Secondary input for improved redundancy

Our platform allows two inputs for each live-stream: a primary and secondary.

The secondary input allows a second copy of the live-stream to be pushed into our platform. Should there be an outage on the primary input, we switch to the secondary input until the primary is restored.

Secondary input requirements

In order for seamlessly switching between the primary and secondary input, the two incoming streams must use the same codec and sample rate but their bitrates may be different. This allows for example a high bitrate primary, but lower bitrate secondary.

For example this will work:

Primary 44.1kHz MP3 128kb --> Secondary 44.1kHz MP3 64kb

But this will not:

Primary 44.1kHz MP3 128kb --> Secondary 48kHz MP3 128kb

Other notes

• It is not possible to precisely control the switch-over time, but usually happens within a few seconds.
• Loudness levels between the two streams should be matched to improve the listener experience.

Setting up secondary input

• Customers can order additional stream capture hardware from us, pre-configured to push into the secondary input.
• Customers can configure their own hardware or software to push into the secondary input. Our support team can provide you with the specific details to set this up, but typically will use all the same details ass the primary input endpoint, with a different mount point name: /<id>_fallback

Recommendations

• Having redundant hardware in place can eliminate outages should the capture hardware fail. However, a large source of outages are intermittent issues on the ISP layer. It is highly recommended to configure the secondary to use a secondary ISP.
• If the location and budget allows it, ideally a completely different physical connection should also be used to provide the highest level of reliability.