What is the relationship between edge ingest and live centers?
ApsaraVideo Live collects and distributes live streams and provides real-time media processing for live streams on the server side. Based on Alibaba Cloud CDN, ApsaraVideo Live uses edge ingest to implement instant content access to the nearest Alibaba Cloud points of presence (POPs). ApsaraVideo Live ingests streams in the upstream and delivers the streams to the nearest optimal POPs based on the region where live streaming takes place.
The live centers of ApsaraVideo Live cover nine regions around the world, including China (Beijing), China (Shanghai), China (Shenzhen), China (Qingdao), Japan (Tokyo), Singapore, Indonesia (Jakarta), and Germany (Frankfurt). A live center provides media processing features for live streams in real time, such as recording, snapshot capture, transcoding, time shifting, video AI, and production studios. To start live streaming, you must add and configure an ingest domain and a streaming domain and associate the ingest domain with the streaming domain. When you add an ingest domain and a streaming domain to ApsaraVideo Live, you must specify a live center for the domain names. The live center is where real-time media processing is applied and is independent of the region where streams are collected and distributed.
How do I select a live center?
Assume that your stream ingest and streaming events occur in the Chinese mainland, and you do not require real-time media processing features for the streams, such as snapshot capture, recording, and production studios.
When you add a domain name, you can select any region available in the Chinese mainland. If you have a large number of streamers in Beijing, the China (Beijing) region is not necessarily required. Even though you select another region as the live center, such as the China (Shanghai) region, the edge ingest feature enables the POPs that are nearest to Beijing to collect streams. ApsaraVideo Live distributes streams to POPs based on the region where your viewers are located. The region where real-time media processing is applied does not affect the stream distribution.
Assume that you require real-time media processing features for the streams, such as snapshot capture, recording, and production studios.
Real-time media processing involves the storage of images and videos. You must create an Object Storage Service (OSS) bucket that is in the same region as the live center. This can prevent issues that are caused by cross-region media processing and network fluctuation, such as high latency and instability. If you have created an OSS bucket, make sure that your live center resides in the same region as the OSS bucket.
Assume that your streamers and viewers are located outside the Chinese mainland.
We recommend that you select a live center that is nearest to the streamers. Then, ApsaraVideo Live can ingest streams to the live center.
Edge ingest
Alibaba Cloud provides POPs that cover major countries and regions. By using edge ingest, ApsaraVideo Live delivers streams to the POPs that are nearest to the streamers. Then, ApsaraVideo Live uses the network that is optimized by Alibaba Cloud to deliver the streams to the live center that you specify.
Real-time monitoring of network conditions
To monitor the network conditions of a streamer, perform the following steps: Log on to the ApsaraVideo Live console. In the left-side navigation pane, choose . On the Stream Management page, click the Acitve Streams tab. Then, click Stream Monitoring in the Actions column of a stream to check the stream ingest status and network conditions of the streamer in real time. This helps ensure the stability of stream ingest. For more information, see Manage streams.
You can also query the frame rate and bitrate of a stream in real time by calling an API operation. For more information, see DescribeLiveDomainFrameRateAndBitRateData.
How do I select the acceleration region for a domain name?
When you add a domain name to ApsaraVideo Live in the ApsaraVideo Live console, you must set the Acceleration Region parameter. An acceleration region is used to specify the geographic range for CDN acceleration. Valid values include Chinese Mainland, Global, and Outside Chinese Mainland. A value of Global indicates that CDN acceleration is to be separately implemented in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and other countries and regions. It does not indicate the acceleration between regions in and outside the Chinese mainland.
If your streamers and viewers are located in the Chinese mainland, select a region in the Chinese mainland as the live center for the ingest domain and streaming domain, and set Acceleration Region to Chinese Mainland.
If your streamers and viewers are located in Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), or other countries and regions outside the Chinese mainland, such as Singapore, select the Singapore region as the live center for the ingest domain and streaming domain. Then, set Acceleration Region to Outside Chinese Mainland.
When you select a region outside the Chinese mainland as the live center, select the region that is nearest to the streamers and viewers. If no live center is available in the region where your streamers and viewers are located, to obtain suggestions on the selection of live centers, submit a ticket. For more information, see Contact us.
If your streamers and viewers are located in different geographic ranges, including the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and other countries and regions, set Acceleration Region to Global or Outside Chinese Mainland for the streaming domain. A value of Global indicates CDN acceleration in all geographic ranges, whereas a value of Outside Chinese Mainland excludes CDN acceleration in the Chinese mainland.
NoteUnit prices of Alibaba Cloud CDN bandwidth and traffic for live streaming vary based on the acceleration region. CDN acceleration is supported only when users make playback requests in a specific acceleration region and bills are generated based on the unit prices for the acceleration region. If you set this parameter to Global and only users in the Chinese mainland make playback requests, fees for content delivery outside the Chinese mainland are not generated. For more information about the billing rules, see Billing of standard streaming and the ApsaraVideo Live pricing.
Enumeration of scenarios in which you select a live center
Where your streamers are located | Where your viewers are located | Required live center and acceleration region | Description |
Chinese mainland | Chinese mainland |
| N/A |
Chinese mainland | Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and other countries and regions outside the Chinese mainland |
| In this scenario, the streamers are located in the Chinese mainland, whereas the viewers are located in Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), or other countries and regions. |
Chinese mainland | Singapore | Solution 1:
Solution 2:
| In this scenario, you can use GoChina ICP Filing Assistant to apply for ICP filing in the Chinese mainland for domain names outside the Chinese mainland. This way, you can start live streaming in and outside the Chinese mainland. The Singapore region and the four regions in the Chinese mainland support a two-way configuration. No matter whether you use the Singapore region or a region in the Chinese mainland as the live center for domain names, streams can be ingested from the Chinese mainland where your streamers are located, and delivered to Singapore where most of your viewers are located. |
Singapore | Chinese mainland | Solution 1:
Solution 2:
| In this scenario, you can use GoChina ICP Filing Assistant to apply for ICP filing in the Chinese mainland for domain names outside the Chinese mainland. This way, you can start live streaming in and outside the Chinese mainland. The Singapore region and the four regions in the Chinese mainland support a two-way configuration. No matter whether you use the Singapore region or a region in the Chinese mainland as the live center for domain names, streams can be ingested from Singapore where your streamers are located, and delivered to the Chinese mainland where most of your viewers are located. If you give consideration to a few potential viewers that are located outside the Chinese mainland, you can set Acceleration Region to Global. |
Chinese mainland | Chinese mainland, Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and other countries and regions |
| In this scenario, the streamers are located in the Chinese mainland, whereas the viewers are located both in and outside the Chinese mainland. |
Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and other countries and regions outside the Chinese mainland | Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and other countries and regions outside the Chinese mainland |
| N/A |
Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and other countries and regions outside the Chinese mainland | Chinese mainland |
| In this scenario, the streamers are located outside the Chinese mainland, whereas most of the viewers are located in the Chinese mainland. You set Acceleration Region to Global because you need to give consideration to a few potential viewers that are located outside the Chinese mainland. |
What are the causes for playback stuttering during live streaming?
In most cases, playback stuttering is caused because stuttering occurs during stream ingest. You can troubleshoot this issue based on the following causes for stuttering that occurs during stream ingest:
Improper configuration of the video capture device
A specific amount of CPU resources is consumed during stream ingest. For mobile phones with dated hardware, if the overall CPU utilization exceeds 80% during stream ingest, the screen flickers and stuttering may occur at different levels. Meanwhile, the video capture and user experience are affected.
Improper configuration of the video capture rate
For human eyes, a video with a frame rate of 15 frames per second (FPS) or higher looks smooth. If the frame rate of a video is less than 10 FPS, stuttering may frequently occur during the playback. You can set the video frame rate to 15 FPS or higher unless otherwise specified.
The higher the frame rate of a video, the more fluent the motion is perceived. However, when the frame rate exceeds 30 FPS, human eyes cannot recognize the effect. Meanwhile, increasing the frame rate of a video also increases the transmission bandwidth. Therefore, we recommend that you set an appropriate frame rate.
Insufficient network bandwidth
In most cases, stuttering occurs due to poor network conditions. The following common causes may lead to poor network conditions:
A low network bandwidth: Contact your Internet service provider to confirm your network bandwidth size and check whether the bandwidth is sufficient for the live stream.
Consumed downstream bandwidth: Check whether the network bandwidth is consumed by download activities.
Consumed system resources: Check whether a large number of programs are running in the background. You can delete or stop the running programs that are no longer needed to release the resources.