PRODUCTS
In live, two seconds is all it takes to lose half your audience. There’s no rewind button. No uploading a fixed version. Whether you’re covering a global product launch, a live sports showdown, or breaking news, stream success hinges on one thing: your live infrastructure working exactly when it’s needed.
But too often, the reality looks like this:
A fragile patchwork of FFmpeg commands, EC2 instances, ingest endpoints, and CDN routing logic. Teams spend more time writing error handlers than building the experience. And when viewership spikes, visibility vanishes just when it matters most.
We think there’s a better way.
This guide walks you through how to build a modern live streaming workflow using FastPix’s video API stack. You’ll get a blueprint for setting up low-latency, production-grade live streams without the glue code complete with features like live-to-VOD conversion, simulcasting, and instant clip creation.
We’ll unpack architectural decisions, share performance benchmarks, and highlight trade-offs so you can ship confidently, even under pressure.
Let’s get started.
Most live streaming setups are harder than they need to be. Here’s what usually goes wrong:
Too many moving parts. Ingest, encoding, storage, and delivery all use different tools. Every handoff adds complexity and risk. No real-time visibility. When something breaks, there’s no quick way to trace latency spikes, ABR behavior, or playback failures.
Rigid infrastructure. Scaling during traffic peaks or handling unpredictable events takes too much manual effort. Manual post-processing. Creating highlight clips or turning live into VOD still needs editing tools and time. No analytics. Teams can’t measure stream health, viewer churn, or quality of experience in a way that actually helps them improve.
Let’s break down how FastPix handles live streaming, from ingest to playback, without all the moving parts.
Ingest with flexibility
Start your stream using any RTMP or SRT-compatible encoder, OBS, Wirecast, or hardware-based. FastPix handles both standard and advanced ingest formats, while giving you full API control.
You get:
No manual setup. No fragile infrastructure. Just a consistent way to get live video into the pipeline, fast.
Once your stream is ingested, FastPix instantly transcodes your input into:
FastPix enhances this with context-aware encoding, which adjusts video renditions based not only on bitrate but also on input complexity saving bandwidth and improving visual quality.
Want to stream simultaneously to YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and your own app? FastPix’s API-driven simulcasting lets you:
No extra transcoding or configuration headaches.
Cut through hours of footage with real-time clip creation:
Every stream is recorded and can be published as VOD:
FastPix provides fully customizable SDKs for:
Gain deep insights on a per-viewer session basis:
Every live stream with FastPix starts with a single API call.
You create a new stream, and FastPix returns everything you need to go live:
Whether you're using OBS, Wirecast, or a custom encoder, you can plug these values in and start streaming within minutes. No manual setup. No guessing which URL to use. It’s built to be fast and API-first.
These credentials are what power your stream. You’ll use them to configure your encoder, authenticate the session, and ensure everything runs securely and reliably.
Next, plug your stream credentials into your broadcasting software whether it’s OBS, Wirecast, or a hardware encoder. FastPix supports both RTMPS and SRT, so you can choose the protocol that fits your needs:
Once configured, hit “Start Streaming” in your encoder. FastPix takes care of the ingest, failover, and real-time processing from there.
FastPix supports both RTMPS and SRT, giving you the flexibility to adapt to your streaming environment whether you're working with consumer-grade setups or mission-critical broadcasts.
Once your stream is live, FastPix keeps you in the loop. You get real-time status updates and webhook notifications that track every stage of the stream lifecycle.
You’ll know exactly when a stream goes live, becomes idle, or disconnects. You’ll also get instant alerts when recording starts or stops so there’s no guessing whether content is being captured.
This kind of visibility means fewer surprises and faster response times when something changes mid-broadcast.
You’ll know exactly when a stream goes live, becomes idle, or disconnects. You’ll also get instant alerts when recording starts or stops so there’s no guessing whether content is being captured.
And if your connection drops? FastPix gives you a reconnection window by default 1 minute, extendable up to 30 so a temporary network issue doesn’t end your stream. This buffer keeps your session stable without requiring manual restarts.
These features help you respond quickly to issues and maintain uninterrupted streaming.
4. Playback and viewer experience
Once live, viewers access your stream via the generated Playback URL:
For RTMPS: https://stream.fastpix.io/{playbackId}.m3u8
For SRT: srt://live.fastpix.io:778?streamid=play6135ac8f31dfd402577e5a14066bb7a6&passphrase={srtPlaybackSecret}
FastPix’s player supports adaptive bitrate streaming, optimizing video quality across devices and network conditions.
After the live session concludes, FastPix automatically records the stream and assigns a mediaId. You can access the recorded content under media details :
This enables on-demand playback, content repurposing, or archiving.
FastPix isn’t just a tool for sending video from A to B. It’s a fully integrated API platform designed to simplify the live streaming stack, while giving developers full control.
Here’s what it brings to the table:
FastPix gives you the tools to adapt the platform to your use case. Its APIs are built for flexibility from automation to real-time feedback:
Whether you're building a live event app, an internal broadcast tool, or a multi-platform distribution engine, FastPix helps you tailor the workflow to fit your audience and your stack.
Encoder → FastPix Ingest → Transcoding → Simulcast + Playback → Live Clipping → VOD + Analytics
From the moment your encoder sends a frame, FastPix handles the ingest, turns it into adaptive formats, routes it to simulcast destinations, powers playback, enables clipping, and auto-records everything for VOD with session-level analytics available throughout.
FastPix gives you everything you need to build high-performance live workflows without cobbling together five different tools.
Whether you’re launching a live event feature, building an OTT platform, or running a 24/7 broadcast, FastPix offers the API-powered video infrastructure to power your success. Sign up now and start streaming in minutes, with $25 free credits. And if you have questions how we fit in your workflow, reach out and we’ll be happy to talk.
To ensure low-latency delivery, use protocols like SRT for ingest and HLS with short segment durations for playback. Combine this with a globally distributed CDN that supports edge caching and adaptive bitrate streaming. Avoid long GOP structures and make use of just-in-time packaging to reduce startup delay.
ABR adjusts video quality in real time based on a viewer’s network conditions, delivering smoother playback with fewer stalls. CBR uses a fixed bitrate, which is simpler to encode but often leads to buffering or quality issues during network fluctuations. ABR is generally preferred for viewer-facing applications.
Implement automatic reconnect windows within your streaming setup. Use ingest endpoints that support redundancy and failover logic. Configure your encoder to retry on disconnect, and use server-side stream state tracking to preserve session continuity even during short dropouts.
A live streaming workflow refers to the series of technical steps that convert a live video source into a viewable stream across devices. It typically involves video ingestion, real-time encoding, CDN delivery, player playback, and optional features like clipping, recording, and analytics. Each part of the workflow must be optimized to ensure quality and reliability.
To stream to platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn simultaneously, you need simulcasting. This can be done by either configuring your encoder to send separate streams or by using a centralized API or cloud service that takes one input stream and distributes it to multiple destinations without requiring re-encoding.
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