Streamer Point Of View

How a streamer goes live.

The streamer does not need to know about signed URLs or viewer authorization. They only publish media to a Stream Live Input using a broadcast tool.

OBS / RTMPS flow

A platform admin enables the Stream Live Input in Cloudflare Stream before the scheduled demo.

The streamer opens OBS and chooses Settings -> Stream -> Service: Custom.

The streamer pastes the RTMPS server URL and stream key from the Cloudflare Stream Live Input.

The streamer starts broadcasting. Cloudflare Stream packages playback for the player and HLS/DASH clients.

The platform embeds the viewer experience at a stream-specific hostname such as public-webinar.streams.stanic.io or in its own application.

RTMPS stream keys, SRT passphrases, and WebRTC publish URLs are ingest credentials. They should only be shown to the authorized broadcaster and should not be stored in frontend code.

Browser / WebRTC flow

For a browser-first creator experience, Stream WebRTC can publish via WHIP and play via WHEP. It is useful when sub-second latency is the priority. For production flows that need recording, VOD replay, viewer counts, analytics, or standard HLS/DASH playback, use standard Stream Live instead. The current WebRTC beta limitations are documented in Limitations while in beta.