Live
Live streaming on your own pages
Broadcast from the encoder you already use, and have it arrive inside your own site rather than on somebody else’s platform beside their recommendations. The same player, the same embed and the same domain rules as the rest of your library.
Your encoder, your page, your player
The problem
Why broadcasting on a social platform is not the same thing
Streaming a launch or a class to a public platform is easy, and it puts your audience one click away from everything else that platform wants them to watch. The event happens on a page you do not control, next to recommendations you did not choose, under a brand that is not yours.
The consequence shows up afterwards. The people who attended are the platform’s audience rather than yours, the recording lives in the platform’s library, and the analytics describe the platform’s surface rather than your funnel. For a paid cohort or a customer event, that is the wrong trade.
Hosting the stream yourself means the broadcast lands on your page, inside your layout, behind whatever access rules that page already enforces — and the same embed you use for on-demand video handles it.
The mechanism
What happens between your encoder and a viewer
Described as the pipeline it is, so you can see where your existing tools plug in.
- RTMP ingestYour encoder
- You are given an ingest URL and a stream key. OBS Studio, Wirecast or any RTMP-capable encoder or hardware unit points at it. Nothing proprietary is required on your side.
- HLS playbackViewers
- Viewers receive HLS through the same player as your on-demand video, so the controls, appearance and embed they see are the ones you have already configured.
- Scheduling, including video-as-liveBefore the event
- A stream can be scheduled ahead of time so the page and start time exist before you go live, and an existing video can be played as a live event — which is how premieres and rerun channels are usually built.
- Multistream onwardAdditional destinations
- One broadcast can go to your own pages and, at the same time, to other RTMP or RTMPS destinations such as YouTube, Facebook or Twitch, so you are not running a separate stream per platform. How many destinations you can add depends on your plan.
- Encryption for eligible streamsConfirm during setup
- HLS segment encryption is available for eligible live streams and plans. Eligibility depends on the stream configuration, so confirm it before a sensitive event and you go on air knowing exactly which protection is active. It hardens delivery rather than deciding who may watch.
- Domain-restricted embeddingWhere it can appear
- The same origin restrictions that govern your on-demand embeds apply to where a live stream can be embedded, so once you have listed domains a copied embed does not simply work elsewhere. An empty list leaves embedding unrestricted.
Latency
How quickly does your audience see the moment?
Every stream plays over HLS, which typically puts viewers several seconds behind. Where WebRTC playback has been enabled for your account by arrangement, a stream on the new live system can also reach viewers typically in under a second.
- HLS for every streamStandard
- HLS sends short segments that play reliably across devices and connections, typically several seconds behind the encoder. For a service, a broadcast or a town hall, that delay is rarely noticed.
- WebRTC where seconds matterBy arrangement
- WebRTC (WHEP) playback is available by arrangement, switched on per account with its own stream limit, for streams on the new live system. Auctions, live Q&A and interactive classes are where it earns its place.
- Automatic fallbackViewers
- The player tries WebRTC first and switches a viewer to HLS automatically if their connection cannot hold it, so nobody is left with a blank player.
One moment, two arrival times
IllustrativeOn stage
By arrangement
typically under 1 sEvery stream
typically 6–15 s
Typical ranges, not DynTube measurements
Question asked happens at 0 seconds. WebRTC (WHEP): typically under 1 s. HLS: typically 6–15 s.
When a viewer sees the same moment, by delivery lane
Illustration using typical industry ranges, not measured DynTube figures. See the WebRTC live streaming page for detail.
The workflow
Setting up a stream, in three steps
Retained from the legacy setup sequence, with the checks the original left implicit.
- 01
Create the stream
- 02
Point your encoder at it
- 03
Embed it on your page
OBS walkthrough
How do you go live from OBS Studio?
OBS Studio is free and enough for most events. Four steps from a blank OBS profile to a verified broadcast.
- 01
Open the stream settings
- 02
Paste the server and key
- 03
Start streaming
- 04
Watch it where your audience will
Before your first broadcast
What you actually need
Retained from the legacy equipment guidance, which was one of its genuinely useful sections.
A computer and an encoder
OBS Studio is free and sufficient for most events. Wirecast and hardware encoders matter when you are switching multiple sources or need redundancy.
A camera and a microphone
A webcam works. Audio is what an audience actually notices, so a dedicated microphone is the upgrade worth making first.
Upload headroom
Your outbound connection has to sustain your stream bitrate continuously, with margin. Test it at the time of day the event will run, on the connection the event will use.
A delivery estimate
Work out the delivery a live audience will consume before you commit to a plan. The bandwidth calculator produces the number, and the live streaming pricing page explains how concurrency and delivery combine into a band.
Where this fits
What people broadcast this way
Retained from the legacy use cases, each stated with the reason it wants a self-hosted stream.
Webinars and customer events
The attendees are the point, so the event belongs on a page you control, behind a form or a login you own.
Live teaching and cohorts
A scheduled session inside the course page keeps the class where the rest of the material is, rather than sending students to a public platform.
Internal town halls
An internal audience on your own intranet page, with embedding restricted to your own domains.
Scheduled and rerun channels
Playing existing video as a live event gives a channel a schedule without producing new content for every slot.
Questions
Questions before you broadcast
Carried over from the legacy live FAQ. Two answers have changed materially — both are called out in the answer itself.
What equipment do I need to start?
A computer, a camera, a microphone and streaming software — OBS Studio is free and enough for most events. Connect it to the ingest URL and stream key from the dashboard. For multi-camera or high-reliability events, a hardware encoder and a second connection are the usual additions.
Are live streams encrypted?
Eligible ones are. HLS segment encryption is available for eligible live streams and plans, and eligibility depends on the stream configuration, so confirm it before a sensitive event and you will know exactly which protection is in place on the night. What it does is make captured segments unusable without the key; it does not control who is allowed to watch, and domain restrictions still govern where a live stream can be embedded. The live stream encryption page carries the detail, including which streams and plans qualify and what to confirm during setup.
Is my broadcast recorded automatically?
Not automatically for every stream — that is also a correction. Retaining a broadcast as an on-demand video is a configuration and plan question. Confirm it for your plan before an event you cannot repeat, rather than assuming a recording will be waiting afterwards.
Can I stream to my own site and other platforms at once?
Yes. One broadcast plays in your embedded player and can be sent on to other RTMP or RTMPS destinations, such as YouTube, Facebook or Twitch, at the same time. The number of destinations depends on your plan, and the live streaming pricing page shows the limit for each one.
Is there a low-latency option?
Yes, by arrangement. WebRTC (WHEP) playback is enabled per account rather than included by default, for streams on the new live system, and typically reaches viewers in under a second; every stream also plays over HLS, typically several seconds behind. Confirm entitlement for your account before you plan an event around sub-second delivery.
How do I work out live bandwidth?
Use the bandwidth calculator — it does the arithmetic for a live audience and tells you which delivery band to look at. The live streaming pricing page owns the explanation of how concurrency and delivery combine into a band, so start there rather than working it out twice. A live audience consumes delivery the same way an on-demand audience does.
What does live streaming cost?
Live is priced on concurrency and delivery. There are published live bands — starter, plus and pro, monthly or yearly — and each one is bought from its card on the live streaming pricing page, with the figures read from the billing catalogue rather than restated here. An event whose concurrency, storage or delivery sits outside those bands is sent as a request instead, and any terms for it come to you in writing.
Run a test broadcast before you announce anything
Create a stream, point OBS at it, embed it on a private page and watch it on your phone. Half an hour of that answers more than any feature list.