How to perform live streaming with on-premises encoders using .NET
This tutorial walks you through the steps of using the Azure Media Services .NET SDK to create a Channel that is configured for a pass-through delivery.
Prerequisites
The following are required to complete the tutorial:
- An Azure account.
- A Media Services account. To create a Media Services account, see How to Create a Media Services Account.
- Make sure the streaming endpoint from which you want to stream content is in the Running state.
- Set up your dev environment. For more information, see Set up your environment.
- A webcam. For example, Telestream Wirecast encoder.
Review the following articles:
- Azure Media Services RTMP Support and Live Encoders
- Live streaming with on-premises encoders that create multi-bitrate streams
Create and configure a Visual Studio project
Set up your development environment and populate the app.config file with connection information, as described in Media Services development with .NET.
Example
The following code example demonstrates how to achieve the following tasks:
- Connect to Media Services
- Create a channel
- Update the channel
- Retrieve the channel’s input endpoint. The input endpoint should be provided to the on-premises live encoder. The live encoder converts signals from the camera to streams that are sent to the channel’s input (ingest) endpoint.
- Retrieve the channel’s preview endpoint
- Create and start a program
- Create a locator needed to access the program
- Create and start a StreamingEndpoint
- Update the streaming endpoint
- Shut down resources
Note
There is a limit of 1,000,000 policies for different AMS policies (for example, for Locator policy or ContentKeyAuthorizationPolicy). You should use the same policy ID if you are always using the same days / access permissions, for example, policies for locators that are intended to remain in place for a long time (non-upload policies). For more information, see this article.
For information on how to configure a live encoder, see Azure Media Services RTMP Support and Live Encoders.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using Microsoft.WindowsAzure.MediaServices.Client;
namespace AMSLiveTest
{
class Program
{
private const string StreamingEndpointName = "streamingendpoint001";
private const string ChannelName = "channel001";
private const string AssetName = "asset001";
private const string ProgramName = "program001";
// Read values from the App.config file.
private static readonly string _AADTenantDomain =
ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["AMSAADTenantDomain"];
private static readonly string _RESTAPIEndpoint =
ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["AMSRESTAPIEndpoint"];
private static readonly string _AMSClientId =
ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["AMSClientId"];
private static readonly string _AMSClientSecret =
ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["AMSClientSecret"];
private static CloudMediaContext _context = null;
static void Main(string[] args)
{
AzureAdTokenCredentials tokenCredentials =
new AzureAdTokenCredentials(_AADTenantDomain,
new AzureAdClientSymmetricKey(_AMSClientId, _AMSClientSecret),
AzureEnvironments.AzureCloudEnvironment);
var tokenProvider = new AzureAdTokenProvider(tokenCredentials);
_context = new CloudMediaContext(new Uri(_RESTAPIEndpoint), tokenProvider);
IChannel channel = CreateAndStartChannel();
// Set the Live Encoder to point to the channel's input endpoint:
string ingestUrl = channel.Input.Endpoints.FirstOrDefault().Url.ToString();
// Use the previewEndpoint to preview and verify
// that the input from the encoder is actually reaching the Channel.
string previewEndpoint = channel.Preview.Endpoints.FirstOrDefault().Url.ToString();
IProgram program = CreateAndStartProgram(channel);
ILocator locator = CreateLocatorForAsset(program.Asset, program.ArchiveWindowLength);
IStreamingEndpoint streamingEndpoint = CreateAndStartStreamingEndpoint(false);
// Once you are done streaming, clean up your resources.
Cleanup(streamingEndpoint, channel);
}
public static IChannel CreateAndStartChannel()
{
//If you want to change the Smooth fragments to HLS segment ratio, you would set the ChannelCreationOptions’s Output property.
IChannel channel = _context.Channels.Create(
new ChannelCreationOptions
{
Name = ChannelName,
Input = CreateChannelInput(),
Preview = CreateChannelPreview()
});
//Starting and stopping Channels can take some time to execute. To determine the state of operations after calling Start or Stop, query the IChannel.State .
channel.Start();
return channel;
}
private static ChannelInput CreateChannelInput()
{
// When creating a Channel, you can specify allowed IP addresses in one of the following formats:
// IpV4 address with 4 numbers
// CIDR address range
return new ChannelInput
{
StreamingProtocol = StreamingProtocol.RTMP,
AccessControl = new ChannelAccessControl
{
IPAllowList = new List<IPRange>
{
new IPRange
{
Name = "TestChannelInput001",
// Setting 0.0.0.0 for Address and 0 for SubnetPrefixLength
// will allow access to IP addresses.
Address = IPAddress.Parse("0.0.0.0"),
SubnetPrefixLength = 0
}
}
}
};
}
private static ChannelPreview CreateChannelPreview()
{
// When creating a Channel, you can specify allowed IP addresses in one of the following formats:
// IpV4 address with 4 numbers
// CIDR address range
return new ChannelPreview
{
AccessControl = new ChannelAccessControl
{
IPAllowList = new List<IPRange>
{
new IPRange
{
Name = "TestChannelPreview001",
// Setting 0.0.0.0 for Address and 0 for SubnetPrefixLength
// will allow access to IP addresses.
Address = IPAddress.Parse("0.0.0.0"),
SubnetPrefixLength = 0
}
}
}
};
}
public static void UpdateCrossSiteAccessPoliciesForChannel(IChannel channel)
{
var clientPolicy =
@"<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-8""?>
<access-policy>
<cross-domain-access>
<policy>
<allow-from http-request-headers=""*"" http-methods=""*"">
<domain uri=""*""/>
</allow-from>
<grant-to>
<resource path=""/"" include-subpaths=""true""/>
</grant-to>
</policy>
</cross-domain-access>
</access-policy>";
var xdomainPolicy =
@"<?xml version=""1.0"" ?>
<cross-domain-policy>
<allow-access-from domain=""*"" />
</cross-domain-policy>";
channel.CrossSiteAccessPolicies.ClientAccessPolicy = clientPolicy;
channel.CrossSiteAccessPolicies.CrossDomainPolicy = xdomainPolicy;
channel.Update();
}
public static IProgram CreateAndStartProgram(IChannel channel)
{
IAsset asset = _context.Assets.Create(AssetName, AssetCreationOptions.None);
// Create a Program on the Channel. You can have multiple Programs that overlap or are sequential;
// however each Program must have a unique name within your Media Services account.
IProgram program = channel.Programs.Create(ProgramName, TimeSpan.FromHours(3), asset.Id);
program.Start();
return program;
}
public static ILocator CreateLocatorForAsset(IAsset asset, TimeSpan ArchiveWindowLength)
{
// You cannot create a streaming locator using an AccessPolicy that includes write or delete permissions.
var locator = _context.Locators.CreateLocator
(
LocatorType.OnDemandOrigin,
asset,
_context.AccessPolicies.Create
(
"Live Stream Policy",
ArchiveWindowLength,
AccessPermissions.Read
)
);
return locator;
}
public static IStreamingEndpoint CreateAndStartStreamingEndpoint(bool createNew)
{
IStreamingEndpoint streamingEndpoint = null;
if (createNew)
{
var options = new StreamingEndpointCreationOptions
{
Name = StreamingEndpointName,
ScaleUnits = 1,
AccessControl = GetAccessControl(),
CacheControl = GetCacheControl()
};
streamingEndpoint = _context.StreamingEndpoints.Create(options);
}
else
{
streamingEndpoint = _context.StreamingEndpoints.FirstOrDefault();
}
if (streamingEndpoint.State == StreamingEndpointState.Stopped)
streamingEndpoint.Start();
return streamingEndpoint;
}
private static StreamingEndpointAccessControl GetAccessControl()
{
return new StreamingEndpointAccessControl
{
IPAllowList = new List<IPRange>
{
new IPRange
{
Name = "Allow all",
Address = IPAddress.Parse("0.0.0.0"),
SubnetPrefixLength = 0
}
},
AkamaiSignatureHeaderAuthenticationKeyList = new List<AkamaiSignatureHeaderAuthenticationKey>
{
new AkamaiSignatureHeaderAuthenticationKey
{
Identifier = "My key",
Expiration = DateTime.UtcNow + TimeSpan.FromDays(365),
Base64Key = Convert.ToBase64String(GenerateRandomBytes(16))
}
}
};
}
private static byte[] GenerateRandomBytes(int length)
{
var bytes = new byte[length];
using (var rng = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider())
{
rng.GetBytes(bytes);
}
return bytes;
}
private static StreamingEndpointCacheControl GetCacheControl()
{
return new StreamingEndpointCacheControl
{
MaxAge = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1000)
};
}
public static void UpdateCrossSiteAccessPoliciesForStreamingEndpoint(IStreamingEndpoint streamingEndpoint)
{
var clientPolicy =
@"<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-8""?>
<access-policy>
<cross-domain-access>
<policy>
<allow-from http-request-headers=""*"" http-methods=""*"">
<domain uri=""*""/>
</allow-from>
<grant-to>
<resource path=""/"" include-subpaths=""true""/>
</grant-to>
</policy>
</cross-domain-access>
</access-policy>";
var xdomainPolicy =
@"<?xml version=""1.0"" ?>
<cross-domain-policy>
<allow-access-from domain=""*"" />
</cross-domain-policy>";
streamingEndpoint.CrossSiteAccessPolicies.ClientAccessPolicy = clientPolicy;
streamingEndpoint.CrossSiteAccessPolicies.CrossDomainPolicy = xdomainPolicy;
streamingEndpoint.Update();
}
public static void Cleanup(IStreamingEndpoint streamingEndpoint,
IChannel channel)
{
if (streamingEndpoint != null)
{
streamingEndpoint.Stop();
if (streamingEndpoint.Name != "default")
streamingEndpoint.Delete();
}
IAsset asset;
if (channel != null)
{
foreach (var program in channel.Programs)
{
asset = _context.Assets.Where(se => se.Id == program.AssetId)
.FirstOrDefault();
program.Stop();
program.Delete();
if (asset != null)
{
foreach (var l in asset.Locators)
l.Delete();
asset.Delete();
}
}
channel.Stop();
channel.Delete();
}
}
}
}