Configuring an Input Stream with Multicast Transmission

Owned by alon.men@zixi.com
02 Sept 2020
2 min read

Multicast streams are pulled from the Zixi Broadcaster by the various end-points/receivers. To allow the pulling of a specific channel, you need to configure the Input stream to enable transmission as multicast. The input stream (coming from the origin can be any of the supported stream types (e.g. Push, Pull, UDP, File, RTMP, HLS, TS over HTTP, RIST). In the consumption segment there are a variety of devices that can receive the Zixi-protected stream (e.g. Zixi Receiver). This receiving device will be configured to listen to the stream in order to pull it from the Zixi Broadcaster. Since the specific stream has been configured in the Zixi Broadcaster to “Transmit as multicast”, the stream will be automatically transmitted to the receiving device.
The following instructions describe the process of configuring the input stream in Zixi Broadcaster, but they do not include all the relevant fields and steps to configure an input stream, just the ones that are specific for the configuration of a multicast input stream. For more information regarding additional settings, please refer to the Zixi Broadcaster User Guide.

 To configure an input stream with multicast transmission:

  1. In Zixi Broadcaster, go to Inputs.
  2. Click the +New Input
    The Add a new input stream window is displayed.
  3. In the Stream ID field, enter the unique name for the input stream (case-sensitive string).
  4. In the Max Outputs field, enter the maximum concurrent connections to this stream. Default: Unlimited.
  5. Select any of the stream types (radio buttons) – Push, Pull, UDP, File, RTMP, HLS, TS over HTTP, RIST, according to the incoming stream type.   
  6. Under Stream Parameters, enter the various parameters to configure the stream (see user guide for more details).
  7. Select the Transmit as multicast
  8. Do one of the following:
    • If you wish to enable full Unicast streaming as a fallback option when the multicast connection fails – DO NOT select the Multicast Only checkbox.
    • If you want to enable multicast only without the unicast fallback option, select the Multicast Only checkbox. The unicast error correction will be still enabled.
  9. Configure additional parameters as necessary and click OK.
    The multicast stream is available for streaming. Since the stream will be pulled, you don't need to specify an output stream.