My setup is very similar, Gil. However, I'm using a Raspberry Pi with NGINX
media server software to catch my live stream. Instead of an external decoder
box, NGINX sends the stream to the onboard OMXPlayer for decoding the video out
of the HDMI port. The software also redirects the live stream to YouTube.
One of the reasons I brought up StreamLink is I've had some folks ask about how
to do live streaming. The method you and I utilize works great, but it does
require a station either have a static IP address or DNS service. Using a free
streaming service like YouTube and StreamLink might be a bit easier for station
owners who might not have quite as much technical expertise.
Also, I just ran into a situation last night where it would have been really
handy. I was streaming an away football game and while they had great internet
connectivity, the school was blocking a lot of web sites - including the web
address for my dynamic DNS site. I was able to stream directly to YouTube as
that was not blocked, but was unable to have the game live on my channel. Had
StreamLink been loaded on my Raspberry Pi I could have used it to grab the
stream from YouTube. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to make those
changes!!
And, yes, it would be interesting to see if StreamLink could send a YouTube
stream to MasterPlay. If not, that might be something they need to develop.
YouTube's quality is great and you can't beat free!!
In addition, stations might be able to use this to pick up a few live steams on
YouTube for additional programming - NASA's live channel, for example. It's
free to use and no copyright issues - and it could be an easy way for stations
to satisfy E/I requirements (run a few hours overnight or early morning). A
few government-owned news channels are live streaming on YouTube, like France
24 (English) and DW, and possible can be broadcast (Several broadcast stations
air France 24).
Jon C. Moon
Ridgeline TV Channel 99
706-897-0872
www.ridgelinetv.net <http://www.ridgelinetv.net/>
On Nov 20, 2020, at 9:52 AM, Gil Reynolds <gil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
We used to do something similar to this 10 years ago before Masterplay had
the capability to open up HLS, RTMP, RTMPS, or M3U8 files with an amino box
set to open an RTMP stream from a local media server. We would begin
streaming to the server and then just tell the amino box to reboot. it was
programmed to automatically connect to the stream upon startup. Then we
would just set our schedule to switch to the Amino input on the switcher at a
specific time.
We basically do the same thing now with our live broadcasts (football,
morning programs, LIVE parades, etc...) but with the Masterplay set to open
up a link from a local media server . We use Wowza now as it has the ability
to restream the stream that is sent to youtube and facebook at the same
time... but used to use Unreal Media Server which is free.
I remember in the past trying the same thing Jon but with another command
line program (I think it was youtube-dl) to grab the LIVE url to open with an
amino... It did work, but was very inconsistent and the stream would freeze
and the amino would stop playing the LIVE stream. I have not tried to open a
youtube link with youtube-dl with a Masterplay. I might try a test stream
with StreamLink and see if it will open up a live stream in Masterplay.
Anyone not streaming to youtube and wanting to only send it locally for a
live link back to the studio. You can use Unreal Media Server which is what
we used for years to stream to and had Masterplay open the stream. It's free
for up to 5 broadcast streams and is flawless after you get it setup. It
doesn't require a fast computer, I think we had it on a 5 year old dual core
pentium computer. http://umediaserver.net/umediaserver/download.html ;
<http://umediaserver.net/umediaserver/download.html>
Gil Reynolds
VP / Station Manager
Hometown Television:
XL7-TV (K07XL Mtn. Home)
K26-TV (K26GS Harrison)
Over the Air - Ch 26 | COX – Ch 843 | Suddenlink – Ch 22 | Ritter – Ch 22,
26.1-26.7 | Yelcot - Ch 70-75 | Natco - Ch 27-33
1226 Commerce Drive
Mountain, Home, AR 72653
Office: 870-424-6957
Cell 870-391-6060
HometownTV.net <http://www.hometowntv.net/>
On Wed, Nov 18, 2020 at 7:30 PM Jon C. Moon <jonmoon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:jonmoon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Recently there was some discussion here about how different stations are able
to send live feeds through the public internet to their stations, whether for
sports, news or special event programming.
Now, here's an idea that might be helpful:
There's a free little command line program called "StreamLink" which can be
used to receive live streams from a number of popular streaming services.
The program then "pipes" the stream data over to your default media player
for playout. In particular, the program works directly with live streams on
YouTube, which is great because live streaming on YouTube is pretty easy to
do and, best of all, is absolutely FREE!
While you could just use a typical computer and web browser to play out a
live You Tube feed, that can be problematic...some computers don't have HDMI
output, ads, notifications and popups can show up, etc.
Here's a potentially better (and probably cheaper) solution:
StreamLink will run on the Raspberry, Pi, a tiny, little credit card-sized
computer that costs about $40 and has excellent video decoding and output
through HDMI. After typing in the URL (web address) of the live stream, the
stream is sent to VLC player, where it can be automatically output fullscreen
through the Raspberry Pi's HDMI connector - no menu, controls, etc.
I've tried this method with a few of the live streams at YouTube - ABC News
and NASA, for example - and it worked really well. If you're familiar with
scripting, I imagine this probably could be automated to run at certain times.
Jon C. Moon
Ridgeline TV Channel 99
706-897-0872
www.ridgelinetv.net <http://www.ridgelinetv.net/>
