CDN for roku channel and live streaming

Technology Devops
#1

I’m trying to find an alternative to our current video on demand/service archive/etc. service for our Roku Channel and Apple TV App.

We intend on moving video on demand to YouTube for our website and mobile apps, but still want to have something that can deliver video to Roku and Apple TV. My understanding is we need HLS offered via CDN and I’m wondering what the best way to accomplish that would be.

We currently use highwinds through a package deal that included storage, but the package it was bundled with is being canceled and the price is going a little higher than we’d like.

We do around 4TB of traffic, but I’m not sure how much data we actually have… I think we may actually have 4 to 5TB of video and audio right now.

It feels like I could probably just get an S3 account and store the data there for a few hundred a month then use a CDN for a few hundred more per month and be just fine, but I wasn’t sure if there was something more ideal. I really like the idea of a service that could do the transcoding so we can throw video files up there and when people access them the hls files are generated on the fly, rather than us having to generate the hls and store thousands of files per video… thoughts?

#2

We just use Vimeo Pro for this… $199/yr and it handles all of our on demand for ATV/Roku/Web. You’re limited as to how much you can upload per week, but if you get a subscription dedicated to just your weekend services, it’s not a problem.

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#3

Yep; Vimeo is a great option. If you need more flexibility Cloudflare Stream looks interesting too.

For that much data, if you wanted to stick with a file-based backend, I’d look at Backblaze B2 or Wasabi as they have much more favorable egress pricing. I’d honestly try it without a CDN first, if you go that route. If you do add one, there are a few lower cost options like Beluga or you can go through a reseller like JodiHost but it’s going to still add up to be a lot more than Vimeo, etc.

#4

Can you use Vimeo Pro video in your own custom Roku/ATV apps, or do you have to use theirs?

We’d want to basically just change the back-end hosting of the video while keeping our current interface.

#5

I believe you loose the option to have variable bitrates, but yeah, you can use the Vimeo directly if you update the URLs in your app.

Of course the challenge for you is that you can only upload 1TB /year on Pro so you still have to do something else for the back catalog.

#6

Yup. All of our apps are custom and have always used Vimeo Pro links. In theory you could populate the back catalog by uploading a few extra messages each week, but it would be cumbersome.

#7

It looks like we could just go Business if we want to include our back catalog, since it wouldn’t fit on Pro anyway.

Realistically I don’t think it will be an option because of losing variable bitrates, but I’ve reached out to vimeo just in case.

#8

Honestly we’ve never seen an issue with playback/bitrates. It “just works” on any device.

#9

Did everyone create their own custom apps or did you use a service to create your Roku and Apple TV apps?

We already have everything in Vimeo Pro and this is something we have discussed but it’s been on the back back burner due to other more important projects.

#10

We created our own apps because we wanted them to be driven from our ChMs (RockRMS) and didn’t want to have to duplicate metadata about our sermons into two different places. The CHMs drives the on demand section of our web site, so it only made sense to have our external apps get their xml/Jason from there as well.

We briefly tried the free apps that come with CSTV but found them unstable and lacking for our needs.

#11

You can consider Haivision. They work with alot of Ministries and Churches and can get very good competitive rates from various CDNs. They provide the transcoding as well that works off theplatform.com . The other half of Haivision’s business is with the US Military offering secure and reliable streaming technologies (SRT etc) for the battlefield.

Haivision Video Cloud is the product to consider. The top of the line CDN currently I feel is Akamai; surprisingly cheap (cheaper than Amazon or Azure) if you negotiate well.

Haivision Makito series are great for streaming live videos connecting multiple locations. They do good compressions with high reliability. We have tested live streaming 15,000 km between nodes through the internet and performed amazingly well.

#12

i would like to know where this information came from. our church is currently using sling studio with a ptz optics camera that send our stream live to vimeo and facebook live. we have been having issues becasue we cannot seem to get the live stream from our church services to stream live on the roku. we have contactec vimeo support and sling studio support as well as roku support they claim that it is not possible to view live streams on a roku using neither the vimeo app or the sling studio apps. i have the emails from all of them to prove it.

#13

we were told that the ONLY way to watch our services live was from the mobile phone or a computer. past events will play but live events will not.
we have issues with alot of our older folks are requesting to be able to watch it on their tv sets usign their roku box becasue holding a cell phone or a laptop for 2 hours is not an option for folks with shaky hands. i would love to have some input on this. the church will not stream the entire service to youtube. they only upload post edit videos of the service.

#14

Have you checked into churchstreaming.tv? Looks like they would do what you need automatically. I’d encourage you to book a call with them.

#15

I like them personally, but the head media guy isnt open to suggestions.

#16

We use Heroku for our Roku content

#17

We use Haivision, they are great and solid. Would anyone be willing to share there custom roku channel package file. I want to build one, but I need a basic template to start from? Thanks!

#18

You should consider the Roku Direct Publisher method instead of building your own package unless you need more advanced features.