If you’re currently using our vMix or Wirecast integration you will need to update it to use the new encoder password. The password is located under Account > Account Details, which you can see in the screenshot below.

The main benefits of this update are:

• You can revoke access to your account by refreshing the password.
• Encoder password access is limited to live streams only, which means the password can’t be used to log into your account.

If you have any questions about the dedicated encoder password, please email support@streamshark.io.

The post Product Update: vMix & Wirecast Integration Updates appeared first on StreamShark.

If you’re interested in learning more about OBS, then you can check out the guides we’ve created so far below.

OBS Beginners Guide Home

General OBS Guides

Looping a Video

Adding a Webcam

Creating a Picture-in-Picture Effect

Cropping a Layer

Setting an Audio Delay

Enabling Hardware Encoding

Stopping Dropped Frames

OBS Effects Filters

Using Color Correction

Using a LUT to Color Grade

Creating an Image Mask

If you have any questions about OBS, just leave a comment below.

The post OBS Beginners Guide appeared first on StreamShark.

We’ve simplified the video on demand workflow by adding an ‘Automatic’ option. This option automatically selects the best encode qualities for the video source you’ve provided. We haven’t removed the advanced encoding features, they’re just hidden under the ‘Manual’ option.

Another change to Video on Demand playback is that playback of the video will be instant, as we will serve the original video source until a valid encode is generated.

Finally, customers can now upload a video without having to encode it into multiple qualities. This enables customers to just use the source video, with the StreamShark video player. To do this, deselect all encode qualities under the ‘Manual’ toggle.

All these great new features are now available for all customers. If you use our API to manage your video on demand library and would like to start using the new HLS adaptive encode, please email support@streamshark.io.

The post New Feature: Adaptive HLS Video on Demand appeared first on StreamShark.

The most recent version of FMLE (3.2) was released in December 2010 and Adobe ended product support in 2016. Both of these factors have resulted in multi-bitrate FMLE no longer being compatible with modern live streaming solutions.

By Monday 26th of June support for multi-bitrate Flash Media Live Encoder (FMLE) will have been removed across all our ingests. By removing the components which were running to accommodate FMLE, it has freed up resources and improved stability for all our ingest points.

We will continue supporting single-bitrate FMLE, however if you wish to stream multiple qualities we’re advising customers move to more modern encoding software. StreamShark offers integrations with Wirecast, VMix and XSplit.

Update Schedule:

Amsterdam (rtmp://ams.live.streamshark.io):

Start Time: June 23, 2017 1:00AM UTC
End Time: June 23, 2017 4:00AM UTC

If you have any events scheduled during this time frame, we recommend using an alternate ingest such as Stockholm (rtmp://arn.live.streamshark.io) or Frankfurt (rtmp://fra.live.streamshark.io).

Frankfurt (rtmp://fra.live.streamshark.io):

Start Time: June 24, 2017 1:00AM UTC
End Time: June 24, 2017 4:00AM UTC

If you have any events scheduled during this time frame, we recommend using an alternate ingest such as Stockholm (rtmp://arn.live.streamshark.io) or Amsterdam (rtmp://ams.live.streamshark.io).

The post Service Update: Removal of Multi-Bitrate FMLE Support appeared first on StreamShark.

Traditionally websites would use a single DNS provider to service all DNS requests. However in our new setup, we’re using two DNS providers to service these requests.

In recent times DDoS attacks targeting DNS providers has become much more common. A prime example of this type of DDoS attack occurred October 21st 2016 targeting Dyn, one of the largest DNS providers. The DDoS attack resulted in many of the world’s largest websites, including Twitter, Reddit, Netflix and Paypal, being unavailable for a number of hours.

Luckily we were not impacted by this attack, however, it shows that even large companies and websites were not prepared for this kind of scenario. At StreamShark we pride ourselves on providing exceptional reliability and performance, which is why we’ve implemented this new DNS strategy.

As seen in the chart below, if one of our DNS providers is unavailable, the user will still get a response from the other DNS provider as our DNS providers are on separate networks. It is still possible (but unlikely) to have both providers down. If this was ever the case, it’s likely most of the internet would be down too…

If you have any questions about this update, or wish to learn more about multi-DNS, leave a comment below.

The post Service Update: Multi-DNS appeared first on StreamShark.

Version 2.6.1 and onwards of mimoLive now features an integration with StreamShark. The integration reduces the number of steps required to start streaming. You can download mimoLive here.

A few of the cool things mimoLive can do:

• Ricoh Theta 360º support. This means it can stitch both hemispheres of the Theta video source on the fly. This allows for one of the most portable 360º live streaming rigs.
• Huge range of filters and video effects.
• Automatic face tracking.
• A range of other features.

We’ve created a support guide for mimoLive which includes details on how to use the latest integration. If you have any questions about the new integration, feel free to email us at support@streamshark.io

The post The mimoLive StreamShark Integration appeared first on StreamShark.

As you might have noticed recently we’ve been working closely with vMix to bring deeper integrations and an overall simplified experience when using their software with StreamShark.

Today we’re pleased to announce a 10% discount off vMix to all customers and visitors to the StreamShark site. Simply visit vMix through this link and you will receive the discount on any vMix edition, no strings attached!

Just to be clear, we aren’t receiving any commissions or payments for this deal, we’re just very impressed with how well they’ve integrated the StreamShark platform!

The post StreamShark Promo: Get 10% Off vMix appeared first on StreamShark.

Over the last few weeks we’ve been working closely with the vMix team to bring our customers a much deeper integration with the live stream encoding software. The latest release of vMix (17.0.0.100 and higher) includes the new StreamShark integration.

A few things you can do with the new integration:

• Set the video/audio bitrate and resolution within the StreamShark portal and automatically prefill the encoder settings within vMix when you authenticate.
• Works for live streams with up to 3 stream qualities.
• If you update your stream settings in the StreamShark portal, simply reauthenticate with vMix to update them within the software.

We’ve updated our vMix support documentation to include details on how to use the latest integration. If you have any questions about the new integration, feel free to email us at support@streamshark.io

The post The vMix StreamShark Integration appeared first on StreamShark.

Telestream has finally launched version 7 of Wirecast. The first thing we noticed is Wirecast’s new logo, which if you slightly rotate looks kind of like a party hat! Version 7 comes with a plethora of improvements and new features. Wirecast 6 was released almost 2 years ago, so version 7 has been a long time in the making.

At first look, the latest version of Wirecast looks great. We’re excited to begin our dive into trying out all the new features.

The top new improvements and features (Taken directly from Telestream’s website):

• GPU-accelerated encoding – Take advantage of powerful, cost-efficient hardware encoding capabilities for better performance. (Requires Intel QuickSync or nVidia NVENC hardware).
• Lower CPU Usage – Wirecast 7 uses less of your CPU overall than any previous version due to performance optimizations.
• Tools for monitoring – Graphic representations of System CPU usage, memory, framerate, bitrate, and RTMP Queue size help you see the strength of your stream or diagnose problems.
• Dynamic Editor – Resize, position, crop, flip rotate, add color correction filters and more. Use Wirecast’s powerful graphic editing features to compose picture-in-picture shots or layer up to 250 different sources on screen at the same time!
• Output Statistics – Displays the statistics window for your broadcast. You can select to display: Framerate, System CPU Usage, and System Memory Usage.Improved CPU utilization for smoother, faster streams

  

• Video Sync – Delay the video and/or audio of an incoming source to better sync. Save thousands of dollars on expensive hardware.GPU-Accelerated encoding for better performance and less CPU usage
• Global Hotkey Manager – With our new Global Hotkey Management System, you can now create your own hotkeys for switching, replay or any repetitive task in Wirecast.General stability improvements and decreased CPU usage!
• Audio Mixing – Our built-in audio mixer allows for better control over any audio source. Mix-minus, panning, solo, mute and audio playout device selection are some of the powerful new audio features we’ve added.Global Hotkey Manager
• ISO Recording – Create high-resolution recordings of your individual (isolated) cameras or audio sources. Isolate clean shots (no titling or lower thirds) that can be used later for editing offline or for live replay during an event.
• New Ways to Configure Text – Add text to your broadcast from a variety of sources: typed in text, from a file, or from an RSS feed. Type in text and display it instantaneously. Use file-based text monitoring to read data from an external .txt file. The RSS feed feature allows you to have a running ticker built into your shots through the text widget.
• Color Correction – Adjust the brightness, contrast, gamma, hue and saturation for all of your video and graphic sources.

Links

• See the full changelog here
• Download Wirecast 7 here

The post What’s New in Wirecast 7 appeared first on StreamShark.

Nokia’s OZO

The OZO is targeted towards professional productions, with a hefty price point of $60,000. We went behind the scenes of the OZO presentation stage and had a close up look of the camera.

The camera features 8 lenses and 8 microphones. The lenses are positioned in a way which allows 3D stereoscopic video, which is the first we’ve encountered for 360-degree live streams.

 The stand out feature of the OZO in our books is the positional audio which dynamically changes depending where your viewport is directed.

In our opinion, the combination of 3D video and the positional audio, makes the OZO the most immersive 360-degree live streaming experience available at the moment. If you’ve got the budget, then we would highly recommend this camera.

VideoStitch’s Orah 4i

On the much cheaper end of the scale is the Orah 4i which is targeted towards prosumers. The price point of $3,595 ($1,795 if you pre-order the launch model) includes both the camera and the stitching box.

The camera itself features 4 lenses, and 4-channel ambisonic audio with an output of 4K at 30FPS. We would have liked to see 60FPS and, but imagine  expect this will be improved in future generations of the product.

At NAB, we were invited to attend a private showcase of the Orah 4i, and got a much closer look at the camera in action. We loved that the Orah’s combined form factor of the stitching box and the camera is quite small. We’ve used a 6x GoPro rig and a desktop computer on past projects and using the Orah 4i would dramatically reduce the cable jungle as it has only a single cable connecting the camera to the stitching box.

The Orah 4i is being released by VideoStitch, who currently offer the only real time stitching software (Vahana) on the market, which we used extensively for our 360-degree live stream of the Australian Open. As a software provider they’ve got the stitching down pat (albeit buggy at times), but we were skeptical that they could make the transition to hardware manufacturing smoothly.

All in all we were impressed with the Orah 4i and at the pre-order price point it’s a must buy for anyone working within the 360-degree live streaming industry.

If you’re interested in live streaming a 360-degree event why not check out StreamShark, our platform supports live and on demand 360-degree video.

The post The Best 360 Degree Cameras for Live Streaming at NAB appeared first on StreamShark.