Flussonic Media Server is able to rebroadcast streaming video with multiplexing. That is, a copy of data is taken from the source and delivered to all users who requested this video.

Flussonic Media Server works with three types of streams:

• static — permanently kept running.
• live — user-published.
• ondemand — requested on demand.

Content:

• Static streams
• On-demand streams
• Stream playback
• Stream screenshots
• Substituting stream with a file
• Wildcards
• Recording video stream (DVR)
• Time zone adjustment (Timeshift)
• Stream delivery over UDP multicast
• Stream settings for IP surveillance cameras
• Turning on audio-only HLS
• Capturing stream from another Flussonic Media Server
• DRM in live
• Stream or group settings

Static streams

Static streams are launched upon server start, and Flussonic monitors them continuously.

If for some reason (transcoder went off, antenna broke down) the data source disconnects, Flussonic Media Server will keep trying то reconnect until success or shutdown.

Usually, an IPTV channel or IP camera are declared as a static stream.

Flussonic Media Server supports many types of data sources, which must be pointed at with URLs.

Example of a configuration of /etc/flussonic/flussonic.conf file:

stream ort {
  url tshttp://10.0.4.5:9000/stream;
}
stream ipcam {
  url rtsp://192.168.0.100/channel/101;
}

In this config:

• ort and ipcam are names of stream that must be used when requesting Flussonic Media Server.
• tshttp://10.0.4.5:9000/stream and rtsp://192.168.0.100/channel/101 are the data source's URL.

Important! The name of a stream may contain only Latin characters, digits, periods (.), and minus (-) and underscore (_) characters. If the name contains anything else, correct functioning of the DVR and broadcasting in general cannot be guaranteed.

In order to add a stream via the web interface, open the Media tab:

Press add static stream

enter the name of the stream and the data source's URL. Then press Save and you will be redirected to a stream settings page where you can check ingest status:

On-demand streams

If a stream is not needed all the time but only upon user's request, it is possible to tell Flussonic Media Server to turn it off when it is not being used and turn back on on demand.

Important! If the protocol used for communication between the data source and the repeater is RTMP, RTSP or HTTP MPEG-TS, getting HDS or HLS from the repeater will not be possible due to the fact that these protocols only work with 10-30 seconds long buffering.

The player will not start playback until this buffer is ready, so the user who appears first will just have to stand and wait until then. The only kind of data source that doesn't have this problem is another Flussonic server with HLS protocol.

Flussonic Media Server uses its own extensions that allow for immediate playback on iPhone.

To specify this kind of stream, simply change stream to ondemand:

ondemand ipcam {
  url rtsp://192.168.0.1/channel/101;
}

It is possible to specify the stream's lifetime after client's disconnect:

ondemand ipcam {
  url rtsp://192.168.0.1/channel/101;
  retry_limit 10;
  client_timeout 20;
}

The config line above has the following meaning: make no more than 10 attempts to reconnect with a data source if the connection is lost; when the last client leaves, run the stream idly for no longer than 20 seconds.

Stream playback

Stream screenshots

Flussonic Media Server can make screenshots of streaming video. To achieve this, the additional flussonic-ffmpeg package must be installed and the thumbnails option turned on in the stream settings.

stream ort {
  url udp://239.255.0.100:1234;
  thumbnails;
}

You can specify URL where Flussonic Media Server can get screenshots to reduce CPU usage for thumbnails. Many cameras has special URL with screnshots:

stream cam0 {
  url rtsp://10.0.4.3:554/h264;
  thumbnails http://10.0.4.3/cgi-bin/snapshot.cgi
}

Screenshot URL you can find in documentation for you camera model.

The stream's last screenshot is available at http://flussonic:8080/ort/preview.jpg

MJPEG screenshot stream is available at http://flussonic:8080/ort/preview.mjpeg

Substituting stream with a file

If for some reason the stream is inaccessible, Flussonic provides the option of substituting it with a video file.

stream rtr {
  url tshttp://10.0.4.5:9000/channel/5;
  backup vod/backup.mp4;
}

Note that if the original stream has no audio (e. g., from IP camera), the stand-in file should have no audio as well.

Wildcards

Sometimes the names of remote server streams are not known in advance, and it makes sense to use proxy with everything. Use special stream type:

rewrite nsk/* rtsp://nsk-origin:554/%s;

rewrite ams/* hls://ams-origin:8080/%s/index.m3u8;

If rewrite option is combined with an asterisk at the end of stream name, the substring that precedes the asterisk will replace "%s" in URL.

Recording video stream (DVR)

Flussonic Media Server has an excellent stream recording system.

The stream archiver can record video, provide access to a particular video interval, export parts of the archive as mp4 files, clean up old archive files, and maintain ample free space on the storage disk.

To turn on the archiver, simply specify the dvr option in the stream config line:

stream foxlive {
  url tshttp://trancoder-5:9000/;
  dvr /storage 90% 5d;
}

See a more detailed archive management description under a dedicated section.

Time zone adjustment (Timeshift)

Flussonic Media Server can play the archive record of a stream with a fixed delay.

Note that Flussonic Media Server maintains the delay painstakingly, so if for some reason the archive has lacunae, end users will be getting no video for the duration of the gap.

The timeshift feature uses a separate data source protocol:

stream ort {
  url tshttp://trancoder-5:9000/;
  dvr /storage 90% 5d;
}

stream ort-4h timeshift://ort/14400;

The delay is specified in seconds.

Stream delivery over UDP multicast

Flussonic Media Server is able to rebroadcast a stream from a data source over local network.

Note that Flussonic Media Server will attempt to serve UDP as evenly in time as possible in order to avoid sharp network load increases.

stream ort {
  url tshttp://trancoder-5:9000/;
  udp 239.0.4.4:1234;
}

Stream settings for IP surveillance cameras

It is possible to tell Flussonic Media Server to request a stream from camera via UDP only.

Sometimes this is necessary when working with the cameras that have issues with TCP.

stream cam1 {
  url rtsp://10.0.4.3:554/h264;
  rtp udp;
}

Important! Of the desktop browsers, H265 can now actually be shown only Microsoft Edge (version 16 and higher) and Safari (version 11 and higher). From mobile browsers — Safari and Chrome for iOS, (version 11.0 and higher). Read more in the article «Playing H265».

If there is no need to get audio from the camera (for instance, in G.726), Flussonic Media Server can be told to capture only one track.

The number of the track must be specified in the stream settings line:

stream cam1 {
  url rtsp://10.0.4.3:554/h264;
  tracks 1;
}

In order to transcode a G.711a or G.711u audio coming from the camera into AAC, the other protocol must be specified:

stream cam1 {
  url rtsp2://10.0.4.3:554/h264;
}

Turning on audio-only HLS

When validating apps in AppStore, Apple may require the stream to have an audio-only version. If this command is added to the config:

stream cam1 {
  url rtsp://10.0.4.3:554/h264;
  add_audio_only;
}

and the stream has both video and audio, Flussonic Media Server will generate a multi-bitrate variant playlist of two streams: one standard, the other audio-only.

Capturing stream from another Flussonic Media Server

The details of transferring video between Flussonic Media Server servers are discussed in the Flussonic video stream clusterization article.

DRM in live

The details are discussed in the Apple DRM article.

Stream or group settings

auth

domains

allowed_countries

url

Important: If a UDP source is used, the configuration file must contain this particular UDP address only once. If multiple streams use the same UDP address, chances are it will not work.

urls

url_prefix

dvr

dvr_offline

udp

thumbnails

segments

retry_limit

clients_timeout

source_timeout

password

push

backup

publish_enabled

on_publish

max_sessions

settings_rtp

add_audio_only

no_prepush

prepush

max_bitrate

logo

Version 4.6.15 and above.

mpegts_pids

gop_duration

segment_count

disabled