A liveEvent represents a pipeline for ingesting, transcoding (for Adaptive Bitrate streaming), and packaging live streams of video, audio, and real-time metadata.

It creates an input endpoint that receives the live signal using a specified ingest protocol (RTMP, SRT, or RTSP). 

The ingest protocol and encoding type are set at creation and cannot be changed afterward - changing these settings requires deleting the live event and creating a new one. Attempting to modify ingestProtocol or encodingType on an existing live event via the API will return an error. Delete and reprovision the live event to change these settings.

For encoding type, passthrough events forward the single-bitrate stream from the encoder directly to packaging without transcoding. ABR (Adaptive Bitrate) events transcode the incoming stream into multiple quality levels for adaptive playback.

See also: Live streaming quickstart, Live events API reference.

An asset is a storage container in RMS that holds media files.

In live workflows, a liveOutput writes the fragmented stream into an asset during the event, enabling DVR playback and creating the VOD recording.

The recorded asset persists even after the liveOutput is deleted - deleting the output does not delete the recording. However, deleting a liveOutput while the event is still running stops recording but does not affect live playback.

See also: Assets API reference, RMS Console: Media Asset upload.

A liveOutput connects an active liveEvent to an asset, writing the incoming stream in real time for DVR and recording.

It enables viewers to seek backward during the liveEvent and produces a VOD asset after the event ends.

If you delete a liveOutput while the event is running, this stops recording to the asset without affecting live playback, and no archive is saved when the event ends. When a liveOutput is deleted after the event stops, the recorded asset persists.

See also: Live outputs API reference.

A streamingLocator publishes an asset by creating playback URLs for client players.

It connects the asset to a streamingPolicy that defines protocols and encryption options.

To build a playback URL, combine the streamingEndpoint hostname with the streamingLocator path.

See also: Streaming locators API reference, RMS Concepts - Streaming Locators.

A streamingEndpoint (also called Packager or Origin) dynamically packages and delivers live and on-demand content using protocols like HLS or DASH.

RMS provides one built-in streaming endpoint per account for handling all content delivery through dynamic, just-in-time packaging. Creating additional endpoints is not supported.

See also: Streaming Origin Endpoint: Best practices, CDN and custom domains in RMS.

Client applications that play back HLS or DASH streams delivered by RMS. RMS works with any standards-compliant video player, including browser-based libraries like hls.js, Shaka Player, and Video.js, as well as native players on mobile and desktop platforms. 

RMS also provides the Ravnur Player, which is optimized and tested for adaptive bitrate streaming and low-latency playback with RMS streams.

See also: Ravnur Player, Configuring Ravnur Player for low latency live streaming.

DVR (Digital Video Recording) allows viewers to rewind and time-shift during a live event by retaining recent media segments in the manifest window.

When DVR is enabled, RMS continuously writes the live stream into an asset, producing a VOD recording once the liveEvent ends. When DVR is disabled, the asset is still created but remains empty - the stream is available at the live edge only.

The default DVR window is 12 hours and is configurable in RMS Console.  

Post-event VOD encoding applies transforms (reusable encoding presets) and jobs (individual encoding task executions) to the recorded live stream asset, converting it into streaming-optimized outputs such as bitrate ladders, alternate codecs, or different packaging formats.

A live recording is not automatically re-encoded after the event ends - encoding is optional and only required when the archived stream does not already meet your playback or distribution requirements.

See also: Transforms API reference, Jobs API reference.

RMS Console is a web-based interface for managing RMS live events without calling the API directly.

It provides common workflows such as creating live events, obtaining ingest URLs, starting and stopping streams, and accessing recordings.

The RMS Console provides a subset of RMS API capabilities intended for common tasks and monitoring.

See also: RMS Console: Start guide, RMS Console: API Key Management.