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Streaming APIs

Real-time Streaming

Q: What are the main causes of latency in live streaming?

1. Method of capture A delay at the source because of the capture workflow of the publisher’s environment. For example, a video publisher may have pre and post processing requirements which cause the stream to be delayed before being sent to the receiving endpoint. 2. Encoding It takes time for an encoder to receive the stream, process it, and output the new stream for delivery. Encoding can take place at the source of the capture or in the cloud, both cases will produce some delay. 3. Method of delivery A traditional CDN will need to cache live stream segments on a global network before they are able to be delivered to viewers over HTTP, this will generally add 30-60 seconds of latency to a live stream. Specialized network deployments are required to deliver sub-second latency streaming at scale.

Q: For ultra-low and real-time latency, what are the advantages Dolby.io Real-time Streaming?

• No setup required, instant activation Simply activate your account and you can begin streaming to your audience instantly, at any scale. • Affordability The time, money and risk required to properly configure, deploy, scale and manage your own infrastructure is far more expensive than a hosted solution like Dolby.io Real-time Streaming. • Scalability Dolby.io Real-time Streaming has a true global CDN, allowing you to scale your stream to over 100,000 concurrent users. • Security To properly secure your streams and infrastructure from unauthorized access requires advanced knowledge and experience. With Dolby.io Real-time Streaming this is built into the service by industry experts who understand the importance of securing your streams. • Future proof Regardless of changes to device support, browsers or protocols, updates to the service are updated and deployed for you with no extra cost, time or attention required.

Millicast, acquired by Dolby, is now part of the Dolby.io platform powering Dolby.io Real-time Streaming solutions. Millicast is a WebRTC-based real-time streaming service that enables sub-second latency, broadcast-quality color and sound, global scale, and end-to-end encryption — all with native support for web browsers and Internet-enabled devices.

Experience the live demo

Latency

Average 200-500 milliseconds global delivery.

Reach

Stream to all devices without plug-ins, players, or protocols.

Quality

Support for the latest codecs.

Affordability

Simple, transparent, all-inclusive, monthly-based pricing.

Scale

Global infrastructure, intelligent scaling, load tested with KITE.

Real-time Streaming

Deliver sub 500ms latency video streaming

Dolby’s acquisition of Millicast into the Dolby.io portfolio combines the power of Dolby.io and the WebRTC real-time streaming expertise of Millicast to deliver secure, broadcast-quality streaming with sub- second latency at scale.

When real-time content delivery to your audience is critical — such as in live auctions, interactive events, broadcast production, remote movie and TV post-production, sports, betting, bidding, AR/VR, gaming, the metaverse, and more ⁠— Dolby.io Real-time Streaming delivers a WebRTC-based real-time CDN for large-scale, real-time streaming that is the fastest, easiest, and most scalable solution available to you. No special plugins or protocols necessary to deliver true, real-time video streaming to hundreds of thousands of concurrent viewers with less than 500 milliseconds of latency across the globe.

Experience the demo

Why Dolby.io Real-time Streaming with Millicast?

How it works

PUBLISH: Simply use our online broadcaster from your Dolby.io Dashboard or OBS. For more advanced cases, use our API and SDKs from within your HTML, iOS, or Android applications.

VIEW: We provide you with a hosted, customizable, white-labeled video player with a shareable URL. This URL can be embedded within your application for your viewers to instantly begin viewing your real-time streams.

How to get started

Sign up for a free trial (includes 50 GB free bandwidth per month).
Create your Broadcast with a single click.
Click Start Broadcast and instantly begin sharing your live stream to your audience. Done.

With Dolby.io Real-time Streaming there is no special player. Standard HTML is all you need. It doesn’t get easier or more flexible than this.

Real-time streaming

Stream Dolby.io Conferences to 60,000+ with sub-second latency

Dolby.io Communications API’s make it easy to add voice and video chat to your product or application. It’s now easy to combine the power of Dolby.io Communications APIs with Dolby.io Real-time Streaming to broadcast your conference through WebRTC to 60,000+ participants, across the world, with sub-second latency. Whenever you need audience interactivity across the globe in real-time, Dolby.io Real-time Streaming is your solution!

Get started with Real-time Streaming

Stream with sub 500ms latency to all devices. Start your journey with Dolby.io Real-time Streaming today.

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Try the demo

Check out the docs

Popular Use Cases

Who needs real-time streaming?

Those who need to live stream audio and video and ensure their audience receives the feed in less than 500 milliseconds.

Broadcasting

Auctions

Sports & events

Financial news

Post production

Gaming & eSports

AV/VR & metaverse

Audience interactivity

Online live events

Developer Platform

Developer Resources

Real-time Streaming demo

See for yourself how easy it is to begin using Dolby.io Real-time Streaming with no special plugins or protocols necessary.
Start now >

Streaming blogs

Learn more about the latest developments and product releases for Real-time Streaming.
Read more >

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Documentation

Take me there

Developer blog

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Trusted by the best companies in the world

Developer

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SECURITY

Secure, reliable, and scalable

We remove the complexity of building a communications solution while ensuring security and compliance, including access to a global infrastructure. Dolby.io is GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC-2 compliant.

Dolby.io has been a fantastic solution for us, both in terms of security and reliability.

Luca Santarella

Head of Research & Development, DocSpera

Dolby.io’s superior call quality with HD video and sound, as well as a robust and scalable solution had the flexibility we were looking for.

Henrik Molin

CEO & Co-founder, Physitrack

Dolby.io is a very easy-to-use solution, the Communications APIs are easy to use, and the OAuth authentication scheme is familiar to us.

Luca Santarella

Head of Research & Development, DocSpera

What is real-time/ultra-low latency streaming?

Many of us have heard buzz words being thrown around in the streaming industry like “low latency,” “ultra low latency,” and “real-time latency” but many are still confused about what these terms mean, and are curious if latency is important for their streaming initiatives.

This FAQ is meant to cut to the point and answer the most important questions, in a simple and straightforward way.

What is Millicast?

You may see Millicast mentioned in our product pages and documentation. Millicast is a real-time streaming provider that was acquired by Dolby.io in February 2022. Through Dolby.io Streaming you can access all of the power of the Millicast real-time streaming platform as well as the integrations with Dolby.io’s Communications and Media APIs.

What is latency and why is it important for streaming video?

Latency in streaming is the time it takes for a live video stream to get from the point where a camera captures the live feed, to the device where the stream is viewed. Sometimes this is referred to as “glass-to-glass.”

Latency is important when a live video feed is time-sensitive and viewers must receive the live content in a short and predictable amount of time, like an online auction for example.

What is the difference between low latency streaming and real-time video streaming?

Low latency streaming is typically video being delivered from capture to viewer in under 10 seconds. Ultra-low latency streaming is typically under 5 seconds. Both of these use traditional HTTP streaming protocols like HLS or MPEG-DASH.

Real-time video streaming, on the other hand, aims to re-create live human interaction which requires less than 1 second from the source to the viewer. For specific use cases, like cloud gaming, the target is even faster, with 100-500 milliseconds of round-trip time to create the user experience needed for 2-way interactivity.

Who is real-time streaming for?

Real-time streaming is especially important for live auctions, AR, VR, metaverse, financial news, live events, gaming, sports, trivia, and other cases where time-to-delivery and synchronicity of the live stream is mission critical.

What are the main causes of latency in live streaming?

1. Method of capture
A delay at the source because of the capture workflow of the publisher’s environment. For example, a video publisher may have pre and post processing requirements which cause the stream to be delayed before being sent to the receiving endpoint.

2. Encoding
It takes time for an encoder to receive the stream, process it, and output the new stream for delivery. Encoding can take place at the source of the capture or in the cloud, both cases will produce some delay.

3. Method of delivery
A traditional CDN will need to cache live stream segments on a global network before they are able to be delivered to viewers over HTTP, this will generally add 30-60 seconds of latency to a live stream. Specialized network deployments are required to deliver sub-second latency streaming at scale.

What low latency streaming technologies are currently available?

WebRTC technology was originally developed for “real-time communication” in a browser, which is essentially live video conferencing. However, WebRTC has evolved tremendously to become the de facto standard for publishing and playback of real-time, sub-second live streaming.

Dolby.io Real-time Streaming product is built on Millicast technology, which uses WebRTC to support large-scale live broadcasting with sub-second latency audio and video streaming.
Historically RTMP (Real Time Messaging Protocol) was the standard for low and ultra-low latency streaming. The RTMP protocol is still used today for live publishing. However, it is now obsolete for playback because it requires the Adobe Flash plugin which disappeared in April 2020.

SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) is a protocol developed by Haivisionis not supported natively in the web browser and not designed to scale to large audiences.

Other low-latency protocols and formats include CMAF, Apple Low Latency HLS (LL-HLS), and QUIC. However, these protocols are not yet accepted standards.

What are my options for low latency streaming?

There are several options, the best solution for you depends on your use case and requirements. If 30-60 seconds latency is acceptable for your stream, you can use just about any existing solution on the market from CDN providers. If you need better than 30 seconds there are specialized media server software providers which can help you solve this problem.

If you want true real-time latency, Dolby.io Streaming is a fully managed solution, which includes provisioning features and dashboard i.e. configuring, deploying, and managing your streaming business with guaranteed uptime.

For ultra-low and real-time latency, what are the advantages Dolby.io Real-time Streaming?

• No setup required, instant activation
Simply activate your account and you can begin streaming to your audience instantly, at any scale.

• Affordability
The time, money and risk required to properly configure, deploy, scale and manage your own infrastructure is far more expensive than a hosted solution like Dolby.io Real-time Streaming.

• Scalability
Dolby.io Real-time Streaming has a true global CDN, allowing you to scale your stream to over 100,000 concurrent users.

• Security
To properly secure your streams and infrastructure from unauthorized access requires advanced knowledge and experience. With Dolby.io Real-time Streaming this is built into the service by industry experts who understand the importance of securing your streams.

• Future proof
Regardless of changes to device support, browsers or protocols, updates to the service are updated and deployed for you with no extra cost, time or attention required.

How am I billed for bandwidth usage?

Each plan includes a pool of bandwidth and once this pool is used, you will begin incurring per GB overage fees at the corresponding rate of your plan.

What are Total Viewer Minutes?

This is the total combined number of minutes consumed by your viewers. For example, if you broadcast 1 stream for 5 minutes and you had 2 viewers, that would be a total of 10 Viewer Minutes. With Dolby.io Streaming you are only billed for bandwidth, the “Viewer Minutes” are provided simply for your own reference.

Are there special bandwidth and storage limitations with the free Trial plan?

Yes, with the free Trial plan your CDN Bandwidth is hard-capped to 50 GB per month and the Video Archive feature is disabled. You can remove these limitations at any time by simply upgrading to a paid plan.

What are Max Concurrent Viewers?

This is the total number of individual devices accessing your Dolby.io Streaming stream for both publishing and viewing. Additional streams will be automatically rejected.

What is Included CDN Bandwidth?

Included CDN Bandwidth is the total amount of bandwidth included per month with your Dolby.io Streaming pricing plan for no additional cost. This bandwidth is used when publishing and delivering your streams to your viewers.

What is Additional CDN Bandwidth?

This is cost for bandwidth used over the Included CDN Bandwidth of your Dolby.io Streaming pricing plan. Bandwidth overages are automatically billed at the end of your monthly billing cycle and are charged at the per GB rate corresponding to your pricing plan. You can avoid bandwidth overage fees by upgrading your account prior to the end of your monthly billing cycle.

What is Video Archive?

The Video Archive feature allows you to record and store your video streams as MP4 files on the Dolby.io Streaming cloud.

How am I billed for Video Archiving?

Video Archive prices are billed hourly, calculated over a period of 1 month. For example, if you stored 1 GB on our servers for 15 days @ $0.15 per GB/month, you would be billed approximately $0.075 for those 15 days of storage. The per GB price includes the costs associated with the capturing and processing the recordings.

What is OBS Studio for Millicast?

OBS Studio (Open Broadcaster Software) is the open-source standard for live, HD video broadcasting. We have extended OBS to support WebRTC and the Dolby.io Streaming platform and provide this to you free of charge.

What are iOS and Android SDKs?

These are Software Development Kits that enable developers to quickly and easily integrate Dolby.io Streaming into native iOS and Android applications. Currently Dolby.io Streaming provides SDKs for Javascript and React Native.

What are Delivery Regions?

These are the geographic regions which Dolby.io Streaming can deliver the lowest possible latency to your viewers based on the distance of our edge servers and the end-viewers. All production Dolby.io Streaming accounts utilize our entire global network and streams are automatically routed to and from the region closest to the publisher and viewer.

What is the minimum billing term?

1 month. However, quarterly and annual billing options are available, please contact us for more information.

What Technical Support do you provide?

Our technical support team are experts in WebRTC and are here to assist you in implementing and troubleshooting the Dolby.io Streaming service. Contact us at https://support.dolby.io/ with any questions!

What are your Terms of Service?

Click here to read our Terms of Service agreement.

Have more questions?

Please feel free to contact us anytime, we’re happy to help answer your questions.

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Enjoy up to 50 GB in CDN bandwidth per month for free.

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Our Products

One platform for audio and video

communications

Keep a good thing going

Get the latest news, events, and product updates from the Dolby.io team.

Streaming APIs

Real-time Streaming

Latency

Reach

Quality

Affordability

Scale

Real-time Streaming

Deliver sub 500ms latency video streaming

Why Dolby.io Real-time Streaming with Millicast?

How it works

How to get started

Real-time streaming

Stream Dolby.io Conferences to 60,000+ with sub-second latency

Get started with Real-time Streaming

Popular Use Cases

Who needs real-time streaming?

Broadcasting

Auctions

Sports & events

Financial news

Post production

Gaming & eSports

AV/VR & metaverse

Audience interactivity

Online live events

Developer Resources

Real-time Streaming demo

Streaming blogs

Documentation

Developer blog

Trusted by the best companies in the world

Overlay Auction Details on a Real-time Stream with OBS, WebRTC and Dolby.io￼￼

Enabling Multiview for a Dolby.io Livestream

Using WebRTC in OBS for Remote Live Production

Dolby.io Real-time Streaming Wins Best in Media APIs Award

Learn Babylon.js to Create Your Own 3D Metaverse Environments

Building a Real-Time Streaming App with WebRTC and Flutter 3

SECURITY

Secure, reliable, and scalable

Luca Santarella

Head of Research & Development, DocSpera

Henrik Molin

CEO & Co-founder, Physitrack

Luca Santarella

Head of Research & Development, DocSpera

FAQs

What is real-time/ultra-low latency streaming?

What is Millicast?

What is latency and why is it important for streaming video?

What is the difference between low latency streaming and real-time video streaming?

Who is real-time streaming for?

What are the main causes of latency in live streaming?

What low latency streaming technologies are currently available?

What are my options for low latency streaming?

For ultra-low and real-time latency, what are the advantages Dolby.io Real-time Streaming?

How am I billed for bandwidth usage?

What are Total Viewer Minutes?

Are there special bandwidth and storage limitations with the free Trial plan?

What are Max Concurrent Viewers?

What is Included CDN Bandwidth?

What is Additional CDN Bandwidth?

What is Video Archive?

How am I billed for Video Archiving?

What is OBS Studio for Millicast?

What are iOS and Android SDKs?

What are Delivery Regions?

What is the minimum billing term?

What Technical Support do you provide?

What are your Terms of Service?

Have more questions?

Start streaming in real-time

One platform for audio and video

Voice Call

Video Call

Call Recording

Messaging

Enhance

Analyze

Transcode

Overlay Auction Details on a Real-time Stream with OBS, WebRTC and Dolby.io