What is the relationship between edge ingest and live centers?
ApsaraVideo Live provides server-side services for live stream ingest, distribution, and real-time processing. The ingest and distribution network uses an edge ingest solution. Upstream ingest connects to the nearest and most optimal node based on the streamer's location.
Live centers are deployed in nine countries and regions: Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, and Germany. Live centers provide real-time streaming media services. These services include recording, snapshotting, transcoding, time shifting, video AI, and production studio. Before you start a live stream, you must configure and attach an ingest domain and a streaming domain. When you create the ingest and streaming domains, you select a live center for the domains. This live center is the region used for real-time streaming media processing. It is independent of the stream ingest and distribution locations.
How to choose a live center
If your streamers and viewers are both in the Chinese mainland and you do not need media processing services such as snapshotting, recording, or production studio:
It does not matter which region in the Chinese mainland you select when you add a domain name. For example, you do not have to select the Beijing region even if most of your streamers are in Beijing. If you select the Shanghai region for your domain name, a streamer in Beijing will still connect to an ingest node in Beijing. Distribution nodes are scheduled based on your viewers' locations. This is independent of the region where the live center is located.
If your business requires real-time media processing services such as snapshotting, recording, or production studio:
These services involve storing images and videos. The Object Storage Service (OSS) bucket for video storage must be in the same region as the live center. This prevents cross-region network issues that can affect the timeliness and stability of real-time processing. Therefore, if your storage is already in a specific region, select the live center in the same region.
If your streamers and viewers are both outside China:
Select a live center that is close to your streamers. This pushes the video stream to a nearby live center.
Edge ingest
Alibaba Cloud has acceleration nodes in major countries worldwide. Use edge ingest to push the video stream to the nearest edge node. The stream is then transmitted to the live center over Alibaba Cloud's optimized network.
Real-time monitoring of network status
To monitor the streamer's network status in real time, log on to the ApsaraVideo Live console. In the navigation pane on the left, choose . Click Stream Monitoring to view the real-time ingest status and check the streamer's network status. This helps ensure ingest stability. For more information, see Manage live streams.
You can also use an API to retrieve the real-time frame rate and bitrate. For more information, see Query the frame rate and bitrate of a stream in an ingest domain.
How to choose an acceleration region for a domain name
When you create a domain name, select an Acceleration Region type. The acceleration region can be the Chinese mainland only, or regions outside the Chinese mainland. Global Accelerator accelerates traffic within the Chinese mainland and within regions outside the Chinese mainland separately. It does not accelerate traffic between the Chinese mainland and other regions.
If your streamers and viewers are both in the Chinese mainland, select a live center in the Chinese mainland and set the acceleration region to Chinese mainland when you create the ingest and streaming domains.
If your streamers and viewers are both in regions outside the Chinese mainland, such as Singapore, select the Singapore live center for both the ingest and streaming domains. Set the acceleration region to Regions outside the Chinese mainland.
Select the live center closest to your streamers and viewers. If your region does not have a corresponding live center and you need advice on which center to choose, submit a ticket. For more information about how to submit a ticket, see Contact us.
If your streamers and viewers are in different regions, such as some in the Chinese mainland and some outside, set the Acceleration Region for the streaming domain to Global, which includes the Chinese mainland and other regions, or Outside Chinese Mainland, which does not include the Chinese mainland.
NoteUnit prices of Alibaba Cloud CDN bandwidth and traffic for live streaming vary based on the acceleration region. CDN acceleration is supported only when users make playback requests in a specific acceleration region and bills are generated based on the unit prices for the acceleration region. If you set this parameter to Global and only users in the Chinese mainland make playback requests, fees for content delivery outside the Chinese mainland are not generated. For more information about the billing rules, see Billing of standard streaming and the ApsaraVideo Live pricing.
Scenarios for selecting a live center
Streamer location | Viewer location | Live center and streaming domain acceleration configuration | Description |
The Chinese mainland | The Chinese mainland |
| None |
The Chinese mainland | Regions outside the Chinese mainland |
| Streamers are in the Chinese mainland, but viewers are in regions outside the Chinese mainland. |
The Chinese mainland | Singapore | Option 1:
Option 2:
| This meets the requirements for cross-border live streaming to China. The lines between Singapore and the Chinese mainland support bidirectional configuration. You can use a live center in either Singapore or the Chinese mainland to support scenarios where streamers are in the Chinese mainland and most viewers are in Singapore. |
Singapore | The Chinese mainland | Option 1:
Option 2:
| This meets the requirements for cross-border live streaming to China. The lines between Singapore and the Chinese mainland support bidirectional configuration. You can use a live center in either Singapore or the Chinese mainland to support scenarios where streamers are in Singapore and most viewers are in the Chinese mainland. To serve a small number of viewers outside the Chinese mainland, you can select Global for the streaming domain. |
The Chinese mainland | The Chinese mainland + Regions outside the Chinese mainland |
| Streamers are in the Chinese mainland, and viewers are in both the Chinese mainland and regions outside the Chinese mainland. |
Regions outside the Chinese mainland | Regions outside the Chinese mainland |
| None |
Regions outside the Chinese mainland | The Chinese mainland |
| Streamers are outside the Chinese mainland, and viewers are in the Chinese mainland. Select Global for the streaming domain to serve a small number of viewers outside the Chinese mainland. |
Why does playback stuttering occur?
Playback stuttering is often caused by ingest stuttering. The main causes of ingest stuttering are listed below. If ingest stuttering occurs, investigate the following potential causes.
Capture device configuration
Stream ingest consumes CPU resources. On low-end mobile phones with poor hardware configurations, if the overall CPU utilization exceeds 80% during ingest, video artifacts and stuttering can occur. This affects video capture and the viewing experience.
Video capture parameter settings
To ensure smooth video for the human eye, the video frame rate must be at least 15 frames per second (fps). If the frame rate drops below 10 fps, the video will stutter noticeably. Unless you have special requirements, set the video frame rate to 15 fps or higher.
A higher frame rate results in smoother video. However, the human eye cannot perceive improvements in smoothness for frame rates above 30 fps. A higher frame rate also increases bandwidth costs for video transmission. Set the video parameters to appropriate values.
Network bandwidth
Most stuttering issues are caused by network factors. The following are common causes:
Network bandwidth size: Confirm that the bandwidth provided by your carrier is sufficient for the live stream.
Downstream bandwidth usage: Check if data downloads are consuming network bandwidth.
System resource usage: Check if many programs are running in the background. Close unnecessary programs to free up resources.