The Zoom video conferencing and online meeting application supports live streaming a webinar or meeting to a custom streaming platform via RTMP. This can be used to directly send Zoom live events to your HyperCaster to air live and/or record.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Zoom only supports streaming to a custom service or device that is hosted on the Internet, it cannot stream to a service or device on your local network. In order for the RTMP stream being pushed from Zoom to reach your HyperCaster, your firewall must forward RTMP streaming traffic, typically on port 1935, to port 1935 (UDP/TCP) on your HyperCaster’s management IP address. If you have a network admin who configures your router, you should consult with that person to make the configuration change. If you do not wish to open your firewall for such purposes, but still would like to integrate live Zoom events on your HyperCaster, an alternative is to stream from Zoom to Facebook Live, and then configure your HyperCaster to play and/or record from Facebook Live. Or you can stream from Zoom to YouTube Live, and then configure your HyperCaster to play and/or record from YouTube Live. If you subscribe to the TelVue CloudCast streaming service, you can also stream your Zoom meeting to an available CloudCast live streaming ingest point, and configure your HyperCaster with the CloudCast HLS stream for playout and recording.
For Zoom RTMP streaming setup and integration with your HyperCaster, follow these steps:
In the HyperCaster:
- Log in to the HyperCaster’s user interface and navigate to the Config tab.
- On the Config tab, click on Live Streams.
- Click on the icon to add a new stream.
- For type, choose RTMP from the dropdown list.
- Name the stream something that makes sense to you, such as Zoom
- Enter the following in the RTMP Address field: rtmp://127.0.0.1/telvue-rtmp/<stream_key>, where <stream_key> will need to match the Key used in the Zoom configuration. You could use “zoom” as the stream key, in which case the RTMP Address field would be: rtmp://127.0.0.1/telvue-rtmp/zoom
- For details on additional fields and options available when setting up RTMP feeds, consult the Feed Setup article.
- Click Save.
The Zoom RTMP Feed is now available for scheduling to go live and/or record in advance of the event, or when the event is live. For recording, at least one IP Capture license is required. Please note that you must be on release 7.0.3 or later to properly import live Zoom streams recorded on the HyperCaster to address an issue with the media properties identifier process due to somewhat atypical codec parameters used in the native Zoom streams.
In Zoom:
To configure Zoom to send to your HyperCaster, consult the Zoom support article on how to stream to a custom service. Note, you may need a certain Zoom service level or account features for the custom streaming to be available. Contact Zoom if you do not see the custom streaming options available.
When you get to the “Enabling Custom Live Streaming Service (Admin)” section, after the step that says to “Click the Custom Live Streaming Service checkbox to enable it”, you will see a text box that guides you to “Provide specific instructions that will enable meeting hosts in your account to configure live streaming.” In that text box, enter the following, replacing the variables with your actual information:
Stream URL: rtmp://<hypercaster_external_ip_address>/telvue-rtmp
Key: <stream_key_from_hypercater_rtmp_setup_above>
Page URL: https://<your_website_live_streaming_page>
This information will display for the meeting organizer when they start streaming to help them enter the correct custom streaming destination information for your HyperCaster.
When scheduling a Meeting or Webinar, follow the “Setting up Custom Live Streaming (Host)” section in the above Zoom article to enter the custom streaming information matching the template above. This way, when a meeting or webinar organizer is ready to stream, they don’t need to enter any specific streaming destination. It will already be setup for them.
Otherwise, if not setup in advance, or for non-scheduled events, follow the “Starting the Live Stream during the Webinar” section. The “More” action allows you to select “Live on Custom Live Streaming Service”:
Selecting “Live on Custom Live Streaming Service” will take you to a Zoom browser page to enter the custom streaming service credentials. Click “Go Live” to start streaming:
If everything is setup properly, you should see an incoming bitrate on the HyperCaster Live Streams configuration page. You can also preview the live Zoom feed directly from the HyperCaster Live Streams configuration page by clicking the RTMP link to make sure the HyperCaster is properly receiving the stream.
As a best practice, it is also highly recommended that you record the Zoom meeting to a file locally. This provides a backup recording in case there are any issues with recording the live stream, such as networking problems, or congestion over the Internet that may cause some dropouts. The locally recorded file can be uploaded to your HyperCaster after the meeting is finished, and will provide the highest quality copy. In the Zoom application, select Record > Record on this Computer.
When the meeting ends, Zoom will convert the file to an MP4. You can find the file from the Zoom application interface Meetings > Recorded page.
Zoom also offers an option to record in the Cloud. If you do choose to record in the cloud instead of locally, enable the Optimize the recording for 3rd party video editor setting in your Zoom account. This ensures that your cloud recording video files will be a standard format that is compatible with 3rd party video editors.
