also click CNAME Configuration Guide to complete the configuration.

Step 2: Configure a CNAME record

To enable acceleration, point your domain to the CNAME address assigned by ApsaraVideo Live. The following example shows how to do this with Alibaba Cloud DNS.

Note

Alibaba Cloud CDN validates DNS records by using servers deployed in the Chinese mainland. If you configure regional DNS resolution for your domain, for example, by only configuring the Alibaba Cloud CDN CNAME address for regions outside the Chinese mainland (including Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and other countries and regions), the validation servers cannot resolve the CNAME address. In this case, the CNAME status of the domain in the CDN console is displayed as Pending Configuration. This does not affect the CDN acceleration service.
The CNAME domain names for Alibaba Cloud CDN, DCDN, ApsaraVideo Live, and ApsaraVideo VOD can be used only for Alibaba Cloud CDN scheduling and resolution. Alibaba Cloud reserves the right to suspend the corresponding domain names and accounts for any malicious use of CNAME domain names.

Log on to Alibaba Cloud DNS.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Authoritative DNS Resolution to go to the domain name resolution page.
Find the target domain name and click Settings in the Actions column.

Click Add Record and configure the following parameters:

Parameter	Description
Record type	Select CNAME Record to point the domain name to another domain name.
Hostname	Enter the prefix of the domain name. For common prefixes and their corresponding example domain names, see the following table.
Query source	Keep the default value.
Record value	Enter the CNAME value for the record.
TTL	Keep the default value.

Prefix	Example domain	Description
demo	demo.aliyundoc.com	Resolve a subdomain.
@	aliyundoc.com	Resolve a root domain.
*	*.aliyundoc.com	Perform wildcard DNS resolution.

Click OK to complete the CNAME configuration.

Verify the CNAME record

Method 1: On the Add CNAME Record page, click CNAME Configuration Guide. In the CNAME Verification section, click Verify to check if the CNAME configuration has taken effect.
Method 2: Run the nslookup -type=cname yourdomain.com command. If the returned resolution result matches the CNAME value for the domain in the ApsaraVideo Live console, the CNAME configuration has taken effect.
```
C:\Users\xxx>nslookup -type=cname xxx
Server:  xxx
Address:  xxx
Non-authoritative answer:
xxx    canonical name = cxxx.cdngslb.com
C:\Users\xxx>
```

(Optional) Configure an SSL certificate

Due to the security requirements of native browsers, if you need to play live streams in a browser, you must configure an SSL certificate for the ingest and streaming domains. For more information, see Configure secure streaming over HTTPS.

Step 3: Associate the ingest and streaming domains

ApsaraVideo Live uses edge ingest, so you must associate the ingest and streaming domains to enable stream ingest and playback.

In the left-side navigation pane, click Domain Names. Find your streaming domain and click Domain Settings in the Actions column to go to the Streaming Management > Basic Settings page.
Click the Stream Ingest Information tab.
Click Add Stream Ingest Information or the edit icon next to Ingest Domain to select the ingest domain that you want to associate. In the Ingest Domain dialog box that appears, select an existing ingest domain from the Ingest Domain drop-down list and click OK. If you need to add a new ingest domain, you must first add it on the Domain Management page.

Step 4: Generate ingest and streaming URLs

Ingest and streaming URLs are domain-based URLs used to push and pull a live stream. Follow these steps to generate them in the console:

Log on to the ApsaraVideo Live console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Toolbox.

On the Live URL Generator tab, configure the parameters to obtain the ingest and streaming URLs. You can also scan the QR code to obtain the URLs. After you complete the configuration, click Generate URLs. In the Ingest URL section, the ingest URLs are displayed in RTMP (starts with rtmp://) and RTS (starts with artc://) formats. At the end of each row, you can click the copy button or scan the QR code to obtain the URL.

The following table describes the parameters. For more information, see URL Generators.

Parameter	Description
Streaming Domain	Select the streaming domain that you added in Step 1 from the Streaming Domain drop-down list.
Authentication	This parameter appears after you select a Streaming Domain. The default is Type A. Note This parameter is displayed if URL signing is configured for the ingest or streaming domain. To modify parameters such as the signing validity period, see URL signing. Type A is a signing mechanism that is based on a timestamp and signature.
Ingest Domain	For standard live streaming scenarios: If you have already associated the ingest and streaming domains in Step 3, this field is automatically populated with the associated ingest domain after you select a Streaming Domain. If you have not associated the ingest and streaming domains, you must do so first. For pull-only scenarios, you can skip this configuration and do not need to select an associated ingest domain.
AppName	Enter an AppName. This is a custom identifier used to differentiate between different live streaming applications or business scenarios.
StreamName	Enter a StreamName. This is a custom identifier used to uniquely identify a specific live stream.
Transcoding Template	Select a Transcoding Template that you have configured. If this parameter is left empty, the original stream quality is used by default. Note A transcoding template must be configured by using the transcoding feature. After you select a streaming domain and enter the AppName used in the transcoding configuration, the transcoding templates matching that AppName are loaded.

Click Generate URLs to get the ingest and streaming URLs. For examples and descriptions of the URLs, see Generate live streaming URLs.

Step 5: Ingest and play a stream

Note

If you encounter issues during stream ingest or playback, you can use the self-service troubleshooting tool to perform diagnostics. This tool can quickly diagnose common live streaming issues and provide solutions. For more information, see Troubleshooting.

Ingest a stream

Stream ingest is the process of pushing encapsulated audio and video from the capture stage to the ApsaraVideo Live center. This example shows how to ingest a stream using the ApsaraVideo Live demo app.

Scan the QR code on your mobile device to install the ApsaraVideo Live demo app.

Note
If you see an "Untrusted Enterprise Developer" message on your iOS device, go to Settings > General > VPN & Device Management, find the Taobao profile, and tap Trust.
Run the ApsaraVideo Live demo app.
Choose Camera Pushing or Screen Sharing. The main interface provides three options: Camera Pushing, Screen Sharing, and Live Playback. Camera Pushing and Screen Sharing are the ingest options.
Note
When ingesting local video from a mobile device, only the original YUV format of the video image is supported.
Scan the QR code of the signed ingest URL from Step 4 to populate the URL field, or enter the URL manually. On the Ingest Parameters tab, set the Resolution (for example, 540p), enable Adaptive Bitrate and Adaptive Resolution as needed, or expand Advanced Settings for more options. For example, the URL could be rtmp://demo.aliyundoc.com/app/stream?auth_key=**********-0-0-9c6e7c8190c10bdfb3c0************.
Click Ingest to begin ingesting from your mobile device.
Go to Stream Management and view and manage the pushed audio and video streams on the Active Streams tab.

Note

For other ingest methods, see Live stream ingest.

Play a live stream

Live stream playback is the process of distributing content from the ApsaraVideo Live center to a player. This example shows how to play a stream with VLC media player.

Download and install VLC media player. Download link: VLC media player.
Run VLC media player.
In the menu bar, choose Media > Open Network Stream...
On the Network tab, enter a streaming URL. Example: rtmp://example.aliyundoc.com/app/stream?auth_key=1543300311-0-0-d47ce016332bf280cf275********.
Click Play.

Note

The ingest client must maintain the stream during live playback. Otherwise, playback will fail.
For other playback methods, see Live stream playback.

References

To learn more about ApsaraVideo Live features, see the Developer Guide Overview.
For more information about other DNS providers and their operations, see Configure a CNAME record for a domain name.
To verify whether a CNAME record has taken effect, use the Domain Name Diagnostic Tool.
For more ways to generate live streaming URLs, see Generate live streaming URLs.

FAQ

For questions about configuring domain names, see FAQ about domain name management.
For questions about live centers and stream stuttering, see FAQ about basic live streaming services.
For questions about URL signing, see FAQ about URL signing.
For information about the streaming protocols supported by ApsaraVideo Live, see Which streaming protocols does ApsaraVideo Live support?.
For questions about live streaming billing, see FAQ about billing.