Stream live content directly from the RMS Console by creating live events, configuring ingest settings, and starting broadcasts. This guide walks you through the complete workflow from live event creation to post-stream asset management.
In this article:
Before you begin
- Set up your RMS Console - RMS Console: Start guide.
- Have an encoder ready (such as OBS, Wirecast, or FFmpeg).
Create a live event
A live event pipeline ingests, transcodes, and packages your broadcast from creation through streaming and archival. Each event has unique ingest credentials and generates playable content.
- Click the Live Events tab in the RMS Console.
- Click + Create live event.
- Event name (required): Use lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores only. No spaces or special characters allowed. This name becomes part of the output asset name with a timestamp.
Allowed characters: lowercase letters (a–z), numbers (0–9), hyphens (-), underscores (_). Not allowed: spaces, uppercase letters, special characters, periods. Example valid names:
my-live-event,liveevent2024,stream_001.
- Event description (optional): Add context about the broadcast (up to 1000 characters).
- Encoding type (required): Choose Passthrough to forward the single-bitrate stream without transcoding, or select an ABR profile (Standard 720p or Standard 1080p) to transcode into multiple quality levels for adaptive playback, see Live streaming: encoder configuration.
- Ingest protocol (required): Choose RTMP, SRT, or RTSP PULL/PUSH, see Live ingest protocols: RTMP, SRT, RTSP.
- Low latency: Enable for minimal delay between broadcast and playback (Off by default), see Live streaming low latency best practices.
- Click Create event.
The event is created with a Stopped status and automatically generates ingest credentials. Creating the event also provisions the asset and live output that will receive the stream. The streaming locator, playback paths, and endpoint that together form the playback link are generated when you start the event. RMS handles all of this in the background, so you only need to start the event and connect the encoder.
The encoding type and ingest protocol are set at creation and cannot be changed afterward.
To change a setting, delete the live event and create a new one.
Live event details
After creating a live event, access the Live Event Details page to find the information and manage the broadcast:
- Encoding type: The encoding profile selected at creation (Passthrough or ABR: Standard 720p, Standard 1080p).
- Low latency: The selected latency - whether the event is configured for minimal delay between broadcast and playback.
- Live archive recording: When enabled, RMS records the live stream with DVR support, allowing viewers to rewind during the live event and producing a VOD recording once the live event ends, off by default. When disabled, no archive is saved when the live event ends.
By default, recording lasts 12 hours, but you can configure this length in the Live Streaming tab of RMS Console.
- Live captioning: Off (not yet available, in development).
The Contribution feed encoder settings section displays your unique ingest credentials:
- Key frame interval: 2 seconds (recommended for optimal encoding).
- Ingest protocol: Your selected protocol (RTMP, SRT, or RTSP).
- Ingest URL: The URL your encoder will push the stream to (format varies by protocol).
- Stream key: A unique credential that authorizes your encoder to push content to this specific live event.
Configure your encoder
Your encoder needs the ingest credentials from the Contribution feed encoder settings section. Using OBS as an example:
- Open your encoder's streaming destination settings.
- Paste the Ingest URL and Stream key into the Server field.
- Configure remaining encoder settings, see Live streaming: encoder configuration.
Your encoder is now ready to send content to the live event.
Start a live event
- On the Live Events list, click the event you want to stream.
- The live event details page opens, showing Status: Stopped.
- Click Start Live Event.
The live event status changes to Running, and the system is ready to receive the stream from your encoder.
Stream to a live event
With your encoder configured and the live event in Running status:
- Start your broadcast in the encoder application.
- Your encoder pushes the stream to RMS using the ingest URL and stream key.
RMS processes the incoming stream according to the encoding type selected at creation.
RMS writes the stream through the live output into the associated asset. The streaming locator provides an HLS playback URL for viewers:
The console displays only the HLS live stream URL, but the same locator also serves DASH. Replace the
m3u8-cmafwithmpd-time-cmaf.The DASH equivalent is:
https://{hostname-endpoint}/{locatorid}/manifest.ism/manifest(format=mpd-time-cmaf).
Stop the live event
Important: Remember to stop live events once they're no longer needed.
By default, live events auto-shutdown after 12 hours, but you can configure this length in the Live Streaming tab of RMS Console.
- From the live event details page, click Stop Live Event.
- The live event status changes to Stopped.
- The output asset finalizes and becomes available in the Assets tab.
On a rare occasion of a stuck live event (Stop Live Event is not responding for a long time), use Force Stop Live Event.
This immediately terminates the event without asset finalisation. No VOD recording will be created, and post-processing will be entirely bypassed. If the recording needs to be recovered after a forced stop, contact Ravnur no later than two days afterwards. Only use Force Stop Live Event when the normal stop function is unresponsive for an extended period – do not use it as a shortcut to end a broadcast.
Post-stream asset management
After stopping a live event, a stream recording becomes available in the Assets tab (provided Live archive recording was enabled during the event). The output asset is named using the pattern {live-event-name}-{timestamp}, for example, my-live-event-20260527T143822Z.
Note:
An output asset is always created when a live event runs, even if Live archive recording (DVR) was disabled.
Finalization takes longer for longer or more complex streams, but usually no longer than the stream itself.
Find your stream recording
- Go to the Assets tab.
- Search or scroll to find your asset using the live event name and timestamp.
- Click the asset to open Asset Details.
Play your recording
The asset is published via the streaming locator created when the live event started. Click the asset in the Assets tab to play it in the built-in player. The recording plays immediately unless the live event was run without DVR (Live archive recording disabled), in which case no archive was saved.
Recording capabilities
The recorded asset is available for:
- Post-event VOD encoding: apply transforms and encoding jobs to repackage or re-encode the recording for different playback or distribution requirements.
Creating additional streaming locators for different distribution scenarios.
- Downloading blob files from storage.
- Generating captions from the recording.