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Getting started with live streams (single language)

This tutorial shortly explains how to use Clevercast to make a (single-language) live stream available to your audience. For more detailed info, see the Live Events section of our Enterprise manual.

This tutorial applies to enterprise and webinar plans. Skip step 1 for webinars, since an event is automatically created when you create a webinar.

1 Creating an event

Select the Live > Events menu. On the events page, press the Create RTMP Event or Create SRT Event button in the sidebar. In the popup dialog, enter the following info and press Create:

  • an event name (for your own information only)
  • select the Default Language (only if you have a multilingual plan, fyi only)
  • select the origin of your broadcast
  • select the Streaming Resolutions. Clevercast does cloud transcoding for adaptive bitrate streaming. Make sure the highest resolution doesn’t exceed the resolution in which you are broadcasting.

Note: if you want to send an RTMP broadcast from a continent other than Europe and North America, ask for a custom RTMP ingest hub or use SRT instead.

2 Configuring the event

When you press the Create button, Clevercast creates the event and redirects you to its detail page. The event page allows you to do the following:

  • Copy the event’s embed code from the Management tab to your website or 3rd party platform.
  • On the Appearance tab, you can upload a poster image and show a countdown timer in the embedded player (among others)

Depending on your plan, you may also be able to:

See the manual for more details about the different tabs and their functionality.

3 Configure encoder and test broadcast

Configure your encoder by using the settings on the Broadcast tab and our broadcast guidelines.

When you are ready to test, go to the Management tab and set the event status to Preview by pressing the Set to preview button (unless you are sending an RTMP broadcast from Europe, in which case the Preview status is already set).

Start your broadcast. After about 18 seconds (due to HLS latency) you should be able to see the live stream in the Preview Player on the Management tab. Your viewers won’t see the stream in the embedded player until you start the event.

Note: if you encounter an issue while testing, check our troubleshooting guide. If you can't resolve it, contact us while you are still broadcasting.

4 Starting the live stream

When the event is about to start, go the Management tab and press the Start event button. We recommend to start the event at least two minutes before the live stream begins. This allows the player to start buffering and ensures that nobody misses the start.

When you start the event, Clevercast also starts recording the live stream. So, starting the event in time also ensures that the cloud recording is complete.

The embedded player automatically detects the status change and makes the live stream visible to your participants. You can also see the live stream in the Public Player on the Management tab. If you want to display a message in the embedded player, use the Service Message on the Management tab.

5 Pausing the live stream (optional)

You can set the event status to Paused during breaks. The embedded player automatically detects this, and shows a poster image or message (see the Appearance tab). While the event status is Paused, you can continue to broadcast.

Of course, you can also leave the status to Started during breaks. The advantage of using Paused is that Clevercast stops recording when the event is paused, and starts a new recording when the event is restarted. This way, you have separate recordings for each session.

Note: make sure to also respect the two minute grace period for HLS latency when changing your event status from and to Paused.

6 Stopping the live stream

After the live action has ended, wait at least two minutes before setting the event status to Ended, by pressing the Change Event Status button and selecting End event. The embedded player automatically detects this and shows a poster image or message to your viewers (see the Appearance tab) instead of the live stream.

Clevercast automatically completes the cloud recording and converts it to an MP4 file. You can download it via the Events > Recording menu. If your plan includes VoD, you can publish the recording to Video on-Demand.