NGINX RTMP/RTMPS to HLS and MPEG-Dash media stream broadcaster

This is a Docker image to compile, configure and serve NGINX 1.19.6 with the RTMP module to support authenticated and encrypted RTMP/RTMPS media stream as intake, and broadcast HLS and MPEG-Dash streams to multiple simultaneous users on the internet.

Check out this blog post for more information about it.

Warnings

1. I've created a dummy SSL certificate/key pair and included it on ./ssl. Be sure to use a different/real one if you're going to run this on production.

2. Be sure to edit the $arg_streamkey and $arg_watchkey values on the nginx.conf file, so it will use your own secret "stream key" and "watch key". The default $arg_streamkey is 5f3e32f3bad0, and the $arg_watchkey is 16356b9f.

3. Mind that you will have to rebuild the image for those changes to take effect.

Running

Build the image:

$ docker-compose build broadcaster

Turn on the NGINX server:

$ docker-compose up broadcaster

This will bind the 4080, 4443, 4080 and 4936 ports to your host machine, so the host will act as the NGINX server.

Streaming (Publish video stream)

The address to stream follows the format:

<protocol>:<nginx-server-address>:<port>/live/<media-name>?streamkey=<stream-key>

• <protocol>: Either rtmp or rtmps.
• <nginx-server-address>: The IP/DNS of the NGINX server.
• <port>: Use 4935 for rtmp, and 4936 for rtmps.
• <media-name>: Choose a unique URL-compliant name.
• <stream-key>: The streaming key, defaults to 5f3e32f3bad0.

Examples:

• rtmps:192.168.1.192:4936/live/myvideo?streamkey=5f3e32f3bad0
• rtmp:192.168.1.192:4935/live/othervideo?streamkey=5f3e32f3bad0

Streaming a .mp4 file (in loop) using FFmpeg

Over RTMP:

$ ffmpeg \
  -stream_loop -1 \
  -i sample.mp4 \
  -f flv "rtmp:192.168.1.192:4935/live/testing?streamkey=5f3e32f3bad0"

Over RTMPS:

$ ffmpeg \
  -stream_loop -1 \
  -i sample.mp4 \
  -f flv "rtmps:192.168.1.192:4936/live/testing?streamkey=5f3e32f3bad0"

Streaming an USB webcam live feed (audio and video) using FFmpeg

Over RTMP:

ffmpeg \
    -f video4linux2 -framerate 25 -video_size 1280x720 -i /dev/video0 \
    -f alsa -ac 2 -i sysdefault:CARD=WEBCAM \
    -c:v libx264 -b:v 1600k -preset ultrafast \
    -x264opts keyint=50 -g 25 -pix_fmt yuv420p \
    -c:a aac -b:a 128k \
    -vf "drawtext=fontfile=/usr/share/fonts/dejavu/DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf: \
text='CLOUD DETECTION CAMERA 01 UTC-3 %{localtime\:%Y-%m-%dT%T}': [email protected]: fontsize=16: x=10: y=10: box=1: boxcolor=black: boxborderw=6" \
    -f flv "rtmp:192.168.1.192:4935/live/mycam?streamkey=5f3e32f3bad0"

Over RTMPS:

ffmpeg \
    -f video4linux2 -framerate 25 -video_size 1280x720 -i /dev/video0 \
    -f alsa -ac 2 -i sysdefault:CARD=WEBCAM \
    -c:v libx264 -b:v 1600k -preset ultrafast \
    -x264opts keyint=50 -g 25 -pix_fmt yuv420p \
    -c:a aac -b:a 128k \
    -vf "drawtext=fontfile=/usr/share/fonts/dejavu/DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf: \
text='CLOUD DETECTION CAMERA 01 UTC-3 %{localtime\:%Y-%m-%dT%T}': [email protected]: fontsize=16: x=10: y=10: box=1: boxcolor=black: boxborderw=6" \
    -f flv "rtmps:192.168.1.192:4936/live/mycam?streamkey=5f3e32f3bad0"

Watching (Play video stream)

For the .mp4 file example, this would be the secure HLS watching address:
https://192.168.1.192:4443/hls/testing.m3u8?watchkey=16356b9f

And this would be the MPEG-Dash one:
https://192.168.1.192:4443/dash/testing.mpd?watchkey=16356b9f

But you can also watch them without end-to-end encryption:
HLS - http://192.168.1.192:4080/hls/testing.m3u8?watchkey=16356b9f
Dash - http://192.168.1.192:4080/dash/testing.mpd?watchkey=16356b9f

However I don't recommend using this for production. Mind the stream and watch keys will be sent as plain-text on such connections.

You can insert these addresses (changing to match your server IP) on the VLC network stream connection address input (Ctrl + n) to watch the stream. All HLS and Dash clients are supported, check for one on your application store if you don't want to use VLC.

It also works on the browser, check for Web/JavaScript HLS and Dash clients; I recommend checking Google's Shaka Dash player.

Here follows a more complete information about these addresses.

Watching in HLS

The HLS watching address follows the format:

<protocol>://<nginx-server-address>:<port>/hls/<media-name>.m3u8?watchkey=<watch-key>

• <protocol>: Either http or https.
• <nginx-server-address>: The IP/DNS of the NGINX server.
• <port>: Use 4080 for http, and 4443 for https.
• <media-name>: The media-name of the stream.
• <watch-key>: The watching key, defaults to 16356b9f.

Examples:

• https://192.168.1.192:4443/hls/myvideo.m3u8?watchkey=16356b9f
• http://192.168.1.192:4080/hls/othervideo.m3u8?watchkey=16356b9f

Watching in MPEG-Dash (preferred)

The Dash watching address follows the format:

<protocol>://<nginx-server-address>:<port>/dash/<media-name>.mpd?watchkey=<watch-key>

• <protocol>: Either http or https.
• <nginx-server-address>: The IP/DNS of the NGINX server.
• <port>: Use 4080 for http, and 4443 for https.
• <media-name>: The media-name of the stream.
• <watch-key>: The watching key, defaults to 16356b9f.

Examples:

• https://192.168.1.192:4443/dash/myvideo.mpd?watchkey=16356b9f
• http://192.168.1.192:4080/dash/othervideo.mpd?watchkey=16356b9f

License

These configuration files are available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.