Straight answers about running a live show.
What bitrate to use, why your stream came out at 720p when you set 1080p, when SRT is worth the trouble and what a keyframe interval costs a viewer who just arrived. Real numbers from the platform we run, not a glossary.
What bitrate should you stream at?
For 1080p30, about 6 Mbps. For 1080p60, about 9. For 720p30, about 3, and 720p60, about 4.5. Frame rate drives the number far harder than resolution does, and your upload has to sustain it, not peak at it.
SRT vs RTMP vs WHIP: which ingest should you use?
Use RTMPS on a stable wired line: simple and universally supported. Use SRT when the path is lossy or cellular, because it recovers lost packets. Use WHIP when a browser should publish with nothing installed.
What a keyframe interval actually does
A keyframe is a complete picture; every other frame only describes what changed. A viewer cannot start watching until one arrives, so a two-second interval means up to two seconds of blank player before your stream appears for them.
How to multistream without doubling your upload
Send one encode up and let the fan-out happen downstream. Multistreaming from your own computer sends a separate copy to each platform, so four destinations cost four times your upload. One encode upstream costs the same regardless.
Why is my stream a lower resolution than I set?
Because one encode has to satisfy every destination at once, the programme is clamped to the least capable one enabled. Switch on a service that caps live contribution at 720p and everything else receives 720p too.
How much upload bandwidth do you actually need?
Comfortably more than your target bitrate, sustained for the whole show. A 1080p60 programme at 9 Mbps wants real headroom above 9 at all times — not a speed test that touched 12 once on a quiet afternoon.
30fps or 60fps: which should you stream at?
Choose 60 when the subject moves: sport, gameplay, a stage, a fitness class. Choose 30 for talking heads, slides and lecterns. Sixty costs roughly half again as much bitrate and buys nothing on a static shot.
What happens when a guest joins your show by link
The link carries a random single-purpose token. Your guest opens it in an ordinary browser, lands in a green room off air, and you bring them on when ready. No account is created and nothing is installed.
H.264, HEVC and HDR: what your destinations will accept
Live delivery is H.264. HEVC would use fewer bits for the same picture, but major live destinations reject it outright, and HDR is only admitted when paired with HEVC — so HDR is not available on this path today.
Cameras and audio for a multi-camera church service
Take audio from the sound desk, not the camera. That single change improves a worship stream more than any camera upgrade. Then add a locked wide shot, and a second camera on whoever is speaking, in that order.
What live streaming actually costs
Four things generate cost: how many sources come in, how many go out, whether you encode in the browser or on a GPU, and how much recording you keep. Inputs and outputs are five dollars a month each.