Zype Live Service Guide Zype Live Service Guide

Zype Live Service Guide

With Zype Live, customers have a fast, reliable, and scalable set of tools for broadcasting live streams to audiences. This guide is intended as an end to end walkthrough of scheduling, broadcasting, and embedding a live stream with Zype Live. You can view the rest of our help center for deeper dives on specific Zype Live topics.

 

Key Benefits:

  • Get up and running with a Live Stream within a few hours.
  • Embed your live stream on a website -- includes enterprise-quality HTML5 web player.
  • Monetize Live Streams with subscription and transaction paywalls.
  • Easily archive your Live Event into a VOD asset after your broadcast ends.
  • Fast, robust, high-scale encoding and content delivery included with Zype Live.

Table of Contents

Before you get started… customer prerequisites

Getting access to your Zype Account

Getting access to a Zype Live Cloud Encoder

Creating live broadcasts with Zype Live

Monetizing live broadcasts

Embedding & publishing live broadcasts

Ready… set… action! Start your live broadcast

Archive your live broadcast post event

Advanced: Live social multicasting with Zype Live

Advanced: Broadcast live with your own CDN and encoded stream

Live broadcast troubleshooting

Ready to get started?

 

Before you get started… customer prerequisites

In order to broadcast live streams with Zype Live, you will need the following:

  • Live broadcast source content (either an on-demand live event or linear live stream)
  • A local software or hardware based encoder capable of converting your live stream source to RTMP. You can read more about compatible encoders here.
  • A stable internet connection capable of uploading up to 5 megabits per second for a typical 1080p stream source
  • Access to a computer or tablet in order to manage your live broadcast in Zype
  • A website or app where you can embed your live stream
  • A payment processor (e.g. Stripe, Braintree or Recurly) in order to support subscription or transaction paywalls on your live broadcast. You can read more about configuring your payment processor in Zype here.

 

Getting access to your Zype Account

In order to use Zype Live, you must have a Zype account in good standing. If you meet the customer prerequisites and are interested in working with Zype, please contact us here.

If you already have a Zype account and need to log in, please go here and log in with your email / password credentials: http://admin.zype.com/

 

Getting access to a Zype Live Cloud Encoder

Before you can start broadcasting your live stream with Zype Live, you’ll first need access to a Zype Live Cloud Encoder. 

Your Zype Live Cloud Encoder will allow you to transcode your RTMP source stream into multiple outgoing streaming renditions, allowing viewers to enjoy your live broadcast across a wide range of internet connections.

Zype provides Cloud Encoders that are geographically close to your live broadcast source location and configured to support your broadcast bandwidth.

You will be sent a Cloud Encoder Provisioning Questionnaire after signing up with Zype which will allow us to provision an encoder appropriate to your location and broadcast needs.

Once you’ve received your Cloud Encoder, you will need to turn it on in order to broadcast your live event. You can read more about enabling your Cloud Encoder here.

 

Creating live broadcasts with Zype Live

After getting access to your Cloud Encoder, you can now create a live broadcast in Zype with Zype Live. 

To begin you will need to visit the Zype Live section of Zype.

Click on the `Create a Live Event` button in order to begin the live event schedule workflow.

You will need to provide a title, description, select an event type, and optionally assign an off-air slate and categories to your live event.

You can read more about creating live events here.

 

Monetizing live broadcasts

While creating your live event, you can choose whether to monetize the broadcast with subscription or transaction paywalls.

In order to set up paywalls, you must first configure your own payment processor account integrated with Zype. You can read more about configuring payment processing and setting up paywalls here.

 

Embedding & publishing live broadcasts

Once you’ve created and scheduled your live broadcast and configured paywall settings, you’re now ready to embed and publish your broadcast on a website prior to going live.

You can access your live event embed code by visiting Zype Live and clicking into the `Broadcast` page for the live event you are ready to embed. Scroll down to the `Embed` section of the page to find the embed code for this live event.

Your Zype embed code includes everything you need to embed a player on your website, including paywalls if you have them configured.

You can read more about embedding players here.

You can learn more about customizing your Zype web player here.

 

Ready… set… action! Start your live broadcast

After embedding your live event on your website and turning on your cloud encoder, you’re now ready to go live.

If everything is in good shape, you’re ready to start broadcasting!

  • From the `Broadcast` page of the live event you are ready to stream, you will want to start by clicking on the `Show Stream` button below the player. This will show you a preview of your incoming source stream hitting your Zype Cloud Encoder. If this stream looks good, and it’s time for your broadcast to begin, you can move on.
  • Click “Start Broadcast” to begin streaming your live event to the public. Once you click “Start Broadcast” your viewers will be able to see your live stream in any publicly embedded players.
  • You can continue to monitor your live stream from the `Broadcast` page by clicking on the `Show Player` button, which gives you the same view of your stream as your audience.

When you are done with your live event, simply click on the `End Broadcast` button and follow the prompts to complete your live broadcast.

For more detailed instructions to get started, you can check our Live streaming with Zype 101 - Streaming Your First Live Event guide. 

 

Archive your live broadcast post event

After ending your broadcast by clicking on the `End Broadcast` button, you will be given the option to archive your live event.

Archiving your live event means making a VOD (video on-demand) archived copy that you can make available for viewers who were not able to access your stream while it was live.

Your VOD archive will utilize the same embed as your live event, and will include the same paywall requirements if you have them set up, providing you with a convenient option for monetizing your event long after your live stream has ended.

You can trim portions of the beginning and end of your live event prior to archiving in case you had some extra filler that should not be part of your long-term archive. Take care trimming, as once you make changes here, you are not able to update the VOD asset after confirming your archive.

Congratulations! You’ve completed your live broadcast!

 

Advanced: Live social multicasting with Zype Live

You can also multicast your live stream to social platforms like Facebook, YouTube Live, and Periscope with Zype Live.

In order to set up live social multicasting, you will need a specially provisioned Cloud Encoder capable of broadcasting your live event to the social platforms of your choosing, as well as access to your own account on each social endpoint and credentials for starting the live stream on that platform.

You can learn more about configuring and broadcasting live social multicasts here.

 

Advanced: Broadcast live with your own CDN and encoded stream

If you already have your own HLS encoding pipeline and CDN (Content Delivery Network) capable of handling end viewer delivery, you can also use Zype to publish and monetize self-hosted live streams.

You can learn more about broadcasting live with your own CDN and encoded streams here.

 

Live broadcast troubleshooting

If you’re trying to go live and having issues, please visit the following resources for troubleshooting and common questions:

Ready to get started?

If you’re ready to start broadcasting live with Zype and don’t have an account yet, please contact us here to learn more.