Connecting RTMP

Maeve Brooks

Last Updated:

June 10, 2021

You can stream directly to Altar Live via RTMP (Real-Time Messaging Protocol). RTMP is a very common streaming protocol that ensures the smooth transmission of audio, video, and data from a creating source.

In this case, your live stream software or hardware is the creating source and Altar Live is the destination. Once you enter your Altar Live RTMP credentials into your creating source, Altar can receive the stream feed directly. If you are connecting to Altar Live via RTMP, you can also then choose to multi-stream your video feed from Altar Live to YouTube and Facebook.

Important notes about using RTMP

You only have to connect via RTMP once. If you are connecting the same live stream source (i.e. OBS, Wirecast, etc) via RTMP every time you go live or schedule a feed in Altar Live, you only need to connect it once. Once Altar Live has been created as a destination via RTMP, you can select that destination from your stream source whenever you go live.
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Note: As soon as you begin live streaming from a source such as OBS, you will be streaming to Altar Live's servers - even if you don't have an event set up. This will count against your total RTMP time, so we recommend making a different settings profile for Altar to avoid accidentally going live. You can find out more about using profiles with OBS here!

Expect a ~2-minute delay from when you go live in your stream source to when the video feed appears in Altar Live. For example, if your event start time in Altar Live is set to begin at 10:30 AM, make sure that you begin the live feed at 10:29 AM from your stream source so that your audience doesn’t see an empty screen.

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How to connect Altar Live via RTMP

Step 1. Sign in to Altar Live

Step 2. Click on “create new event”.

Step 3. When you get to the Stream options, select the Live toggle option and choose Altar Live as your stream provider.

Note: To successfully connect RTMP, you need to have a paid subscription.

Step 4. Copy and paste your Altar RTMP URL and Stream Key into your stream source (OBS, Wirecast, etc). Be sure that when you paste your URL and Stream Key the source program doesn't add any extra characters!