What is OvenMediaEngine?

OvenMediaEngine (OME) is a Sub-Second Latency Live Streaming Server with Large-Scale and High-Definition. With OME, you can create platforms/services/systems that transmit high-definition video to hundreds-thousand viewers with sub-second latency and be scalable, depending on the number of concurrent viewers.

OvenMediaEngine can receive a video/audio, video, or audio source from encoders and cameras such as OvenLiveKit, OBS, XSplit, and more, to WebRTC, SRT, RTMP, MPEG-2 TS, and RTSP as Input. Then, OME transmits this source using LLHLS (Low Latency HLS) and WebRTC as output. Also, we provide OvenPlayer, an Open-Source and JavaScript-based WebRTC/LLHLS Player for OvenMediaEngine.

Our goal is to make it easier for you to build a stable broadcasting/streaming service with sub-second latency.

Features

• Ingest

  • Push: WebRTC, WHIP, SRT, RTMP, MPEG-2 TS

  • Pull: RTSP

  • Scheduled Channel (Pre-recorded Live)

  • Multiplex Channel (Duplicate stream / Mux tracks)

• Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (ABR) for HLS, LLHLS and WebRTC

• Low-Latency Streaming using LLHLS

  • DVR (Live Rewind)

  • Dump for VoD

  • ID3v2 timed metadata

  • DRM (Widevine, Fairplay)

• Sub-Second Latency Streaming using WebRTC

  • WebRTC over TCP (with embedded TURN server)

  • Embedded WebRTC Signaling Server (WebSocket based)

  • Retransmission with NACK

  • ULPFEC (Uneven Level Protection Forward Error Correction)

    • VP8, H.264

  • In-band FEC (Forward Error Correction)

    • Opus

• HLS (version 3) Streaming support for legacy devices

  • MPEG-2 TS Container

  • Audio/Video Muxed

  • DVR (Live Rewind)

• Embedded Live Transcoder

  • Video: VP8, H.264, H.265(Hardware encoder only), Pass-through

  • Audio: Opus, AAC, Pass-through

• Clustering (Origin-Edge Structure)

• Monitoring

• Access Control

  • AdmissionWebhooks

  • SignedPolicy

• File Recording

• Push Publishing using SRT, RTMP and MPEG2-TS (Re-streaming)

• Thumbnail

• REST API

Supported Platforms

We have tested OvenMediaEngine on platforms, listed below. However, we think it can work with other Linux packages as well:

• Docker (https://hub.docker.com/r/airensoft/ovenmediaengine)

• Ubuntu 18+

• Rocky Linux 9+

• AlmaLinux 9+

• Fedora 28+

Getting Started

Please read Getting Started chapter in the tutorials.

How to Contribute

Thank you so much for being so interested in OvenMediaEngine.

We need your help to keep and develop our open-source project, and we want to tell you that you can contribute in many ways. Please see our Guidelines, Rules, and Contribute.

• Finding Bugs

• Reviewing Code

• Sharing Ideas

• Testing

• Improving Documentation

• Spreading & Use Cases

• Recurring Donations

We always hope that OvenMediaEngine will give you good inspiration.

For more information

• OvenMediaEngine GitHub

• OvenMediaEngine Website

• OvenMediaEngine Tutorial Source

• Test Player

  • Without TLS: http://demo.ovenplayer.com

  • With TLS: https://demo.ovenplayer.com

• OvenPlayer Github

• AirenSoft Website

License

OvenMediaEngine is licensed under the AGPL-3.0-only. However, if you need another license, please feel free to email us at contact@airensoft.com.

Getting Started with Docker Image

OvenMediaEngine provides Docker images from AirenSoft's Docker Hub (airensoft/ovenmediaengine) repository. You can easily use OvenMediaEngine server by using Docker image. See Getting Started with Docker for details.

Getting Started with Source Code

Installing dependencies

OvenMediaEngine can work with a variety of open-sources and libraries. First, install them on your clean Linux machine as described below. We think that OME can support most Linux packages, but the tested platforms we use are Ubuntu 18+, Fedora 28+, Rocky Linux 9+, and AlmaLinux 9+.

curl -LOJ https://github.com/AirenSoft/OvenMediaEngine/archive/v0.17.1.tar.gz && \
tar xvfz OvenMediaEngine-0.17.1.tar.gz && \
OvenMediaEngine-master/misc/prerequisites.sh

Building & Running

You can build the OvenMediaEngine source using the following command:

sudo apt-get update
cd OvenMediaEngine-0.17.1/src
make release
sudo make install
systemctl start ovenmediaengine
# If you want automatically start on boot
systemctl enable ovenmediaengine.service 

sudo dnf update
cd OvenMediaEngine-0.17.1/src
make release
sudo make install
systemctl start ovenmediaengine
# If you want automatically start on boot
systemctl enable ovenmediaengine.service

sudo dnf update
cd OvenMediaEngine-0.17.1/src
make release
sudo make install
systemctl start ovenmediaengine
# If you want automatically start on boot
systemctl enable ovenmediaengine.service

sudo dnf update
cd OvenMediaEngine-0.17.1/src
make release
sudo make install
systemctl start ovenmediaengine
# If you want automatically start on boot
systemctl enable ovenmediaengine.service

Ports used by default

The default configuration uses the following ports, so you need to open it in your firewall settings.

You can open firewall ports as in the following example:

$ sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=3333/tcp
$ sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=3334/tcp
$ sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=1935/tcp
$ sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=9999/udp
$ sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=4000/udp
$ sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=3478/tcp
$ sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=9000/tcp
$ sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=10000-10009/udp

OvenMediaEngine supports multiple protocols for input from various live sources, without compromising basic usability. This allows you to publish a variety of live sources with sub-second latency. See the sub-page for more information.

This page provides the fastest way to check playback of WebRTC and LLHLS using OvenMediaEngine. For installation and detailed settings, please refer to other pages.

Run OvenMediaEngine

Run docker with the command below. OME_HOST_IP must be an IP address accessible by the player.

$ docker run --name ome -d -e OME_HOST_IP=Your.HOST.IP.Address \
-p 1935:1935 -p 9999:9999/udp -p 9000:9000 -p 3333:3333 -p 3478:3478 -p 10000-10009:10000-10009/udp \
airensoft/ovenmediaengine:0.17.1

$ docker ps -f name=ome
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                              COMMAND                  CREATED              STATUS              PORTS                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           NAMES
c9dd9e56d7a0   airensoft/ovenmediaengine:latest   "/opt/ovenmediaengin…"   About a minute ago   Up About a minute   0.0.0.0:1935->1935/tcp, :::1935->1935/tcp, 80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:3333->3333/tcp, :::3333->3333/tcp, 3334/tcp, 8080/tcp, 0.0.0.0:3478->3478/tcp, :::3478->3478/tcp, 4000-4005/udp, 8090/tcp, 0.0.0.0:9000->9000/tcp, :::9000->9000/tcp, 10010/udp, 0.0.0.0:9999-10009->9999-10009/udp, :::9999-10009->9999-10009/udp   ome

$ docker logs ome -f
[2023-03-06 08:01:24.810] I [OvenMediaEngine:1] Config | config_manager.cpp:239  | Trying to set logfile in directory... (/var/log/ovenmediaengine)
[2023-03-06 08:01:24.810] I [OvenMediaEngine:1] Config | config_manager.cpp:261  | Trying to load configurations... (origin_conf/Server.xml)
[2023-03-06 08:01:24.816] I [OvenMediaEngine:1] OvenMediaEngine | banner.cpp:23   | OvenMediaEngine v0.15.1 () is started on [ab3995acafd4] (Linux x86_64 - 5.13.0-44-generic, #49~20.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Wed May 18 18:44:28 UTC 2022)
...

Run OvenPlayer Demo

$ docker run -d -p 8090:80 airensoft/ovenplayerdemo:latest

Publishing

Publish your live stream to OvenMediaEngine using a live encoder like OBS.

The RTMP publishing address is :

Server rtmp://Your.Docker.Host.IP:1935/app

Stream Key stream

The settings below are recommended for ultra-low latency.

Playback

Open the installed OvenPlayer Demo page in your browser.

http://Your.Docker.Host.IP:8090/

WebRTC Playback

Add ws://Your.Docker.Host.IP:3333/app/stream to the Playback URL and click the ADD SOURCE and LOAD PLAYER button to play the live stream with WebRTC.

LLHLS Playback

Add http://Your.Docker.Host.IP:3333/app/stream/llhls.m3u8 to the Playback URL and click the ADD SOURCE and LOAD PLAYER button to play the live stream with LLHLS.

Player & WebRTC Encoder

We provide online demos of OvenPlayer(WebRTC/LLHLS Player) and OvenLiveKit(WebRTC Live Encoder) so that users can easily test out OvenMediaEngine.

OvenSpace

OvenSpace offers a fast and easy way to experience the powerful tools of OvenMediaEngine, OvenPlayer, and OvenLiveKit in action.

With OvenSpace, you can quickly and easily stream content with sub-second latency using WebRTC technology, or take advantage of Apple's LLHLS specification to deliver low-latency live streaming. The platform allows you to stream from various sources, including your webcam, microphone, screen, or an external live encoder that supports RTMP and SRT.

OvenSpace is available online, so you can try it out for yourself at https://space.ovenplayer.com/. You'll get a hands-on experience of how OvenMediaEngine, OvenPlayer, and OvenLiveKit work together seamlessly to deliver top-quality streaming, whether you're a developer looking to build a media service or someone who wants to experience sub-second or low-latency streaming firsthand.

OvenSpace is also available on Github as open source. It will be a good reference when developing media services using OvenMediaEngine, OvenPlayer and OvenLiveKit.

Starting from version OME v0.15.1, IPv6 is supported.

To use IPv6, you need to change the settings of the Server.xml file as follows:

1. Configuration for listening

You can use /Server/IP to support IPv6. In versions prior to v0.15.0, only one /Server/IP setting could be specified, but in versions after v0.15.1, multiple settings can be specified. That is, if you add an /Server/IP element for IPv6 to the existing configuration as follows, you can accept IPv6 requests from clients:

Example 1) IPv4 Only

OME listens to the 1935 port for RTMP as follows:

Example 2) IPv6 Only

OME listens to the 1935 port for RTMP as follows:

Example 3) IPv4 + IPv6

OME listens to the 1935 port for RTMP as follows:

2. Configuration for IceCandidates (for WebRTC)

When you specify IPv6 interface /Server/IP, most Providers/Publishers will work with IPv6, but WebRTC will not. While the WebSocket server used as the WebRTC Signalling server works well with the above setting, but more setting is required for ICE Candidates that actually transmit/receive data.

To use IPv6 ICE Candidate, you need to add an IPv6 IceCandidate to /Server/Bind/(Providers|Publishers)/WebRTC/IceCandidates.

By setting up as above, OME is ready to use ICE Candidates for IPv6 as well as IPv4. The ICE Candidate generated here can be viewed in the signaling step of the web browser.

3. Configuration for <Origin>

Now you can set up the OME edge to look at an origin with an IPv6 IP address. To do this, you can set /Server/VirtualHosts/VirtualHost/Origins/Origin/Pass/Urls/Url as follows:

This configuration creates a stream that refers an RTSP source provided on port 1234 of an origin which has an IPv6 address of 1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8.

4. Configuration for <AdmissionWebhooks>

You can also specify an IPv6 address for the server that AdmissionWebhooks is using. To do this, set the value of /Server/VirtualHosts/VirtualHost/AdmissionWebhooks/ControlServerUrl as follows:

The above configuration asks whether the client has the permission to publish or playback using http://[1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8]:7000/a/b/c.

OvenMediaEngine can pull RTSP Stream in two ways. The first way is to use the Stream creation API, and the second way is to use OriginMap or OriginMapStore. The supported codecs are H.264, AAC(ADTS). Supported codecs will continue to be added.

Pulling streams using the Stream Creation API

Pulling streams using the OriginMapStore

Pulling streams using the OriginMap

Configuration

For example, in the above setup, when a player requests "ws://ome.com/app_name/rtsp_stream_name" to stream WebRTC, it pulls the stream from "rtsp://192.168.0.200:554" and publishes it to WebRTC.

Event to trigger pulling

When a playback request comes in from the following URL, RTSP pull starts working according to Origins settings.

SRT uses the MPEG-TS format when transmitting live streams. This means that unlike RTMP, it can support many codecs. Currently, OvenMediaEngine supports H.264, H.265, and AAC codecs received by SRT.

Configuration

Bind

Set the SRT listen port as follows:

Application

SRT input can be turned on/off for each application. As follows Setting enables the SRT input function of the application.

Encoders and streamid

There are various encoders that support SRT such as FFMPEG, OBS Studio, and srt-live-transmit. Please check the specifications of each encoder on how to transmit streams through SRT from the encoder. We describe an example using OBS Studio.

streamid = percent_encoding("srt://{host}[:port]/{app name}/{stream name}[?query=value]")

OBS Studio

srt://{full domain or IP address}:port?streamid=srt%3A%2F%2F{full domain or IP address}[%3APort]%2F{App name}%2F{Stream name}&latency=2000000

The streamid has to be the urlencoded address of the server name as specified in the ome server configuration plus the app name and the stream name, each separated by /. The latency configures the size of the server-side recive buffer and the time limit for SRT in nanoseconds. Typical value for latency are 150000 (150ms) for stremaing to a server in the local network, 600000 (600ms) for streaming to a server over the internet in the local region, and 2000000 (2 seconds) when stremaing over long distance.

Blackmagic Web Presenter

For configuring a Blackmagic Web Presenter, ATEM Mini Pro or similar device to stream to OvenMediaEngine over SRT, choose the "Custom URL H264/H265" platform option with the following syntax:

SRT Socket Options

You can configure SRT's socket options of the OvenMediaEngine server using <Options>. This is particularly useful when setting the encryption for SRT, and you can specify a passphrase by configuring as follows:

Most browsers can't load resources via HTTP and WS (WebSocket) from HTTPS web pages secured with TLS. Therefore, if the player is on an HTTPS page, the player must request streaming through "https" and "wss" URLs secured with TLS. In this case, you must apply the TLS certificate to the OvenMediaEngine.

You can set the port for TLS in TLSPort. Currently, LLHLS and WebRTC Signaling support TLS.

Add your certificate files to as follows:

To enable HTTP for HLS and WebRTC signaling servers, you must enable the TLS element and install the certificate file in PEM format. This involves indicating a server certificate through the CertPath, as well as a private key file through the KeyPath. These paths can be specified as either absolute or relative paths from the executable. However, if the server certificate was issued using an intermediate certificate, some browsers may raise concerns about the certificate's authenticity. To address this, a bundle of chained certificates provided by a Certificate Authority can be set in the ChainCertPath.

Configuration

Providers ingests streams that come from a media source. OvenMediaEngine supports RTMP protocol. You can set it in the configuration as follows:

When a live source inputs to the <Application>, a stream is automatically created in the <Application>. The created stream is passed to Encoder and Publisher.

RTMP live stream

If you set up a live stream using an RTMP-based encoder, you need to set the following in Server.xml:

• <BlockDuplicateStreamName> is a policy for streams that are inputted as overlaps.

<BlockDuplicateStreamName> works with the following rules:

Publish

If you want to publish the source stream, you need to set the following in the Encoder:

• URL RTMP://<OvenMediaEngine IP>[:<RTMP Listen Port>]/<App Name]>

• Stream Key Stream Name

If you use the default configuration, the <RTMP><ListenPort> is 1935, which is the default port for RTMP. So it can be omitted. Also, since the Application named app is created by default in the default configuration, you can enter app in the [App Name]. You can define a Stream Key and use it in the Encoder, and the Streaming URL will change according to the Stream Key.

Moreover, some encoders can include a stream key in the URL, and if you use these encoders, you need to set it as follows:

• URL RTMP://<OvenMediaEngine IP>[:<RTMP Listen Port>/<App Name>/<Stream Name>

Example with OvenLiveKit (OvenStreamEncoder)

If you are using the default configuration, press the URL button in the top right corner of OvenStreamEnoder, and enter the URL as shown below:

Also, <App name> and <Stream name> can be changed and used as desired in the configuration.

Example with OBS

If you use the default configuration, set the OBS as follows:

You can set the Stream Key to any name you like at any time.

From version 0.10.4, MPEG-2 TS input is supported. The supported codecs are H.264, AAC(ADTS). Supported codecs will continue to be added. And the current version only supports basic MPEG-2 TS with 188 bytes packet size. Since the information about the input stream is obtained using PAT and PMT, the client must send this table information as required.

Configuration

To enable MPEG-2 TS, you must bind the ports fist and map the bound ports and streams.

Bind

To use multiple streams, it is necessary to bind multiple ports, so we provide a way to bind multiple ports as in the example below. You can use the dash to specify the port as a range, such as Start port-End port, and multiple ports using commas.

Stream mapping

First, name the stream and map the port bound above. The macro ${Port} is provided to map multiple streams at once. Check out the example below.

Publish

This is an example of publishing using FFMPEG.

Getting Started with default settings

OvenMediaEngine provides the Docker image from AirenSoft's Docker Hub (airensoft/ovenmediaengine) repository. After installing Docker, you can simply run the following command:

docker run --name ome -d -e OME_HOST_IP=Your.HOST.IP.Address \
-p 1935:1935 -p 9999:9999/udp -p 9000:9000 -p 3333:3333 -p 3478:3478 -p 10000-10009:10000-10009/udp \
airensoft/ovenmediaengine:0.17.1

You can set the following environment variables.

Environment Variables

Getting Started with Complex Configuration

When you need to install a certificate in OME or apply a complex configuration, you can do it by following the procedure below to modify Server.xml inside Docker.

OvenMediaEngine docker container loads configuration files from the following path.

There are many ways to change files inside a Docker container, but this document describes how to change them using Docker's bind mounts.

Setup

Create the directories

export OME_DOCKER_HOME=/opt/ovenmediaengine
sudo mkdir -p $OME_DOCKER_HOME/conf
sudo mkdir -p $OME_DOCKER_HOME/logs

# Set permissions for the created directory if necessary.
sudo chgrp -R docker $OME_DOCKER_HOME 
sudo chmod -R 775 $OME_DOCKER_HOME

# If you want to use OME_HOME permanently, add the following line to the ~/.profile file for bash, for other shells, you can do it accordingly.
echo "export OME_DOCKER_HOME=/opt/ovenmediaengine" >> ~/.profile

Copy the default configurations from Docker container

docker run -d --name tmp-ome airensoft/ovenmediaengine:latest
docker cp tmp-ome:/opt/ovenmediaengine/bin/origin_conf/Server.xml $OME_DOCKER_HOME/conf
docker cp tmp-ome:/opt/ovenmediaengine/bin/origin_conf/Logger.xml $OME_DOCKER_HOME/conf
docker rm -f tmp-ome

Copy the certificate files to the directory

Copy your PEM certificate files to the path below if you need to enable TLS. The destination file names must match if using the default configuration. If you want to change the file name, you can do so by editing the Server.xml configuration file. See TLS Encryption for details.

cp /your/server_certificate_file.crt $OME_DOCKER_HOME/conf/cert.crt
cp /your/certificate_key_file.key $OME_DOCKER_HOME/conf/cert.key
cp /your/ca_bundle_file.ca-bundle $OME_DOCKER_HOME/conf/cert.ca-bundle

Modify Server.xml if necessary

vi $OME_DOCKER_HOME/conf/Server.xml

Running

Run Docker Container

The command below will make your OvenMediaEngine docker container run with $OME_DOCKER_HOME/conf/Server.xml and $OME_DOCKER_HOME/conf/Logger.xml files on your host. It will also create $OME_DOCKER_HOME/logs/ovenmediaengine.log file.

docker run -d -it --name ome -e OME_HOST_IP=Your.HOST.IP.Address \
-v $OME_DOCKER_HOME/conf:/opt/ovenmediaengine/bin/origin_conf \
-v $OME_DOCKER_HOME/logs:/var/log/ovenmediaengine \
-p 1935:1935 -p 9999:9999/udp -p 9000:9000 -p 3333:3333 -p 3478:3478 \
-p 10000-10009:10000-10009/udp \
airensoft/ovenmediaengine:0.17.1

Check the log file

tail -f $OME_DOCKER_HOME/logs/ovenmediaengine.log

Restart Docker Container

docker restart ome

Stop and Remove Container

docker stop ome
docker rm ome

OvenMediaEngine has a built-in live transcoder. The live transcoder can decode the incoming live source and re-encode it with the set codec or adjust the quality to encode at multiple bitrates.

Supported Video, Audio and Image Codecs

Decoders

Encoders

OutputProfiles

OutputProfile

The <OutputProfile> setting allows incoming streams to be re-encoded via the <Encodes> setting to create a new output stream. The name of the new output stream is determined by the rules set in <OutputStreamName>, and the newly created stream can be used according to the streaming URL format.

<OutputProfiles>
    <OutputProfile>
        <Name>bypass_stream</Name>
        <OutputStreamName>${OriginStreamName}_bypass</OutputStreamName>
        <Encodes>
            <Video>
                <Bypass>true</Bypass>
            </Video>
            <Audio>
                <Bypass>true</Bypass>
            </Audio>            
            <Audio>
                <Codec>opus</Codec>
                <Bitrate>128000</Bitrate>
                <Samplerate>48000</Samplerate>
                <Channel>2</Channel>
            </Audio>
        </Encodes>
    </OutputProfile>
</OutputProfiles>

According to the above setting, if the incoming stream name is stream, the output stream becomes stream_bypassand the stream URL can be used as follows.

• WebRTC ws://192.168.0.1:3333/app/stream_bypass

• LLHLS http://192.168.0.1:8080/app/stream_bypass/llhls.m3u8

• HLS http://192.168.0.1:8080/app/stream_bypass/ts:playlist.m3u8

Encodes

Video

You can set the video profile as below:

<Encodes>
    <Video>
        <Name>h264_hd</Name>
        <Codec>h264</Codec>
        <Width>1280</Width>
        <Height>720</Height>
        <Bitrate>2000000</Bitrate>
        <Framerate>30.0</Framerate>
        <KeyFrameInterval>30</KeyFrameInterval>
        <BFrames>0</BFrames>
        <Preset>fast</Preset>
        <ThreadCount>4</ThreadCount>
    </Video>
</Encodes>

The meaning of each property is as follows:

* required

Table of presets

A table in which presets provided for each codec library are mapped to OvenMediaEngine presets. Slow presets are of good quality and use a lot of resources, whereas Fast presets have lower quality and better performance. It can be set according to your own system environment and service purpose.

References

• https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/VP8

• https://docs.nvidia.com/video-technologies/video-codec-sdk/nvenc-preset-migration-guide/

Audio

You can set the audio profile as below:

<Encodes>
    <Audio>
        <Name>opus_128</Name>
        <Codec>opus</Codec>
        <Bitrate>128000</Bitrate>
        <Samplerate>48000</Samplerate>
        <Channel>2</Channel>
    </Audio>
</Encodes>

The meaning of each property is as follows:

* required

It is possible to have an audio only output profile by specifying the Audio profile and omitting a Video one.

Image

You can set the Image profile as below:

<Encodes>
    <Image>
        <Codec>jpeg</Codec>
        <Width>1280</Width>
        <Height>720</Height>
        <Framerate>1</Framerate>
    </Image>
</Encodes>

The meaning of each property is as follows:

Bypass without transcoding

You can configure Video and Audio to bypass transcoding as follows:

<Video>
    <Bypass>true</Bypass>
</Video>
<Audio>
    <Bypass>true</Bypass>
</Audio>

WebRTC doesn't support AAC, so if video bypasses transcoding, audio must be encoded in OPUS.

<Encodes>
    <Video>
        <Bypass>true</Bypass>
    </Video>
    <Audio>
        <Codec>opus</Codec>
        <Bitrate>128000</Bitrate>
        <Samplerate>48000</Samplerate>
        <Channel>2</Channel>
    </Audio>
</Encodes>

Conditional transcoding

If the codec or quality of the input stream is the same as the profile to be encoded into the output stream. there is no need to perform re-transcoding while unnecessarily consuming a lot of system resources. If the quality of the input track matches all the conditions of BypassIfMatch, it will be Pass-through without encoding

Matching elements in video

* eq: equal to / lte: less than or equal to / gte: greater than or equal to

Matching elements in audio

* eq: equal to / lte: less than or equal to / gte: greater than or equal to

To support WebRTC and LLHLS, AAC and Opus codecs must be supported at the same time. Use the settings below to reduce unnecessary audio encoding.

<Encodes>
	<Video>
                <Bypass>true</Bypass>	
	</Video>
	<Audio>
		<Name>cond_audio_aac</Name>
		<Codec>aac</Codec>
		<Bitrate>128000</Bitrate>
		<Samplerate>48000</Samplerate>
		<Channel>2</Channel>
		<BypassIfMatch>
			<Codec>eq</Codec>
			<Samplerate>lte</Samplerate>
			<Channel>eq</Channel>			
		</BypassIfMatch>
	</Audio>		
	<Audio>
		<Name>cond_audio_opus</Name>
		<Codec>opus</Codec>
		<Bitrate>128000</Bitrate>
		<Samplerate>48000</Samplerate>
		<Channel>2</Channel>
		<BypassIfMatch>
			<Codec>eq</Codec>
			<Samplerate>lte</Samplerate>
			<Channel>eq</Channel>	
		</BypassIfMatch>	
	</Audio>
</Encodes>

If a video track with a lower quality than the encoding option is input, unnecessary upscaling can be prevented. SAR (Storage Aspect Ratio) is the ratio of original pixels. In the example below, even if the width and height of the original video are smaller than or equal to the width and height set in the encoding option, if the ratio is different, it means that encoding is performed without bypassing.

<Encodes>
	<Video>                                                                                                    
		<Name>prevent_upscaling_video</Name>
		<Codec>h264</Codec>
		<Bitrate>2048000</Bitrate>
		<Width>1280</Width>
		<Height>720</Height>
		<Framerate>30</Framerate>
		<BypassIfMatch>
			<Codec>eq</Codec>
			<Width>lte</Width>
			<Height>lte</Height>
			<SAR>eq</SAR>
		</BypassIfMatch>
	</Video>
</Encodes>

Keep the original with transcoding

If you want to transcode with the same quality as the original. See the sample below for possible parameters that OME supports to keep original. If you remove the Width, Height, Framerate, Samplerate, and Channel parameters. then, It is transcoded with the same options as the original.

<Encodes>
    <Video>
        <Codec>vp8</Codec>
        <Bitrate>2000000</Bitrate>
    </Video>
     <Audio>
        <Codec>opus</Codec>
        <Bitrate>128000</Bitrate>
    </Audio>  
    <Image>
        <Codec>jpeg</Codec>
    </Image>
</Encodes>

Rescaling while keep the aspect ratio

To change the video resolution when transcoding, use the values of width and height in the Video encode option. If you don't know the resolution of the original, it will be difficult to keep the aspect ratio after transcoding. Please use the following methods to solve these problems. For example, if you input only the Width value in the Video encoding option, the Height value is automatically generated according to the ratio of the original video.

<Encodes>
    <Video>
        <Codec>h264</Codec>
        <Bitrate>2000000</Bitrate>
        <Width>1280</Width>
        <!-- Height is automatically calculated as the original video ratio -->
        <Framerate>30.0</Framerate>
    </Video>
    <Video>
        <Codec>h264</Codec>
        <Bitrate>2000000</Bitrate>
        <!-- Width is automatically calculated as the original video ratio -->
        <Height>720</Height>
        <Framerate>30.0</Framerate>
    </Video>    
</Encodes>

Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (ABR)

From version 0.14.0, OvenMediaEngine can encode same source with multiple bitrates renditions and deliver it to the player.

As shown in the example configuration below, you can provide ABR by adding <Playlists> to <OutputProfile>. There can be multiple playlists, and each playlist can be accessed with <FileName>.

The method to access the playlist set through LLHLS is as follows.

http[s]://<domain>[:port]/<app>/<stream>/<FileName>.m3u8

The method to access the playlist set through HLS is as follows.

http[s]://<domain>[:port]/<app>/<stream>/<FileName>.m3u8?format=ts

The method to access the Playlist set through WebRTC is as follows.

ws[s]://<domain>[:port]/<app>/<stream>/<FileName>

Note that <FileName> must never contain the playlist and chunklist keywords. This is a reserved word used inside the system.

To set up <Rendition>, you need to add <Name> to the elements of <Encodes>. Connect the set <Name> into <Rendition><Video> or <Rendition><Audio>.

In the example below, three quality renditions are provided and the URL to play the abr playlist as LLHLS is https://domain:port/app/stream/abr.m3u8 and The WebRTC playback URL is wss://domain:port/app/stream/abr

<OutputProfile>
	<Name>bypass_stream</Name>
	<OutputStreamName>${OriginStreamName}</OutputStreamName>
	<!--LLHLS URL : https://domain/app/stream/abr.m3u8 --> 
	<Playlist>
		<Name>For LLHLS</Name>
		<FileName>abr</FileName>
		<Options> <!-- Optinal -->
			<!-- 
			Automatically switch rendition in WebRTC ABR 
			[Default] : true
			-->
			<WebRtcAutoAbr>true</WebRtcAutoAbr> 
			<EnableTsPackaging>true</EnableTsPackaging>
		</Options>
		<Rendition>
			<Name>Bypass</Name>
			<Video>bypass_video</Video>
			<Audio>bypass_audio</Audio>
		</Rendition>
		<Rendition>
			<Name>FHD</Name>
			<Video>video_1280</Video>
			<Audio>bypass_audio</Audio>
		</Rendition>
		<Rendition>
			<Name>HD</Name>
			<Video>video_720</Video>
			<Audio>bypass_audio</Audio>
		</Rendition>
	</Playlist>
	<!--LLHLS URL : https://domain/app/stream/llhls.m3u8 --> 
	<Playlist>
		<Name>Change Default</Name>
		<FileName>llhls</FileName>
		<Rendition>
			<Name>HD</Name>
			<Video>video_720</Video>
			<Audio>bypass_audio</Audio>
		</Rendition>
	</Playlist> 
	<Encodes>
		<Audio>
			<Name>bypass_audio</Name>
			<Bypass>true</Bypass>
		</Audio>
		<Video>
			<Name>bypass_video</Name>
			<Bypass>true</Bypass>
		</Video>
		<Audio>
			<Codec>opus</Codec>
			<Bitrate>128000</Bitrate>
			<Samplerate>48000</Samplerate>
			<Channel>2</Channel>
		</Audio>
		<Video>
			<Name>video_1280</Name>
			<Codec>h264</Codec>
			<Bitrate>5024000</Bitrate>
			<Framerate>30</Framerate>
			<Width>1920</Width>
			<Height>1280</Height>
			<Preset>faster</Preset>
		</Video>
		<Video>
			<Name>video_720</Name>
			<Codec>h264</Codec>
			<Bitrate>2024000</Bitrate>
			<Framerate>30</Framerate>
			<Width>1280</Width>
			<Height>720</Height>
			<Preset>faster</Preset>
		</Video>
	</Encodes>
</OutputProfile>

Supported codecs by streaming protocol

Even if you set up multiple codecs, there is a codec that matches each streaming protocol supported by OME, so it can automatically select and stream codecs that match the protocol. However, if you don't set a codec that matches the streaming protocol you want to use, it won't be streamed.

The following is a list of codecs that match each streaming protocol:

Therefore, you set it up as shown in the table. If you want to stream using LLHLS, you need to set up H.264, H.265 and AAC, and if you want to stream using WebRTC, you need to set up Opus.

Also, if you are going to use WebRTC on all platforms, you need to configure both VP8 and H.264. This is because different codecs are supported for each browser, for example, VP8 only, H264 only, or both.

However, don't worry. If you set the codecs correctly, OME automatically sends the stream of codecs requested by the browser.

OvenMediaEngine supports GPU-based hardware decoding and encoding. Currently supported GPU acceleration devices are Intel's QuickSync and NVIDIA. This article explains how to install the drivers for OvenMediaEngine and set up the configuration to use your GPU.

1. Install Drivers

(curl -LOJ https://github.com/AirenSoft/OvenMediaEngine/archive/master.tar.gz && tar xvfz OvenMediaEngine-master.tar.gz)
OvenMediaEngine-master/misc/install_nvidia_driver.sh

$ nvidia-smi

Thu Jun 17 10:20:23 2021
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 465.19.01    Driver Version: 465.19.01    CUDA Version: 11.3     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name        Persistence-M| Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp  Perf  Pwr:Usage/Cap|         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                               |                      |               MIG M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
|   0  NVIDIA GeForce ...  Off  | 00000000:01:00.0 Off |                  N/A |
| 20%   35C    P8    N/A /  75W |    156MiB /  1997MiB |      0%      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

OvenMediaEngine-master/misc/prerequisites.sh --enable-nvc

OvenMediaEngine-master/misc/install_nvidia_docker_container.sh

OvenMediaEngine-master/Dockerfile.cuda
OvenMediaEngine-master/Dockerfile.cuda.local

(curl -LOJ https://github.com/AirenSoft/OvenMediaEngine/archive/master.tar.gz && tar xvfz OvenMediaEngine-master.tar.gz) 
OvenMediaEngine-master/misc/install_intel_driver.sh

# Use the samples provided in the Intel Media SDK
# Check the list of codecs supported by iGPU
/MediaSDK-intel-mediasdk-21.1.2/build/__bin/release/simple_7_codec

OvenMediaEngine-master/misc/prerequisites.sh --enable-qsv

ldconfig -p | grep libxcoder_logan.so

./prerequisites.sh --enable-nilogan --nilogan-path=/root/T4xx/release/FFmpeg-n5.0_t4xx_patch

2. Build & Run

Please refer to the link for how to build and run.

docker run -d ... --gpus all airensoft/ovenmediaengine:dev

3. Configuration

To use hardware acceleration, set the HardwareAcceleration option to true under OutputProfiles. If this option is enabled, a hardware codec is automatically used when creating a stream, and if it is unavailable due to insufficient hardware resources, it is replaced with a software codec.

<VirtualHosts>
   <VirtualHost>
      <Name>default</Name>
      ...
      <!-- Settings for applications -->
      <Applications>
         <Application>
            <Name>app</Name>
            <Type>live</Type>
            <OutputProfiles>
               <!-- Settings to use hardware codecs -->
               <HardwareAcceleration>true</HardwareAcceleration>
               <OutputProfile>
                  ...
               </OutputProfile>
               <OutputProfile>
                  ...
               </OutputProfile>
            </OutputProfiles>
            <Providers>
               ...
            </Providers>
            <Publishers>
               ...
            </Publishers>
         </Application>
      </Applications>
   </VirtualHost>
</VirtualHosts>

Appendix. Support Format

The codecs available using hardware accelerators in OvenMediaEngine are as shown in the table below. Different GPUs support different codecs. If the hardware codec is not available, you should check if your GPU device supports the codec.

D : Decoding, E : Encoding

Reference

• Quick Sync Video Format : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video

• NVIDIA NVDEC Video Format : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_NVDEC

• NVIDIA NVENV Video Format : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_NVENC

• CUDA Toolkit Installation Guide : https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-installation-guide-linux/index.html#introduction

• NVIDIA Container Toolkit : https://docs.nvidia.com/datacenter/cloud-native/container-toolkit/arch-overview.html#arch-overview

• Quick Sync Video format support: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video

TranscodeWebhook allows OvenMediaEngine to use OutputProfiles from the Control Server's response instead of the OutputProfiles in the local configuration (Server.xml). OvenMediaEngine requests OutputProfiles from the Control Server when streams are created, enabling the specification of different profiles for each individual stream.

Configuration

<Applications>
	<Application>
		<Name>app</Name>
		<!-- Application type (live/vod) -->
		<Type>live</Type>

		<TranscodeWebhook>
			<Enable>true</Enable>
			<ControlServerUrl>http://example.com/webhook</ControlServerUrl>
			<SecretKey>abc123!@#</SecretKey>
			<Timeout>1500</Timeout>
			<UseLocalProfilesOnConnectionFailure>true</UseLocalProfilesOnConnectionFailure>
                        <UseLocalProfilesOnServerDisallow>false</UseLocalProfilesOnServerDisallow>
                        <UseLocalProfilesOnErrorResponse>false</UseLocalProfilesOnErrorResponse>
		</TranscodeWebhook>