In general, live streaming is the technology to deliver content (Audio, Video, data, etc.) to other devices (computers, mobiles, etc.) over the internet-using one
of the known protocols, such as TCP, RTSP, UDP, RTP, etc.
At the recipients' side (devices), you only need the URI of the streamed data to begin watching or listening almost immediately.
The stream can be unicast or multicast.
- Unicast stream: sends IP packets to a single recipient. Therefore, it is handled and received by one recipient at a time.
-
Multicast stream: sends IP packets to a group of hosts and recipients.
Therefore, many recipients can receive it at the same time.
Note that I am familiar with the live streaming technology, but not particularly with Facebook streams.
The
source of the live stream can be from a media file (on disk), capture
device (source) or any other media that provides video or audio stream
output.
LEADTOOLS Multimedia programming toolkit provides the
ability to stream data from files, capture devices, etc. over many of
the well-known protocols.
For example, the following code shows how
you can stream a media file over UDP protocol using the Convert control
from LEADTOOLS:
-
- ConvertCtrl Converter = new ConvertCtrl(true);
- Converter.SourceFile = @"C:\Source.mp4";
- Converter.TargetFormat = TargetFormatType.MPEG2Transport;
- Converter.VideoCompressors.H264.Selected = true;
- Converter.AudioCompressors.AC3.Selected = true;
- Converter.TargetFile = "Add your UDP URL here";
-
- Converter.StartConvert();
Note that you can stop the conversion (streaming) process anytime using the Converter.StopConvert() method. This is more information about the convert control:
https://www.leadtools.com/help/leadtools/v20/dh/multimedia/mm/convertctrl-sourcefile.html