
Restream: Stream live to many social platforms at once - dgudkov
https://restream.io/
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KeepFlying
I'm sure there are use cases for this, but I see two issues I'd be worried
about when using it.

First of all, any exclusivity requirements on any platform. Something like
this must get you in trouble with the TOS of any of these sites.

Second, the culture of streaming on each platform is unique. Not to mention
the form factor and expected behavior of any chats on each system. Or even
things as simple as vertical vs horizontal video formats. Sure there are areas
where this doesn't matter, there always are, but it shouldn't be ignored when
trying to spread your reach.

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radley
I got the impression that Restream is mostly used for talks / podcasts.

I know of DJs who use the service to hit YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, and maybe
Mixcloud all at the same time. In that case, they're not trying to grow a
platform-based audience (like gamers). They're simply trying to reach their
existing audience through the available channels.

I don't think anyone is taking exclusivity seriously, except maybe well-paid
gamers. It's too early to act like Apple. Maybe once live streaming
matures...?

~~~
jchw
Twitch definitely cracked down on Restream usage among partners at some point
in the past, because I used to watch some streams on YT and that stopped
happening suddenly, with some of them citing their Twitch contracts.

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dayjah
Context: ex-early-twitch engineer.

The economics on this are confusing to me; if they’re hosting a “repeater”,
they’re paying for bandwidth in/out, and that’s expensive.

If the streaming software is sending to multiple locations; the stability will
be low (assuming folks become outbound b/w limited from their home conn).

Am I missing something obvious here?

At twitch we needed a heck of a lot of interconnecting with various providers
to make our service viable.

Edit: [https://restream.io/blog/restream-series-a-
funding/](https://restream.io/blog/restream-series-a-funding/) \- goes someway
toward answering my q.

~~~
radley
Huh? They're not streaming to thousands of viewers - they're just forwarding
to a few services. That's nothing.

~~~
dayjah
Oh, right! I was obvi missing something simple. You’re right, my b: they only
relay to a few services so it’s keep their costs low.

I guess I’m just so conditioned to think about video going direct to consumer
that I missed that.

Sorry for the noise :)

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tylermenezes
A few other commenters seem to be confused about the purpose, so here's what
we use Restream for: easily switching streaming destinations without
reconfiguring our encoders (eg we use Twitch for informal student facing
content, LinkedIn + FB + Periscope for content we want to be seen by
professionals).

Honestly I was also initially skeptical of its utility but it turned out to be
pretty worthwhile.

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ehayes
Any open source or DIY alternatives to this?

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Cameron_D
nginx-rtmp can take a source and forward to multiple outputs. Fairly more
advanced is BBC's Brave which is more of an API-driven live video editor that
can push to multiple outputs.

~~~
judge2020
Unfortunately it hasn't been updated for RTMPS (rtmp over tls), which is
required/heavily encouraged for FaceBook Live.

~~~
simplecto
You can work around this limitation using stunnel.

Just search for rtmps and stunnel. Quite a few helpful results. There is even
a docker container that makes this pretty simple.

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Svperstar
I use this to stream to YouTube and Twitch at the same time. It works well.

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MentallyRetired
This has been around for years. It's a solid service. With Mixer's FTL it
added normal amounts of delay, so that kind of sucked, but no need to worry
about that now, I guess.

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dbbk
Why does the site not tell you... what platforms it streams to? Am I missing
something?

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nikolay
Well, Streamlabs has that plus more and a lower price... plus a mobile app.

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rak
Are there any services like this that do the job of a streaming pc too?

~~~
nicky0
[https://www.superstreamsystem.com/](https://www.superstreamsystem.com/) might
be what you are looking for, you can set up scenes and overlays etc

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RocketSyntax
we used to play around with this idea. a tagline we liked was: "stream once,
go nuts!" dunno why but it still makes me laugh

