A comprehensive guide on the workings of our live streaming software.
Designed to empower content creators to reach audiences on a global scale in real-time with high-quality video and audio streaming, Yostream is a next-generation browser-based live streaming software that offers a seamless and immersive streaming experience. Along with content creators, it allows individuals, businesses, and organizations to stream live events, performances, webinars, gaming sessions, and other activities to an online audience in real time. Viewers can access these live streams from various platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, LinkedIn, etc., and interact with the content as it happens. Yostream's strong infrastructure guarantees low-latency delivery, cutting down on buffering, and assuring seamless playback across a variety of devices and internet connections. From multistreaming to interactive chat functionalities to custom branding, Yostream equips content creators with the tools they need to better engage and understand their audience through live stream.
Let’s unravel the technology behind Yostream in this step-by-step manual and understand how a piece of content travels all the way on the magical path of live streaming to enchant audiences worldwide.
As you’re well aware that Yostream is a browser-based live streaming software, you don’t need to install any additional software to kick-start your journey. Remember, every software isn’t made to dance to the tunes of your device’s operating system and hardware. Let’s be honest, most of the streamers aren’t tech-savvy and don’t use heavy machines which often resemble the cockpit of a flight simulator. At one moment, a user with soaring enthusiasm may install any heavy software as a ticket to his streaming fame and glory but within a second he can see his computer gasping for breath. And even if the device supports the software, it takes a pretty good time for the user to familiarize with the cluttered mess of buttons, settings, and toolbars.
However, downloading software for your streaming experience isn’t that bad but obviously, you can’t master it almost instantly as it takes time to master the art and become an expert in the field. To fix things up, you can use just your browser to stream like a seasoned pro, sans the technical fuss. After successfully logging into Yostream on your preferred browser (chrome, firefox, safari, etc.), you get secure access to various features and streaming tools within your browser’s interface. With a few simple clicks, Yostream becomes the control center taking care of complex technological processes behind the scenes and ready to organize your virtual backstage area.
The very first step in live streaming occurs by connecting your video and audio sources to the computer you’re using. For the video source, you can use a built-in webcam or any external camera. You can even convert your mobile phone into a webcam using appropriate software. Your video will be captured at the frame rate of 30 frames per second (fps) whereas you can enjoy the resolution of 480p in the free version and 720p in our pro plan. Similarly, for the audio source, you can use your built-in microphone or any external audio interface.
Once you give permission to the browser to access your video and audio, Yostream starts capturing your video and audio data coming in from the respective sources. The captured video signals are processed (color correction, exposure adjustment, etc.) and the audio signals are also processed for noise reduction, gain adjustment, and other audio enhancements before being converted to digital format from the raw analog counterpart.
The audio-visual file is too big hence to make itself travel smoothly it takes the help of encoding where data is compressed using codecs (coder-decoder) into small segments without compromising its original quality. Then, files are converted into suitable formats that can be interpreted by the end user’s device. Technically, the process of encoding involves two essential components:
A. Compression
B. Transcoding
Compression: The compression part deals with removing redundant data to reduce the file size because large files are too nasty to be uploaded quickly and it won’t play back smoothly at the receiver’s end. Picture this: you’re recording your video in a room with a bookshelf in the background. As you know, your video file is made up of multiple segments where the bookshelf remains the same in every frame. Now compression takes charge. It will remove the unnecessary frames which give the same message repeatedly thus reducing the file size significantly along with maintaining a justifiable level of quality.
Transcoding: Imagine yourself talking with a group of people who come from different countries and speak and understand only their native languages. You’re fluent in English and French. But what if you’ve to explain something to someone who can’t acknowledge whatever you’re uttering? Surely, you need a multilingual pal who can assist you in communicating with others. This is what transcoding does. The transcoder creates multiple versions of your file knowing who's watching and sends them the version that can play best on their devices without bumping. Transcoding takes care of all your concerns regarding compatibility issues between sender and receiver devices.
Once the process of encoding is completed, your data is ready to move on. The segmented audio-video information (data chunks) is transported to a server which is basically a superhero comprising tremendous capabilities of processing, security, storage, sharing, communication, and other kinds of stuff. The tiny data packets are moved to the server using a specific set of rules called ‘protocol’ which ensures that your streamable files reach the server without any hindrances. It’s just like your friendly cab driver in an unknown city devoted to finding the best path without letting you stuck in a traffic jam. Your reliable navigator will ensure your data never wanders off-track.
As mentioned earlier, data is segmented into little pieces of a big jigsaw puzzle. It’s the job of the protocol to deliver these pieces to the server faithfully and in order. After arriving at the destination, the server arranges these pieces to bring them back to their initial form i.e. the original audio-video file you wanted to stream. Consider the server as a guardian who manages everything under an umbrella. Of the various roles it plays, some significant ones are:
Consider buying a specific item that is manufactured and sold only in New York. However, your current location is New Delhi. You want it instantly but you also know that it’s not possible because of several transportation and delivery factors. How about the manufacturer establishing contact with a store in your locality where the desired item can be sold? Your problem is solved, right?
Taking the above example, if a content creator is streaming from New York and a viewer sitting in New Delhi wants to watch the stream, he/she might experience buffering, latency, or connectivity issues. Then comes the Content Delivery Network to your rescue! CDN is a global network of servers that ensures fast delivery of content on a user’s device in its geographical proximity. The server of the content creator in New York sends a copy of the streaming material to CDN located near New Delhi asking it to deliver to the viewer.
The distance and transmission time between the source and the viewer has now been drastically reduced using CDN which means the latter is ready to watch a nearly real-time stream. After receiving the data from the nearest CDN (edge server), the user’s device decodes it in the correct order and starts playing the live stream content which will now load faster giving a smoother viewing experience to the user.