Posted Q4 2021
- What You Will Learn
- Thanks
- Create Azure Account
- Stopping Instances and Costs
- Installing the Azure CLI command
- Logging into Azure from the CLI
- Creating a Resource Group
- Create the Container Json Template File
- Launch Your Container
- Get The IP Address
- Open DeadSFU Receive Page
- Confirm You See The DeadSFU Viewer Page
- Optional: Test the OBS FTL Port
- Check OBS Version >= 27.0.1
- Configure a Camera or Test Source
- Launch OBS & Configure FTL
- Start Streaming
- Cleanup: How to Stop the Container When You Are Done
- Whats Next? / Email Newsletter
This tutorial will take you through starting an Azure container running DeadSFU which will allow you to do low-latency OBS streaming (using FTL).
You are then able to share the web page hosted on the container with friends so they can see your video feee from OBS with sub-second latency.
Thanks to CJSurret for the idea, the technical know-how and, the chops to get this all working on Azure!
You need an Azure Account. Some Visual Studio licenses include $100 a month of free credits. Also, in some cases you can qualify for an account with some free resources.
Free Signup Link I don't get anything if you signup with them, but I hope they'll re-tweet this post. 😍
A credit card was required for my free account, but I understand the Visual Studio bundled credit doesn't require a credit card. You'll have to confirm details)
Must I really say this? ALWAYS, ALWAYS make sure to review and stop and container instances when you are done using your instance. Even if they don't have your credit card, you may legally be on the hook for time used and expenses incurred if you leave instances running. Nuf' said.
Go here to get your AZ command installed, if you haven't already:
A simple command should pop open a browser to allow you to login:
az loginI know very little about Azure, but it appears containers need to be launched into instance groups, so you gotta create one.
az group create -l eastus2 -n Stream
az container create -g MyResourceGroup --name myalpine --image alpine:latest --ip-address public --ports 80 443
If it works, you'll see something like this:
{
"id": "/subscriptions/xxxxx/resourceGroups/Stream",
"location": "eastus2",
"managedBy": null,
"name": "Stream",
"properties": {
"provisioningState": "Succeeded"
},
"tags": null,
"type": "Microsoft.Resources/resourceGroups"
}Note the Succeeded in the output.
Create a file, template.json with the following Json:
{
"$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
"contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
"parameters": {
"containerGroups_deadsfu_name": {
"defaultValue": "deadsfu",
"type": "String"
}
},
"variables": {},
"resources": [
{
"type": "Microsoft.ContainerInstance/containerGroups",
"apiVersion": "2021-03-01",
"name": "deadsfu",
"location": "eastus2",
"properties": {
"sku": "Standard",
"containers": [
{
"name": "deadsfu",
"properties": {
"image": "x186k/deadsfu",
"command": [
"/app/main",
"--http",
":80",
"--ftl-udp-port",
"8085",
"--html",
"internal",
"--rtp-rx",
":5004",
"--ftl-key",
"123-abc"
],
"ports": [
{
"protocol": "TCP",
"port": 8084
},
{
"protocol": "TCP",
"port": 80
},
{
"protocol": "UDP",
"port": 8085
},
{
"protocol": "UDP",
"port": 5004
}
],
"environmentVariables": [],
"resources": {
"requests": {
"memoryInGB": 0.5,
"cpu": 1
}
}
}
}
],
"initContainers": [],
"ipAddress": {
"dnsNameLabel": "changeme",
"ports": [
{
"protocol": "TCP",
"port": 8084
},
{
"protocol": "TCP",
"port": 80
},
{
"protocol": "UDP",
"port": 8085
},
{
"protocol": "UDP",
"port": 5004
}
],
"type": "Public"
},
"restartPolicy": "Never",
"osType": "Linux"
}
}
]
}You may need to change the changeme part to get your own hostname, I'm not sure what happens with conflicts.
** You may want to change 123-abc to a different number-secret, like 46372-foofoo, it's like a password, and OBS will need to have the right stream-key to work okay.**
We will pull up the IP address later, so hard to say if you need to change that or not.
az deployment group create --name deadsfu --resource-group Stream --template-file template.jsonWithin the Json output, you should see "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
az container show --resource-group Stream --name deadsfu --output tableYou should see the IP address.
Now open a browser tab to either the updated hostname, or IP address, something like:
http://changeme.eastus2.azurecontainer.io/, please fix changeme as noted earlier.
Open tab to http://x.x.x.x as reported from the az container show output, do not add a port.
If you see the following view in your browser tab, then you have launched the SFU successfully.
If you got this working, you're nearly there, cool!
Fixing changeme, or using an IP address, you can test to make sure the OBS/FTL port is open.
This isn't strictly necessary, but I like to sometimes double check stuff.
If this works, you will see ...Connected..., if you don't see ...Connected..., then you are not reaching the FTL port of the container, something isn't right.
curl -v telnet://changeme.eastus2.azurecontainer.io:8084If you don't have OVA installed, go get it: OBS homepage Make sure you have version 27.0.1 or greater.
This is really beyond this tutorial, but if you have a camera attached to your
system, I recommend you configure it as a Video Capture Device in the Sources panel.
If you don't have a camera, you might try using an image or video clip as a Media Source
Open OBS.
Open Settings > Stream
Change Service to Custom...
Change Server to ftl://hostname where hostname is the full hostname or IP address you retrieved.
Click Show to the right of Stream Key, and enter 123-abc or whatever you substituted in the template.
Save the settings by hitting OK
Click the Start Streaming button.
If everything is working right, you should see your video from OBS in the browser tab.
Something kind of like this, with your video in the center:
Thanks to Pexels and videographer Ahmet Akpolat for image: https://www.pexels.com/video/men-working-in-the-control-room-of-a-broadcasting-network-company-3433789/
Use these commands when you are done to stop and delete your container. Please use version 2.29.0, and not 2.28.1 of the Azure cli, it's buggy.
az container stop -g Stream -n deadsfu
az container delete -y -g Stream -n deadsfuIt's up to you where to go from here!
Please subscribe to our newsletter if you'd like more content like this.