This guide will walk you through setting up our NVS-25 hardware encoder to stream to both Facebook Live and YouTube Live by using our DVS-200 Cloud Server software.

Facebook and YouTube were chosen for this guide because they are popular streaming services (aka Content Delivery Networks, or CDN's) that are free to use. You can easily substitute or add the services of your choice by following the general concepts of this guide.

While this guide simplifies the setup process, it helps to understand a few streaming basics before proceeding. This guide will feature some additional tips throughout for those who are new to streaming.

This guide is divided into 5 sections for easy reference:

How Fast Is Your Connection?

First, it's important to know the location's upload speed, which is measured in megabits (Mbit/s or Mbps).

Note: This is not the same as megabytes (MB/s), as there are 8 bits to 1 byte. That means if you have an 8 Megabit per second upload speed, under ideal conditions you can upload 1 Megabyte per second. [More on Data-Rate Units]

To stream HD video following this guide, visit speedtest.net, click the GO button, and view the upload speed results. You should have between 8 and 12 Mbit/s.

Note: Your bandwidth is not constant, these are more like averages, so your upload speed may vary depending on network conditions. If you have a lot of wireless users on your network, you may want to configure or purchase network hardware that prioritizes the hardware streaming encoder to get the majority of the upload bandwidth when in use. This is known as Quality of Service (QoS).

Installing DVS-200

The DVS-200 when you first install it runs in a free mode. For this guide, you need a license for the full version, to take advantage of its advanced features.

Please carefully follow pages 1 - 5 (7 - 11 in the PDF) of the DVS-200 Manual for steps on how to:

• Create a Droplet (aka Cloud Server) on Digital Ocean
• Deploy (aka Install) the DVS-200 server software
• Log into your new server and create a channel

A droplet is like a virtual server, where you lease processing power and storage from a service provider. It's a lot easier than building your own.

In this guide, we chose Digital Ocean for its simplicity, but please follow the steps in the manual exactly as written, or your server may not work correctly, and require you to start over.

Common issues users run into are:

• Choosing the wrong version of Ubuntu Linux for the droplet
  • You must choose Ubuntu 14.04.5 x64
    • Other versions will not work with the software
  • Under each operating system icon, there is a drop-down menu to select the correct version. The default version is not compatible.

 

• Not choosing the server location closest to you
  • If you are in the United States, do not choose London

• Not correctly pasting the commands for the "User Data" box
  • If you have issues copying and pasting the installation script commands on page 3 of the manual (9 of the PDF), download this .TXT file
  • Open the file, and press ctrl-A to select all text, then ctrl-C to copy to your clipboard
  • Go back to your Digital Ocean setup page and click inside the User Data text box, then press ctrl-V to paste the commands
    • Note: The .txt file is not a script file, it is the commands properly formatted to paste into the User Data box on Digital Ocean

Setting Up Stream Box

This guide covers our NVS-25, NVS-31, and NVS-40. The NVS-31 is built into our HS-1300, HS-1600T, and HS-3200 Mobilecast switchers.

Please reference this support article for recommended encoder settings.
 

Connecting to Stream Services

If connecting to YouTube Live, please read this article about optimizing latency.

How to find RTMP URL for:
YouTube
Facebook
DaCast
Livestream
UStream

Setting Up DVS-200

Please note that transcoding with a cloud droplet can severely impact performance. If you notice any dropouts or issues, please click on Stats and check the CPU meter. If it is stuck at 100%, then transcoding may be the issue.