If you are a content creator, especially one who produces video content, one of the best ways to express yourself interactively is through video streaming on popular platforms like Twitch or YouTube. While these services provide a digital platform to broadcast your stream, you still need your own hardware resources to run it. In this case, a great solution could be VPS web hosting. In the following article, we will examine the scenarios in which a VPS server for round-the-clock streaming is a viable option and then explore how to set up such a server.
Table of Contents
When to Use a Virtual Private Server for YouTube Streaming?
While we often envision a YouTube video streamer as someone who participates in real-time activities—such as playing video games, performing music, or answering audience questions—not all streams operate in this manner. At times, you may wish to stream pre-recorded material in real time, enabling the streaming to function independently. The content you stream could include music radio, a marathon of a show, or any other type of video material.
In this situation, rather than leaving your computer on constantly, along with the related challenges and inconveniences, you can easily rent an affordable server that guarantees continuous 24/7 operation for your streaming.
Benefits of Using a VPS Server for Streaming
A VPS server is a reliable and flexible hosting solution with many possible applications beyond video streaming.
Although it’s not the only hosting option, two other popular choices are shared hosting and dedicated servers. However, VPS is probably the most appropriate option for the main topic of this article: video streaming. The benefits of VPS include:
How to Set Up a 24/7 YouTube Streaming VPS
Step 1. Server Selection
The first step in setting up your 24/7 YouTube streaming is selecting a server. Look for a reliable provider that offers plans with all the resources you need at an affordable price. The server should have ample storage space to host all the content you plan to stream. Additionally, it should provide a high connection speed, sufficient bandwidth, and be located in a data center near major infrastructure backbones. Therefore, before searching for a server, you will need to perform specific calculations.
Step 2. Server Setup
Once you have purchased your server, you can begin the setup process.
First and foremost, you should connect to it via SSH. To do this, you’ll need the login credentials that you should have received from your service provider when you purchased the services. Then, you should use the appropriate SSH option based on your server’s operating system. For a Linux server, SSH is accessed through the terminal on Linux and through PuTTY on Windows. If you are using a Windows server, you need to locate Remote Desktop Management on your Windows PC or use the Remmina client on Linux.
Now you need to follow the general steps to configure your server. This includes actions such as changing the hostname, setting up time synchronization, updating the system, configuring iptables, and more.
Additionally, there are specific tasks you should perform, particularly for streaming:
sudo yum install epel-release
sudo yum install vsftpd
sudo systemctl start vsftpd
sudo systemctl enable vsftpd
This will start the FTP server and ensure it automatically launches upon boot.
You can optionally configure vsftpd by editing the appropriate file to customize the settings as needed:
sudo nano /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf
To implement the changes, restart vsftpd:
sudo systemctl restart vsftpd
sudo yum install ffmpeg
FFmpeg is especially notable for its extensive capabilities in video and audio editing. Its functions encompass recording, converting, and transferring audio and video files across various formats. With FFmpeg, you can trim videos, extract audio from video files, convert files into different formats, and more. One of the most important features of FFmpeg relevant to this article is its ability to convert files into streams, which can then be directed to the appropriate streaming service.
Step 3. Broadcasting Setup
After setting up the server and installing the necessary solutions, you can move on to configuring broadcasting on YouTube.
First, you will need two items: a link and a broadcast key. Go to the streaming settings section of your channel to find them.
Afterward, you need to create an FFmpeg script using a text editor:
#!/bin/bash
# Substitute STREAM_KEY with your YouTube stream key
STREAM_KEY=”your_stream_key”
ffmpeg -stream_loop -1 -re -i your_input_source -c:v libx264 -preset veryfast -b:v 2500k -maxrate 2500k -bufsize 5000k -pix_fmt yuv420p -g 60 -c:a aac -b:a 128k -ac 2 -ar 44100 -f flv rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2/$STREAM_KEY
Replace “your_stream_key” with your actual YouTube stream key. Additionally, modify other parameters such as the input source (your_input_source), video bitrate, audio settings, and so forth, as needed.
Next, upload your video files to the server via FTP.
Now, you can start streaming using the ./start_stream.sh command.
Step 4. Configuring Autonomy
To create a queue for files to be broadcast, you need to develop a queue script. The formula for this is:
ffmpeg -re -i video1.mp4 -f flv rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2/%KEY_TRANSLATION% ffmpeg -re -i video2.mp4 -f flv rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2/%KEY_TRANSLATION% ffmpeg -re -i video3.mp4 -f flv rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2/%KEY_TRANSLATION% %nohup bash start.sh $
Replace video~.mp4 with the correct names of your files in the appropriate order.
Step 5. Configure Streaming
You can optionally add extra configuration to the stream. For example, the following script will display the name you want to assign to the video fragment on the screen while the video is playing:
ffmpeg -re -i video1.mp4 -vf “drawtext=text=’Lecture 1′:x=(w-text_w)/2:y=(h-text_h)/2:fontcolor=white:fontsize=30:box=1:boxcolor=black@0.5” -f flv rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2/%KEY_TRANSLATION%
The font’s color, size, and position on the screen can be modified, as shown in the file.
Conclusion
Video streaming on YouTube is among the most popular methods for sharing content today. However, if you want to broadcast your content continuously without being a live video streamer in person, you don’t need to keep your PC on all the time. Instead, you can set up a streaming server, which offers a convenient, reliable, and cost-effective solution, especially if you find a good provider. As you may have noticed, configuring such a server isn’t complicated either, so we hope everything is clear and wish you success in YouTube video streaming.
