Preface

With the widespread adoption of the internet and the development of high-speed networks globally, real-time streaming has become an indispensable part of the media and entertainment industries. Audiences crave interaction with their favorite content and programs through various devices, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Live Streaming API stands out as the solution in this ever-changing environment.

The GCP Live Streaming API not only provides content providers and media companies with more convenient and powerful live streaming capabilities but also boasts high scalability and reliability, ensuring that viewers can seamlessly participate in and enjoy exciting real-time streaming experiences. Through the GCP Live Streaming API, content providers can easily plan, manage, and monitor live streaming events. Whether it's sports events, music concerts, product launches, or online educational courses, they can leverage this powerful API to deliver high-quality live content to their audiences.

Moreover, the GCP Live Streaming API offers a stable and reliable live transmission network, ensuring that viewers can smoothly watch live content regardless of their location. Whether it's large-scale global events or small private broadcasts, this robust API can meet the demands of different scales. Additionally, the GCP Live Streaming API seamlessly integrates with other products and services of Google Cloud, bringing more value and functionality to content providers.

Through the integration with Google Analytics and Google Ads, they can gain insights into audience behavior, precisely target their audience, and improve the effectiveness and revenue of live streaming events. In this competitive live streaming industry, the GCP Live Streaming API opens up endless possibilities for content providers and media companies.

Whether it's providing high-quality live streaming experiences, expanding audience reach, or achieving higher revenue, this powerful API can lend you a helping hand.

Next, let's explore the process and architecture of an on-demand video platform on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) through the most common usage scenarios!

[Image 1: Real-time streaming platform architecture (Source: https://cloud.google.com)]

1. Create an input endpoint.
2. Create a Live Stream API to transcode real-time SRT or RTMP input signals into DLS or DASH output streams.
3. The Live Stream API output streams are saved to the Cloud Storage storage partition.
4. Set Cloud Storage as the backend for Media CDN.

By combining the above services, it's easy to build a fully functional real-time streaming platform! Of course, this scenario is just the most basic platform. If we have other feature requirements, such as live stream encryption, although the Live Stream API on GCP does not directly create or manage keys, we can use third-party Digital Rights Management (DRM) providers to create encryption keys for media and then use Secret Manager to pass these keys to the Live Stream API.

Now that we're familiar with how to build a real-time streaming platform on GCP! For other features not mentioned in these two articles, let's try them out on GCP ourselves!