Live Video Source deployment


The live video source consists of two separate deployments: one for the GStreamer container and another for the nginx container. These containers are automatically built using GitLab workflows. For details on how these components interact within a deployment, refer to the page Live Pod Deployments.

gstreamer_livesource

Notes on the gstreamer_livesource github repo (the repo has notes about each file in the readme file, the only file that really needs explaining is the 'gstream' executable) :

gstream

The the code inside the "gstream" script is explained below:

  • while true; do:
    • Starts an infinite loop. The script will continue running until manually stopped.
  • sleep 10:
    • Introduces a 10-second pause between each loop iteration.
  • gst-launch-1.0:
    • This is a GStreamer command-line utility used to create multimedia pipelines.
    • Pipeline Details:
      • videotestsrc is-live=true
        • Generates a test video source (a color bar or pattern) that continuously streams (is-live=true).
      • video/x-raw,width=1024,height=768,framerate=60/1 
        • Configures the video properties—resolution (1024x768) and frame rate (60 FPS).
      • videoconvert 
        • Ensures the video format is compatible with downstream elements in the pipeline.
      • clockoverlay time-format="%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z" 
        • Overlays a timestamp on the video, showing the date, time, and time zone.
      • x264enc tune=zerolatency 
        • Encodes the video using the H.264 codec with low-latency settings, ideal for streaming.
      • flvmux streamable=true name=mux 
        • Packages the video into the FLV (Flash Video) format, enabling streaming. The name mux is assigned to this element for reference.
      • audiotestsrc is-live=true wave=ticks 
        • Generates a test audio signal (a ticking sound) and streams it live.
      • voaacenc 
        • Encodes the audio using the AAC codec.
      • mux 
        • Combines the audio and video streams into the FLV container.
      • rtmpsink location='rtmp://nginx/live/test live=true'
        • Streams the FLV content to the specified RTMP server (rtmp://nginx/live/test).
      • live=true 
        • parameter optimizes the connection for live streaming.
  • done
    • Ends the loop and returns to while true; to repeat the process.
Purpose:

This script generates and continuously streams a video with a timestamp overlay and a ticking sound to an RTMP server (like an nginx server configured with an RTMP module). It can be used for testing live streaming pipelines or ensuring the server setup is functioning properly.

gstream_webserver

This example uses nginx as a front end to serve a JavaScript player while acting as a proxy to the live video source generated by the 'gstream' process behind it.  I''m not going to put the entire configuration for the nginx server here since it's pretty standard.  I'll focus on specific sections of the files that highlight the unique aspects of this deployment.  

  • ./Dockerfile
  • ./html/index.html
    • https://github.com/cstradtman/gstreamer_webserver/blob/main/html/index.html
    • A simple HTML file that provides access to HLS and DASH versions of the stream from the gstream_livesource container. It utilizes Video.js, a widely-used open-source HTML5 video player framework. The video.js package is sourced from Unpkg.com, a fast and globally distributed content delivery network (CDN) that serves files directly from the npm (Node Package Manager) registry.
  • ./etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
    • https://github.com/cstradtman/gstreamer_webserver/blob/main/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
    • In this setup, the /live directory serves as a staging area for streaming content, facilitating the connection between the live source and the end user's video player. The mod-rtmp module processes the RTMP stream by segmenting it into smaller chunks (e.g., .ts files for HLS and .mp4 fragments for DASH) and generating the corresponding manifest files (.m3u8 for HLS and .mpd for DASH). These output files are stored in the /live directory, where they are made accessible to clients through the /hls and /dash
  • ./etc/nginx/nginx.conf
    • https://github.com/cstradtman/gstreamer_webserver/blob/main/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
    • This is a standard nginx.conf file with a rtmp stanza added to create 2 live streams from the rtmp stream produced by the gstream service.  One stream is HLS and one is DASH.

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