Low-Latency HLS

Apple supports Low-Latency HLS (LLHLS), which enables low-latency video streaming while maintaining scalability. LLHLS enables broadcasting with an end-to-end latency of about 2 to 5 seconds. OvenMediaEngine officially supports LLHLS as of v0.14.0.

LLHLS is an extension of HLS, so legacy HLS players can play LLHLS streams. However, the legacy HLS player plays the stream without using the low-latency function.

Title	Descriptions
Container	fMP4 (Audio, Video)
Security	TLS (HTTPS)
Transport	HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2
Codec	H.264, H.265, AAC
Default URL Pattern	http[s]://{OvenMediaEngine Host}[:{LLHLS Port}]/{App Name}/{Stream Name}/master.m3u8

Configuration

To use LLHLS, you need to add the <LLHLS> elements to the <Publishers> in the configuration as shown in the following example.

<Server>
    ...
    <Bind>
        <Publishers>
            <LLHLS>
                <!-- 
                    OME only supports h2, so LLHLS works over HTTP/1.1 on non-TLS ports. 
                    LLHLS works with higher performance over HTTP/2, 
                    so it is recommended to use a TLS port.
                -->
                <Port>80</Port>
                <TLSPort>443</TLSPort>
                <WorkerCount>1</WorkerCount>
            </LLHLS>
        </Publishers>
    </Bind>
    ...
    <VirtualHosts>
        <VirtualHost>
            <Applications>
                <Application>
                    <Publishers>
                        <LLHLS>
                            <ChunkDuration>0.2</ChunkDuration>
                            <SegmentDuration>6</SegmentDuration>
                            <SegmentCount>10</SegmentCount>
                            <CrossDomains>
                                <Url>*</Url>
                            </CrossDomains>
                        </LLHLS>
                    </Publishers>
                </Application>
            </Applications>
        </VirtualHost>
    </VirtualHosts>
    ...
</Server>

Element	Decscription
Bind	Set the HTTP ports to provide LLHLS.
ChunkDuration	Set the partial segment length to fractional seconds. This value affects low-latency HLS player. We recommend 0.2 seconds for this value.
SegmentDuration	Set the length of the segment in seconds. Therefore, a shorter value allows the stream to start faster. However, a value that is too short will make legacy HLS players unstable. Apple recommends 6 seconds for this value.
SegmentCount	The number of segments listed in the playlist. This value has little effect on LLHLS players, so use 10 as recommended by Apple. 5 is recommended for legacy HLS players. Do not set below 3. It can only be used for experimentation.
CrossDomains	Control the domain in which the player works through <CrossDomain>. For more information, please refer to the CrossDomain section.

HTTP/2 outperforms HTTP/1.1, especially with LLHLS. Since all current browsers only support h2, HTTP/2 is supported only on TLS port. Therefore, it is highly recommended to use LLHLS on the TLS port.

Adaptive Bitrates Streaming (ABR)

LLHLS can deliver adaptive bitrate streaming. OME encodes the same source with multiple renditions and delivers it to the players. And LLHLS Player, including OvenPlayer, selects the best quality rendition according to its network environment. Of course, these players also provide option for users to manually select rendition.

See the Adaptive Bitrates Streaming section for how to configure renditions.

CrossDomain

For information on CrossDomains, see CrossDomains chapter.

Streaming

LLHLS is ready when a live source is inputted and a stream is created. Viewers can stream using OvenPlayer or other players.

If your input stream is already h.264/aac, you can use the input stream as is like below. If not, or if you want to change the encoding quality, you can do Transcoding.

<!-- /Server/VirtualHosts/VirtualHost/Applications/Application/OutputProfiles -->
<OutputProfile>
    <Name>bypass_stream</Name>
    <OutputStreamName>${OriginStreamName}</OutputStreamName>
    <Encodes>
        <Audio>
            <Bypass>true</Bypass>
        </Audio>
        <Video>
            <Bypass>true</Bypass>
        </Video>
    </Encodes>
</OutputProfile>

When you create a stream, as shown above, you can play LLHLS with the following URL:

http[s]://{OvenMediaEngine Host}[:{LLHLS Port}]/{App Name}/{Stream Name}/master.m3u8

If you use the default configuration, you can start streaming with the following URL:

http://{OvenMediaEngine Host}:3333/app/{Stream Name}/master.m3u8

We have prepared a test player that you can quickly see if OvenMediaEngine is working. Please refer to the Test Player for more information.

Live Rewind

You can create as long a playlist as you want by setting <DVR> to the LLHLS publisher as shown below. This allows the player to rewind the live stream and play older segments. OvenMediaEngine stores and uses old segments in a file in <DVR>/<TempStoragePath> to prevent excessive memory usage. It stores as much as <DVR>/<MaxDuration> and the unit is seconds.

<!-- /Server/VirtualHosts/VirtualHost/Applications/Application/Publishers -->
<LLHLS>
    ...
    <DVR>
        <Enable>true</Enable>
        <TempStoragePath>/tmp/ome_dvr/</TempStoragePath>
        <MaxDuration>3600</MaxDuration>
    </DVR>
    ...
</LLHLS>

ID3v2 Timed Metadata

ID3 Timed metadata can be sent to the LLHLS stream through the Send Event API.

Dump

You can dump the LLHLS stream for VoD. You can enable it by setting the following in <Application>/<Publishers>/<LLHLS>. Dump function can also be controlled by Dump API.

<!-- /Server/VirtualHosts/VirtualHost/Applications/Application/Publishers -->
<LLHLS>
    ...
    <Dumps>
        <Dump>
            <Enable>true</Enable>
            <TargetStreamName>stream*</TargetStreamName>
            
            <Playlists>
                <Playlist>llhls.m3u8</Playlist>
                <Playlist>abr.m3u8</Playlist>
            </Playlists>
    
            <OutputPath>/service/www/ome-dev.airensoft.com/html/${VHostName}_${AppName}_${StreamName}/${YYYY}_${MM}_${DD}_${hh}_${mm}_${ss}</OutputPath>
        </Dump>
    </Dumps>
    ...
</LLHLS>

<TargetStreamName>

The name of the stream to dump to. You can use * and ? to filter stream names.

<Playlists>

The name of the master playlist file to be dumped together.

<OutputPath>

The folder to output to. In the <OutputPath> you can use the macros shown in the table below. You must have write permission on the specified folder.

Macro	Description
${VHostName}	Virtual Host Name
${AppName}	Application Name
${StreamName}	Stream Name
${YYYY}	Year
${MM}	Month
${DD}	Day
${hh}	Hour
${mm}	Minute
${ss}	Second
${S}	Timezone
${z}	UTC offset (ex: +0900)
${ISO8601}	Current time in ISO8601 format

Multiple Audio Track (Multilingual Audio)

OvenMediaEngine supports Multiple Audio Tracks in LLHLS. When multiple audio signals are input through a Provider, the LLHLS Publisher can utilize them to provide multiple audio tracks.

By simply sending multiple audio signals through SRT or Scheduled Channel, the LLHLS Publisher can provide multiple audio tracks. For example, to send multiple audio signals via SRT from OBS, you need to select multiple Audio Tracks and configure the Advanced Audio Properties to assign the appropriate audio to each track.

Since the incoming audio signals do not have labels, you can enhance usability by assigning labels to each audio signal as follows.

Labeling in SRT Provider

To assign labels to audio signals in the SRT Provider, configure the <AudioMap> as shown below:

<!-- /Server/VirtualHosts/VirtualHost/Applications/Application -->
<Providers>
    <SRT>
        <AudioMap>
            <Item>
                <Name>English</Name>
                <Language>en</Language> <!-- Optioanl, RFC 5646 -->
                <Characteristics>public.accessibility.describes-video</Characteristics> <!-- Optional -->
            </Item>
            <Item>
                <Name>Korean</Name>
                <Language>ko</Language> <!-- Optioanl, RFC 5646 -->
                <Characteristics>public.alternate</Characteristics> <!-- Optional -->
            </Item>
            <Item>
                <Name>Japanese</Name>
                <Language>ja</Language> <!-- Optioanl, RFC 5646 -->
                <Characteristics>public.alternate</Characteristics> <!-- Optional -->
            </Item>
        </AudioMap>
    ...
    </SRT>
</Providers>

Labeling in Scheduled Channel

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Schedule>
    <Stream>
        <Name>today</Name>
        <BypassTranscoder>false</BypassTranscoder>
        <VideoTrack>true</VideoTrack>
        <AudioTrack>true</AudioTrack>
        <AudioMap>
            <Item>
                <Name>English</Name>
                <Language>en</Language> <!-- Optioanl, RFC 5646 -->
                <Characteristics>public.accessibility.describes-video</Characteristics> <!-- Optional -->
            </Item>
            <Item>
                <Name>Korean</Name>
                <Language>ko</Language> <!-- Optioanl, RFC 5646 -->
                <Characteristics>public.alternate</Characteristics> <!-- Optional -->
            </Item>
            <Item>
                <Name>Japanese</Name>
                <Language>ja</Language> <!-- Optioanl, RFC 5646 -->
                <Characteristics>public.alternate</Characteristics> <!-- Optional -->
            </Item>
        </AudioMap>
    </Stream>
</Schedule>

DRM

OvenMediaEngine supports Widevine and Fairplay in LLHLS with simple setup since version 0.16.0.

Currently, DRM is only supported for H.264 and AAC codecs. Support for H.265 will be added soon.

To include DRM information in your LLHLS Publisher configuration, follow these steps. You can set the <InfoFile> path as either a relative path, starting from the directory where Server.xml is located, or as an absolute path.

<!-- /Server/VirtualHosts/VirtualHost/Applications/Application -->
<Publishers>
    <LLHLS>
        <ChunkDuration>0.5</ChunkDuration>
        <PartHoldBack>1.5</PartHoldBack>
        <SegmentDuration>6</SegmentDuration>
        <SegmentCount>10</SegmentCount>
        <DRM>
            <Enable>false</Enable>
            <InfoFile>path/to/file.xml</InfoFile>
        </DRM>
        <CrossDomains>
            <Url>*</Url>
        </CrossDomains>
    </LLHLS>
</Publishers>

The separation of the <DRM>/<InfoFile> is designed to allow dynamic changes to the file. Any modifications to the <DRM>/<InfoFile> will take effect when a new stream is generated.

Here's how you should structure your DRM Info File:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DRMInfo>
    <DRM>
        <Name>MultiDRM</Name>
        <VirtualHostName>default</VirtualHostName>
        <ApplicationName>app</ApplicationName>
        <StreamName>stream*</StreamName> <!-- Can be a wildcard regular expression -->
        <CencProtectScheme>cbcs</CencProtectScheme> <!-- Currently supports cbcs only -->
        <KeyId>572543f964e34dc68ba9ba9ef91d4xxx</KeyId> <!-- Hexadecimal -->
        <Key>16cf4232a86364b519e1982a27d90xxx</Key> <!-- Hexadecimal -->
        <Iv>572547f914e34dc68ba9ba9ef91d4xxx</Iv> <!-- Hexadecimal -->
        <Pssh>0000003f7073736800000000edef8ba979d64acea3c827dcd51d21ed0000001f1210572547f964e34dc68ba9ba9ef91d4c4a1a05657a64726d48f3c6899xxx</Pssh> <!-- Hexadecimal, for Widevine -->
        <!-- Add Pssh for FairPlay if needed -->
        <FairPlayKeyUrl>skd://fiarplay_key_url</FairPlayKeyUrl> <!-- FairPlay only -->
    </DRM>
    <DRM>
        <Name>MultiDRM2</Name>
        <VirtualHostName>default</VirtualHostName>
        <ApplicationName>app2</ApplicationName>
        <StreamName>stream*</StreamName> <!-- Can be a wildcard regular expression -->
        ...........
    </DRM>
</DRMInfo>

Multiple <DRM> can be set. Specify the <VirtualHostName>, <ApplicationName>, and <StreamName> where DRM should be applied. <StreamName> supports wildcard regular expressions.

Currently, <CencProtectScheme> only supports cbcs since FairPlay also supports only cbcs. There may be limited prospects for adding other schemes in the near future.

<KeyId>, <Key>, <Iv> and <Pssh> values are essential and should be provided by your DRM provider. <FairPlayKeyUrl> is only need for FairPlay and if you want to enable FairPlay to your stream, it is required. It will be also provided by your DRM provider.

OvenPlayer now includes DRM-related options. Enable DRM and input the License URL. Your content is now securely protected.

Pallycon DRM

Pallycon is no longer supported by the Open Source project and is only supported in the Enterprise version. For more information, see this article.

OvenMediaEngine integrates with Pallycon, allowing you to more easily apply DRM to LLHLS streams.

To integrate Pallycon, configure the DRMInfo.xml file as follows.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DRMInfo>
    <DRM>
        <Name>Pallycon</Name>
        <VirtualHostName>default</VirtualHostName>
        <ApplicationName>app</ApplicationName>
        <StreamName>stream*</StreamName> <!-- Can be wildcard regular expression -->

        <DRMProvider>Pallycon</DRMProvider> <!-- Manual(default), Pallycon -->
        <DRMSystem>Widevine,Fairplay</DRMSystem> <!-- Widevine, Fairplay -->
        <CencProtectScheme>cbcs</CencProtectScheme> <!-- cbcs, cenc -->
        <ContentId>${VHostName}_${AppName}_${StreamName}</ContentId>
        <KMSUrl>https://kms.pallycon.com/v2/cpix/pallycon/getKey/</KMSUrl>
        <KMSToken>xxxx</KMSToken>
    </DRM>
</DRMInfo>

Set <DRMProvider> to Pallycon. Then, set the necessary information as shown in the example. <KMSUrl> and <KMSToken> are values provided by the Pallycon console. <ContentId> can be created using ${VHostName}, ${AppName}, and ${StreamName} macros.