Announcing Daily Live Streaming

UPDATE November 2022: Daily now supports 100,000 participant interactive live streams. All 100,000 persons can join in real-time, with 25 cams/mics on. We also support 1,000 person large calls, with all cams/mics on. The below blog post walks you through our support for RTMP output, connecting to traditional live streaming.

View our developer guide on scaling large calls to learn about interactive live streaming, large calls, and RTMP output.

UPDATE: Daily now supports 25 active participants with 15,000 viewers and 1,000 person large calls, all with cams and mics on.

We’re excited to announce Daily Live Streaming, a new API which lets developers live stream video calls to millions more, by sending video calls to platforms like YouTube, Facebook Live, or Twitch. Developers also can stream to custom players built with services like Amazon IVS, Brightcove, or Mux.

While it’s easy for an individual to live stream to an audience of millions, live streaming conversations with several remote participants is challenging. Video calls leverage WebRTC, a technology designed for low latency connections between multiple participants. In contrast, streaming platforms use formats such as HLS, along with CDNs, which make it easy to broadcast media to a larger number of people, but with higher latency.

Daily Live Streaming bridges the gap between real-time video and live streaming broadcast. With Daily, developers can build real-time conversations with up to 15,000 participants. With one extra line of code, they then can broadcast a stream, displaying up to to 10 video participants at a time, to their platforms of choice.

Combining real-time and streaming

Live Streaming at Daily begins with a WebRTC video call. You can add video calls in minutes with Daily Prebuilt, a plug-and-play embed; or developers can build custom video layouts, working directly with video and audio tracks.

To start a live stream, a developer simply adds one line of code to access Daily’s Live Streaming API. Daily combines up to 10 video tracks and 50 audio tracks into a single RTMP stream for broadcast.

RTMP is supported as an input format by every major live streaming platform. The latency of the live stream depends on which streaming platform you broadcast to, and can be between three and 20 seconds. Our own latency is less than a second.

Head over to our developer tutorial to learn more about implementing live streaming, or read on to learn about our feature set and supported use cases.

Live stream video calls with an industry-leading feature set

Daily Live Streaming is a unique solution to streaming multiparty conversations to a broader audience — and provides unique benefits:

• True HD video at 1920 x 1080 resolution.
• 15,000 person real-time sessions. Events and classes with up to 15,000 real-time participants, which can then be live streamed — with up to 10 visible video feeds — for even further reach.
• Flexible layouts:
  • "Active speaker” mode, which highlights the active speaker and up to nine additional video streams in a sidebar;
  • “Grid mode” which displays nine concurrent video streams;
  • Presenter mode, which features the audio and video of the presenter only;
  • Screen sharing mode, which displays the presenter in a small video in the top left-hand corner.

  

  • Coming soon:  Contact us if you're interested in custom layouts! We're releasing support shortly, and glad to hear what you need.
    

  Why live stream video calls

  Live video is becoming an integrated part of our professional and social lives. Daily customers across verticals leverage video for a variety of use cases, from concerts, telehealth, classes and tutoring sessions, conferences and panel discussions, games, competitions, social watch parties, and more.

  Combining the immediacy of real-time video with the scale of live streaming provides endless opportunities for real-time interactive video experiences at scale. Some use cases include:

  Q&A and panel discussions

  

  • Daily calls can host up to 15,000 real-time participants with no extra configuration required, allowing developers to create dynamic video experiences with a small number of hosts or panel members and a much larger audience.
  • Cameras and microphones can be turned on and off during the call, making it easy to take questions from audience members live.
  • Sessions can include screen sharing, pre-recorded video content, or video from other applications like white board tools.
  • These sessions can then be broadcast to an even bigger audience via your live streaming platform of choice, and recorded for later viewing.
    

  New live music experiences

  • A new generation of live music platforms are offering both concert experiences and direct interaction between artists and fans at a more intimate level.
  • With Daily, live music platforms can create small meet-and-greets, Q&A sessions, cowatching, and after parties.
  • These new concert experiences are made possible by combining Daily’s real-time APIs with scalable delivery on live streaming platforms to anyone, on any device, anywhere in the world.

  Webinars

  • Live webinars are a powerful sales tool. With Daily, webinars can include multiple presenters, pre-recorded video, live text chat, polls, and other interactive features.
  • Webinars can be streamed live to even larger audiences, and saved for later on-demand viewing, boosting your company’s content and SEO.
    

  Summits or festivals

  

  • More and more events are taking place online, replacing in-person events completely or expanding the audience to include people who cannot attend live.
  • Daily’s customers include a number of companies that offer customized live event experiences with features such as keynote speeches, fireside chats, small-group sessions, breakout rooms, social hours, and curated content tracks.
  • Keynotes and other parts of the live event can be streamed from Daily to another platform to allow large audiences and later on-demand viewing.

  Education and fitness

  • Daily’s APIs make it easy to create live educational content which allows instructors to interact with students from the comfort of their own homes.
  • This content can be streamed to a wider audience and saved for later, on-demand viewing, for customers who might not be able to join a live class.
  • Recorded educational content also serves another potential audience: Platforms like Masterclass and TV shows like Masterchef demonstrate that there’s a real viewership for learning and teaching experiences.

  Gaming

  • Streaming with multiple cameras or players has previously required tricky workarounds. Daily Live Streaming makes it easy to broadcast a truly multiplayer experience.
  • Developers can build platforms to help gamers have fun, compete, and build a fan base, for stickier experiences.
  • Coaching platforms also can live stream real-time coaching calls with feedback.

  Immersive marketing and live commerce

  

  • Brand collaborations with influencers, live auctions, and social commerce are all growing exponentially. Daily allows developers to build interactive live streams and sales channels for these purposes.
  • For influencers with large followings, live video calls combined with live streaming allows interaction with engaged followers, which can be streamed to an even larger audience.   Auction sites and social commerce have similar dynamics and viewership.
  • Streaming from Daily allows developers to create hybrid experiences, combining real-time interaction and unlimited audience size.
    

  Religious services

  • Religious organizations were early adopters of live streaming technology, and are increasingly adding interactive real-time elements, such as guests in different locations, pre-recorded content, graphics, and text chat.
  • Live streamed content provides reliable delivery of content to viewers on older devices, meaning that participants can enjoy live services wherever they are, without a technical barrier.  Services can also be recorded for easy on-demand access as well.

  Pricing

  Our live streaming pricing is simple, broken up into two parts.

  • Real-time video call - Our standard pricing for real-time calls apply. Our pricing is transparent, including unlimited TURN usage. Learn more about pricing here.
  • Live streaming - While a live stream is active there is an additional cost of $0.015/streaming minute.  

  Live streaming is enabled on all paid accounts. Developers simply can sign up, upgrade in the dashboard and start building. By default, accounts are enabled for up to 20 simultaneous live streams. Contact us if you need more concurrent streams.

  We provide developer support on all plans (no additional cost), and we're always glad to talk about special rates that reflect your use case — whether a custom rate for peer-to-peer calls, enterprise volume, or you're an early stage startup interested in our Startup Program credits.

  Building the future of video

  At Daily, we’re powering a new generation of imaginative, flexible, immersive video and audio experiences. If you’re building with real-time video and want to expand to live streaming, please let us know what you’re working on and how we can support you.