Abstract #
Adaptive bitrate streaming adjusts video quality based on network conditions to improve video streaming over HTTP networks. This process makes playback as smooth as possible for viewers regardless of their device, location, or Internet speed.
Adaptive bitrate systems aim to deliver the best sound and picture quality achievable using the Internet connection which is available to a viewer at any given time. Such systems can support both live and on-demand media streaming.
The adaptive bitrate system tries to avoid pauses for buffering by selecting a lower-quality stream if the Internet connection speed falls, returning to a higher-quality stream when conditions improve.
Opportunity for WpStream clients #
– Use up less overall streaming bandwidth as some of your viewers will stream at a lower quality than the original
– Better perceived quality of service for some of your viewers; faster start time and fewer interruptions
– Feature has been used in production by multiple customers with consistently good results
How to enable it on your channel #
To enable it for a particular channel, you can go to the “Channel Settings” and enable “Adaptive Bitrate (beta)
You can then TURN ON your channel and start streaming using the Adaptive Bitrate (beta) feature directly.
To enable it as a “Default Channel Settings”
By enabling this as a default, every new channel that is created will have this feature enabled.
Restrictions, shortcomings, notes #
– Feature can be enabled for particular channels (under each channel’s settings) or for all of them (if enabled from WpStream’s “Default Channel Settings”)
– Industry recommendation: for horizontal, 16:9 video
– Fast, high, and stable upload capabilities to anywhere in the world (i.e. not just your city, country, or ISP) is required to broadcast; if your streams are interrupting right now, ABR will only make them worse
– A recommended encoding profile (i.e. for OBS etc) is to be used; during beta, we will not be able to offer support outside the margins of this profile
– The feature is still beta and may not work under various unexpected circumstances
– We can only offer limited support related to the feature at this time
Recommended settings for broadcasting #
Software: OBS Studio
Video:
Resolution: 480p or higher
Video aspect ratio: strictly 16:9 horizontal (854×480, 960×540, 1280×720 etc)
Video Bitrate: 1mbps or higher
Encoder: x264
Keyframe Interval: 5 seconds
Audio:
Sample rate: 48khz
Bitrate: 128kbps or higher
Codec: AAC
