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    ApsaraVideo Live:What is ApsaraVideo Live?

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    ApsaraVideo Live:What is ApsaraVideo Live?

    Last Updated:Nov 15, 2024

    ApsaraVideo Live is an audio and video live streaming platform that is developed based on industry-leading content access and delivery capabilities and powerful media processing technologies. ApsaraVideo Live supports large-scale, distributed real-time transcoding, provides ultra-low latency and high concurrency, delivers high-definition and smooth video content, and is easy to access.

    Architecture

    The server of ApsaraVideo Live can collect, process, and distribute live streams in real time.

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    1. A streamer uses a stream ingest SDK to ingest a live stream that is collected by a video capture device. ApsaraVideo Live uses edge ingest to distribute the live stream to Alibaba Cloud CDN points of presence (POPs), which then accelerate the delivery of the live stream to live centers of ApsaraVideo Live.

    2. After the live stream is delivered to live centers of ApsaraVideo Live, you can process the stream based on your business requirements. For example, you can transcode the stream, perform time shifting on the stream, record the stream, or capture snapshots of the stream.

    3. The processed stream is also distributed to CDN POPs, which then accelerate the delivery of the processed stream to viewers' devices for playback. You can integrate ApsaraVideo Player SDK into your mobile app that is used by viewers to play the stream.

    4. You can also use the Live-to-VOD feature to store the recorded stream as an on-demand video in ApsaraVideo VOD. In ApsaraVideo VOD, you can edit and play the video. This way, you can produce short videos by using live streams and communicate the short videos to your target audience in a convenient manner.

    Features

    ApsaraVideo Live provides Real-Time Streaming (RTS) in addition to standard streaming to meet the requirements in different live streaming scenarios. The following table describes the differences between the scenarios in which standard streaming and RTS are used.

    Feature

    Scenario

    Standard streaming

    Weakly interactive scenarios: Standard streaming allows the audience to watch streams. However, inconsistent screens may be shown to the audience due to different network conditions.

    RTS

    • Highly interactive scenarios: RTS is commonly used in e-commerce live streaming, group live streaming, education live streaming, and enterprise live streaming. The low latency and high interactivity of RTS help improve lead conversion and user engagement.

    • Scenarios that require screen consistency among multiple viewers: RTS is also commonly used in live streaming of events. RTS allows the audience to know situations in the field in real time and avoids screen inconsistency among the audience.

    In addition, ApsaraVideo Live also provides media processing features such as transcoding, recording, time shifting, snapshotting, and content moderation. It also provides other useful features such as production studios and face retouching. For more information, see Functions and features.

    Billing

    • You are charged acceleration fees, media processing fees, and other service fees when you use ApsaraVideo Live. For more information, see Billing overview.

    • To view the prices of the billable items of ApsaraVideo Live, visit the ApsaraVideo Live pricing page.

    After you get to know the billing of ApsaraVideo Live, it is time to give ApsaraVideo Live a try. For information about how to activate ApsaraVideo Live, see Activate ApsaraVideo Live and purchase resource plans.