3Play's Live caption service requires that you send a video (RTMP) stream from your encoder or meeting platform in order to produce captions. 3Play offers a Stream Target (by provisioning a transcoder) to which you stream for each Live event.
Prerequisites
- This service is not available to Express customers
By default, 3Play will provide you with the Stream Target (transcoder) described by a unique Input Stream RTMP URL address and Input Stream Key on the confirmation page of your 3Play captioning ordering workflow. To find this information, scroll down the page and view the information in the lower right-hand side of the web page.
3Play also offers a Reserved Stream Target, with which the Input Stream RTMP URL address and Input Stream Key will remain static. This article outlines the process for requesting a reserved stream target, as well as the process for utilizing a reserved stream target for your live captioning events.
Supported workflows: please note Reserved Stream Targets are only available for the RTMP workflow. They are not available for Youtube of Virtual Encoding workflows.
Requesting a Reserved Stream Target
Please reach out to your account manager or 3Play support to request a Reserved Stream Target.
Live Auto Captioning and Live Professional Captioning services use different types of stream targets, if you would like to use Reserved Stream Targets for both services, you will need a Reserved Stream Target for each service type. Reserved Stream Targets are available at no extra fee.
In your request, please specify:
- your 3Play account and project name
- service type (Live Auto and/or Live Professional Captioning)
- the number of reserved stream targets, ie ‘channels’.
Once created, Reserved Stream Targets will follow the naming convention Automatic Channel-1, Automatic Channel-2, and so on for Live Automated Captions, and Professional Channel-3, Professional Channel-4 for Live Professional Captions.
- You will be able to use a Reserved Stream Target, or to use the real-time provisioned stream target.
- Live Auto Captioning events using the generic RTMP workflow support an option to provide your own steam target (ie transcoder) which is not available for Live Professional Captioning events.
Live Captioning Ordering with Reserved Stream Targets
The Live Captioning event must be associated with the desired Reserved Stream Target when scheduling your event.
| Note: Live Auto Captioning and Live Professional Captioning services use different types of stream targets, if you would like to use Reserved Stream Targets for both services, you will need a Reserved Stream Target for each service type |
You can select the Reserved Stream Target in 2 ways:
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Project Setting: Set a default Reserved Stream Target for your Live Captioning events in the 3Play Project Settings. You will have the ability to set a default stream target for both your Live Auto Captioning as well as Live Professional Captioning events.
- Per Event: Choose the reserved instance used for your Live Captioning event when ordering. You'll select which Reserved Stream Target within the Advanced Settings under the "Reserved Stream Target” menu " when scheduling each event in 3Play.
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The streaming information for the selected instance will pre-populate on the confirmation screen. When ordering a Live event, if the service type is changed from LPC to LAC, then the stream target will automatically update to the default Reserved Stream Target value for the selected service, as defined in Project Settings.
| Note: If you schedule overlapping events using the same Reserved Stream Target, 3Play will automatically transition to the later event, at the Stream Start Time associated with the later event. This will result in caption, and potentially restream failure on the earlier event at the Stream Start Time for the later event. |
Stream Recovery & Maximum Stream Time
If there is a disconnection between your encoder and 3Play, and you have exceeded the reconnection wait time (click here for more information on configuring stream reconnection) the event in 3Play will end and 3Play will spin down the Reserved Stream Target. In order to begin a stream on the same Reserved Stream Target, you will need to schedule a new event in 3Play.
Please ensure the recovery event is scheduled at least 5 minutes in the future to ensure the Reserved Stream Target has enough time to reset prior to re-initiating your stream, OR select a different transcoder.
Once you disconnect, the reserved instance will spin down on its own in a few minutes. If you don't stop streaming to the instance, then the instance will spin itself down after the Max Stream time duration has been reached (as defined in the advanced settings of the event). The Max Stream duration starts at the Stream Start time you select in the ordering workflow. You can also select "end event" on the Live dashboard page, which will also cause the instance to spin down.
| Note: If you schedule overlapping events using the same Reserved Stream Target, 3Play will automatically transition to the later event, at the Stream Start Time associated with the later event. This will result in caption, and potentially restream failure on the earlier event at Stream Start Time for the later event. |