Streambox Cloud Global Video Transport: Streaming From Server to Server in the Cloud.

Overview

Global Video Transport is an add-on for Streambox Cloud users with Live Enterprise or Live Broadcast accounts, which allows those users to utilize multiple Streambox Cloud Servers in a single stream to make use of the high-speed connections between the Cloud servers.†

Advantages

When the sender and viewer/receiver of videos are on different continents, or across North America from one another, normally one of those parties will be connected to a more distant server that they might normally use, in order to complete the stream connection. Either the sender selects a Cloud Server nearest the receiver, or the sender connects to the closest Cloud Server to themselves and the receiver is de facto connected to the Cloud Server closest to the sender, but not themselves.

With the settings described below, it's possible to send your stream across the globe while both the stream senders and viewers are both accessing the closest Streambox Cloud server to themselves, minimizing overall latency. Global Transport settings will enable the sender to send to their local Cloud Server, and forward the stream to the Cloud Server nearest the receiver, who then connects to the latter server.† The result is lower packet loss thanks to the near-dedicated transport between Cloud Servers, and shorter first-mile/last-mile transport between the Cloud Server and the sender and receiver users.

Setup

In the Advanced menu of the Streambox Cloud Server, navigate to the Decoders tab. The Decoders tab on the Cloud Server Web Interface displays all available Decoders or Media Players that have been added by users.† Follow the following procedure to add a Decoder entry for the Cloud Server closest to the user who will be receiving the stream.†
  • Click the Add Decoder button.
  • Set the Type to Decoder (default)
  • Set the name to the name of the Streambox Cloud Server closest to the receiving party.
  • Set the IP to the numerical IP address of the Server.† Here is a link to the current list of Cloud Server IP addresses.
  • Set the port to 1770
  • Set Protocol to UDP (LDMP will also work but may require additional configuration)

Routing the Stream

Start the stream to the closest live server to the send.† Once that stream appears in your list of incoming streams, click Route and select the Decoder you created for the more distant Cloud Server that's closer to the stream's ultimate destination. Once that stream is underway (within 30 seconds), a new stream will appear under the Live tab in the Cloud Server menu.†

The two streams will have identical metadata, but one displays that it's being sent to the server closest to the sender, and another displays that it's sending to the server closest to the stream's receiving user. Additionally, the two streams will show different stream durations; the one with the shorter duration will be the one received by the distant Server. That second stream, going to the destination server, should be routed to the Decoder or Media Player of the receiving user.