Explore options to integrate a live streaming solution

[mgogoulos]

Describe the feature you'd like
Explore which of the following projects could be integrated to MediaCMS to provide live streaming too

• https://owncast.online/
• https://openstreamingplatform.com/
• https://github.com/livekit/livekit-server

[MyBlood]

Describe the feature you'd like Explore which of the following projects could be integrated to MediaCMS to provide live streaming too

• https://owncast.online/
• https://openstreamingplatform.com/
• https://github.com/livekit/livekit-server

Livekit and Owncast look great. But alas, from a developer's point of view, I can't say which is better.

[KyleMaas]

I'd be really interested in seeing this feature as well.

[KyleMaas]

OpenStreamingPlatform looks to be fairly easy to integrate using the OAuth2 support and Webhooks. If I understand it correctly, the MediaCMS Django instance would need to be set up as an OAuth2 provider so logins could be used across both platforms:

https://django-oauth-toolkit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorial/tutorial_01.html

From there, MediaCMS would need to implement a Webhook endpoint for OSP to catch new videos, comments, etc. and add them as uploaded videos:

https://open-streaming-platform.readthedocs.io/en/latest/usage/webhooks.html

[KyleMaas]

Tried to get this working on the same server as MediaCMS. I wouldn't recommend that. It requires several changes to the default OSP configuration and some of the libraries it requires do not like to work with Ubuntu 20.04 as suggested in the MediaCMS install docs. If anything, make it easier on yourself and install to a separate server. I still haven't actually gotten it to work.

[KyleMaas]

Well, it appears that installing OSP broke transcoding within MediaCMS. I still haven't figured out why, but I would highly recommend against trying to install OSP on the same server as MediaCMS. They do not appear to be compatible with each other.

[KyleMaas]

Owncast can also be set up with a Webhook endpoint:

https://owncast.online/thirdparty/webhooks/

However, as far as I can tell, it only supports one streaming user - the Owncast administrator. This could work for situations where MediaCMS only has one poster (internal corporate environment, for example) but may not work as well for a publicly-accessible instance where more than one user can post media to the site and would want to be able to live stream.

[KyleMaas]

I have spent a lot of time trying to get Owncast to work, and thus far my efforts have yielded zero fruit. It installs, it runs, but then when I try to stream to it, it doesn't generate the m3u8 or segment files for the browser to actually use. I'm not ready to give up on it yet, because if I can get it to work it could potentially be a really easy install. But so far no luck.

[KyleMaas]

LiveKit looks to be much lower-level as far as implementation. Does not include any functionality for chats or stream recording as far as I can tell, and user authentication is at a layer above the scope of the project. It can be controlled using server APIs, and there is a Python SDK project available for it:

https://github.com/tradablebits/livekit-server-sdk-python

Also uses Webhooks for communicating back:

https://docs.livekit.io/server/webhooks/

[mgogoulos]

Hi @KyleMaas , since you're actively exploring this, did you have any chance to look at Jitsi or BigBlueButton? I've been using these systems for years and are very stable, an integration with any of them would be something to explore

[KyleMaas]

I've used Jitsi before and did not find it stable enough to consider for this. But I'd be willing to look into it. It looks like we'd want to aim for Jitsi Meet integration:

https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet

Have not looked into BigBlueButton for feasibility but can investigate.

Have been trying to get Owncast to work but have had trouble getting it to run properly.

[mgogoulos]

I've been using both (Jitsi and BigBlueButton) on different projects recently and had a very positive experience! I think it definitely worths to explore installing them (should be very easy) and whether they provide a quick way to embed inside another web application (such as MediaCMS in this case). As far as I remember regarding Owncast, you still need to use more tools (eg OBS) to take care of the streaming

[mgogoulos]

These are some notes I had prepared related to Owncast - adding here just in case it provides any help

install OBS studio
Install and start Owncast - on Ubuntu/Linux, and probably other systems too, this is easy through:

curl -s https://owncast.online/install.sh | bash
cd owncast && ./owncast

This gives an rtmp URL and a key (eg rtmp://localhost:1935/live and abc123)

On OBS --> Settings --> Stream, select "custom" and provide URL+key. Then you can start streaming, for example add camera, or video file, OBS supports many options

Owncast has also an admin where you can see how many users are online. Plus a section for messages
Also related: https://owncast.online/docs/embed/

[KyleMaas]

Yeah, that's roughly what I was doing. You can track my efforts at:

owncast/owncast#2399

Would really kind of like to get that working because it's just so simple if it actually worked.