Use an Elemental with Sardius Stream (Manual)

This walkthrough will demonstrate the process for creating an Event (streaming channel) on an AWS Elemental for Sardius Stream in a Manual Setup.

Initial Sardius Setup

Before you begin, you will need to prepare your Sardius Channel to use Sardius Stream with a Manual Setup. Collect the RTMP Stream URL and RTMP Stream Key from the Default Stream Settings Setup. This can also be obtained by changing an event’s settings over from a paired encoder to a manual configuration.

Copy this URL and Stream Key into a text document. You will need these as you set up the Elemental Event.

Elemental Setup

Live Event Setup

Access the Elemental’s web interface to begin the process. To create a new event, click on “New Event +” in the upper right corner.

1. Enter a name for the Event
2. Select the Input Type. Typically, this will be an SDI input. Be sure to verify with the client which SDI input will be used.

You can click the Preview button to the right of the Input field to see if there is an active video signal on that input. If there is not a signal, the interface will tell you.

Output Groups

You will need to set up this Event to use RTMP.  Delete all output groups except for Adobe RTMP. 

You will not need to make any modifications “out of the gate” to the Output Group, so you can advance to the next section.

Outputs

For Sardius Stream RTMP, we will only need 1 output. 

Under “New Output”, click on “Add Output +” on the right-hand side.

An output will appear in the section, and a stream config will appear in the Stream section below. 

1. Paste your RTMP URL into the RTMP Endpoint field
2. Paste your RTMP Stream Key into the Stream Name field

Streams

Now it’s time to configure the stream that is being fed to each output. 

1. Under Video:
   1. Enter Resolution as 1920 w X 1080 h
   2. Click on the Advanced Settings icon
   3. Typical adjustments here include:
      1. Framerate (change this only if you want to force a certain framerate, such as 30fps)
      2. Bitrate - Recommend starting at 4m but can be variable based on their framerate and YouTube/Facebook’s specs. 
      3. GOP size and units (this is the segment duration). We recommend:
         1. GOP size: 4 
         2. Units: Seconds 
         3. B Frames: 2 
2. Under Audio
   1. Adjust bitrate for 192 kbps

Review and Save

Take a moment to review all of your settings. Once you are satisfied, you can click the “Create+” button found at the top right and bottom right of the page. This will create the Event and you will be taken to the Event control page.

The image below is an example of the Event Control Page. This is an Event that is ready to start: 

Advance to the section "Complete Sardius Channel Setup" below.

Create an Event from a Template

You can download a template for this setup here: Download a XML Template

This file contains all of the presets you need for a Sardius Stream configuration for your Elemental. Download this and follow the steps below. 

To create an event using a template, start by selecting “New Event” from the Elemental homepage. 

At the top right, you will see a button that says “Load” - Click on this, then select “Load Event XML”

1. In the box that appears, click “Choose File”
2. Locate your file, then click “Apply”
3. With the channel loaded, scroll down to the Output Groups. Replace the RTMP information according to what you obtained from the Sardius Control Panel

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “Create+” button. This will create the Event and you will be taken to the Event control page.

Complete Sardius Channel Setup

Return to the Sardius Control Panel and complete any setup you have remaining for creating Stream Defaults.

You are now ready to fire up the Elemental Event and begin testing on your Sardius Channel!