Your first broadcast

1. Create a stream

In the console, choose New stream, give it a title and pick a quality: 1080p for almost everything, 4K when your camera and connection can carry it. Through the API it is one call — see Book a stream.

A stream can start now or at a time you book. Billing starts at the booked time whether or not your encoder is connected, so book the time you will actually be live. If no video arrives for 15 minutes, the stream is ended for you and billed those 15 minutes.

2. Point your encoder at it

The stream shows a server and a stream key, for an encrypted (RTMPS) connection. Copy both into your encoder — OBS Studio step by step, or any other encoder. The stream key is a password for your broadcast: don’t share it.

Your encoder can connect up to an hour before a booked start, to check the picture. Nothing is billed or shown to viewers until the start.

3. Go live

Start streaming in your encoder, then start the stream in the console (or let a booked stream start itself). It goes live — encoded three times and playing for viewers — once its video arrives:

• A booked stream gets ready in the five minutes before its start time, so it is live within seconds of the start.
• A stream started on the spot takes up to about a minute after its video arrives, while it gets ready.

4. Share it

Embed the player on your website, or share the stream’s watch page. Viewers can turn on captions and chat while they watch.

5. End it

End the stream in the console. Billing stops at that moment, rounded up to the minute. The recording is ready to download a few minutes later and kept for 30 days.