ApsaraVideo Live:Overview

Benefit

Description

Low latency

A production studio can reduce the latency of video switching to a minimum of 600 milliseconds based on the optimization of multi-link and multi-phase latency. This allows you to switch among videos almost instantly.

Low costs

The cloud-based end-to-end processing architecture eliminates the need for you to purchase hardware or install software. You can use a production studio anytime, anywhere on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Support for multiple content types

A production studio allows you to load videos from live streams or media files along with images, documents, and web pages. You can mix videos from up to 12 sources at the same time.

Robust cloud infrastructure

A production studio leverages the cloud infrastructure of Alibaba Cloud to incorporate capabilities such as AI-powered video recognition, translation, and live interaction.

Flexibility and ease of use

The production studio feature is available to you in multiple forms. You can directly configure and manage production studios in the console, or you can build your own cloud production projects by calling API operations or using the SDK, without the need for any development.

Elasticity

You can purchase or release production studio instances based on your business requirements.

Feature

Description

Switching among live streams and media files

You can add videos from up to 12 sources and switch between the videos almost instantly.

PVW and PGM modes

You can quickly switch between the preview (PVW) and program (PGM) modes.

Custom layouts

You can create a custom layout to mix live streams in landscape or portrait mode.

Standby resources and stream delay

You can play warm-up videos before live streaming or display standby resources in case of emergencies. You can also delay the playback of live streams for up to 5 minutes.

Audio mixer

You can adjust the volume of output audio, adjust audio gain, and enable or disable audio follows video (AFV) for multiple sources.

Component overlay

You can overlay image, text, and subtitle components to insert watermarks, logo images, banner text, and real-time subtitles into live streams.

Real-time subtitles

A production studio integrates the speech recognition technology to automatically generate bilingual subtitles for live streams in real time.

Automatic cloud-based recording

The output live streams are automatically recorded as video files in multiple formats.

Wide range of definitions

You can choose from a wide range of definitions to accommodate various screen sizes across different devices.

Production studio in playlist mode

You can use a production studio in playlist mode to create live rooms for carousel playback of multiple video programs. This can significantly enhance user experience with diversified content. You can add, remove, modify, and query episodes in an episode list and modify episode content. You can perform the following operations to manage the video programs in a flexible, efficient, and easy manner:

• Create an episode list to start live streaming.

• Add up to 1,000 episodes to an episode list.

• Live stream multiple episode lists in multiple live rooms at the same time.

• Play an episode list in loop mode or only once.

• Replace an episode or change the playback order of an episode list during playback.

• Stop playing an episode list.

• Delete an episode list.

• Revise an episode list.

• Overhaul an episode list.

Category

Feature

Specification

Input content

Live streams

You can pull a live stream from a live center or directly enter a streaming URL.

• The stream is ingested over HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), Real-Time Streaming (RTS), Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), or HTTP-FLV.

• Push SDKs for iOS, Android, and Web and the corresponding demos are provided.

• Use of common third-party stream ingest software such as Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), XSplit, and Flash Media Live Encoder (FMLE) is supported.

Media files

The following video formats are supported:

• 3GP, ASF, AVI, DAT, DV, FLV, F4V, GIF, M2T, and M3U8

• M4V, MJ2, MJPEG, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPE, MPG, and MPEG

• MTS, OGG, QT, RM, RMVB, SWF, TS, VOB, WMV, and WEBM

Output content

Live streams

The following protocols are supported:

• RTMP

• HLS

• HTTP-FLV

• Alibaba Real-Time Communication (ARTC)

Live stream recordings

You can specify the recording length. The following recording formats are supported:

• FLV

• MP4

• M3U8

Media processing

Video layouts

You can create a custom multi-pane layout and add live streams or media files to the panes.

Live stream switching

You can switch among live streams.

Media file switching

You can switch among media files.

Component overlay

You can overlay text watermarks and image watermarks on videos.

Multi-view merging

You can merge multiple input streams from different viewpoints into a multi-view stream.

Cloud production

PVW and PGM modes

You can create a custom multi-pane layout and add live streams or media files to the panes.

Standby resources

You can prepare a standby resource to which you can switch in the event of a problem during live streaming. Only media files can be used as standby resources.

Stream relay

You can relay a live stream to third-party platforms to facilitate content distribution.

Stream delay

You can delay the playback of a live stream.