Live Streaming Server - What is it & How to build one for Yourself

For any live-streaming business, the live-streaming server is the backbone! And if you are a regular live streamer with immense bandwidth consumption, you might be thinking of setting up an in-house live-streaming server, right? In this blog, we will tell you how to do that, what benefits you will get, what cons you should know about, and what are alternatives available. So, let’s dive in straight away!

If you are already well aware of a live-streaming server, then you can skip this part. But, for those unversed, a live-streaming server is just a type of video streaming server, that helps telecast live feed.

Now what is a video streaming server?

A video streaming server is a web server with built-in RTPS functionality. This function helps it deliver live and recorded video feeds to any device that can access the internet.

Nowadays, cloud-based video streaming servers and content delivery networks are in use massively. One of the major reasons why they are preferred over traditional video streaming servers is that they enable the viewers to stream the content directly from the cloud.

Hence, the viewers don’t need to store the video feeds in their systems. Hence, they can save a lot of memory space this way. Otherwise, we all remember those old days when we could hardly store 100 movies in a device. Today, we can stream over 1000 movies through the internet and cloud servers.

The answer is both yes and no! Technically, a live streaming server is also a video streaming server, so there is no difference in their technical build or functionality.

But theoretically, a live streaming server is used for live streams, where the video stream is broadcasted as soon as it is captured.

If you want to live stream, you will need a server, because, without it, you won’t be able to broadcast your live streams efficiently. But, apart from this obvious reason, there are a few more reasons to choose a dedicated and good-quality live-streaming server, some of which are mentioned below.

A good live-streaming servers let you share videos using HLS share outputs. These HLS links are very easy to embed and stream on multiple platforms, hence increasing your audience base significantly.

A good live-streaming server has the ability to handle multiple concurrent viewerships at a single time. Now, you need to understand this point technically. Suppose you have done a very good promotion of your live event and a million people from across the globe are expected to join in. But, if your server doesn’t have the capacity to support this stream, it will get stuck as soon as some thousand people join in. Hence, you will have to lose a large section of the audience.

That is why, before choosing a live-streaming server, you must check whether it is capable of handling a large number of concurrent viewers or not.

Nowadays, all the good live streaming servers are compatible with all the leading web browsers and multiple devices like mobile phones, smart TVs, tablets, and P