Adaptive bitrate is the process by which the player pushes the correct flavor (bitrate) to the viewer according to the viewer's internet connection speed. In order for live video to take advantage of adaptive bitrate, multiple flavors of a live video need to be concurrently pushed to the player.
How is this achieved?
- Using Kaltura Live (Passthrough), the encoder sends multiple RTMP or SRT streams at various bitrates to the same URL
- Using Kaltura Live+ (Cloud Transcode), the encoder sends a single high-bitrate RTMP or SRT stream to the URL, and Kaltura's servers create live flavors in the cloud
- Using Kaltura Universal Streaming (Passthrough), the encoder sends multiple RTMP or SRT streams at various bitrates to the same URL
Using adaptive bitrate is a best practice, as it allows live video to be viewed by a wider audience using varying internet connections. While the player will automatically push the best suited live flavor to the viewer, the viewer can also force a specific live flavor using the Flavor Selection button on the player when it is enabled in the KMC Studio.
