Streaming Video via Speedify Dedicated Speed Server

This article explains how Speedify's Dedicated Speed Servers work for professional live video streaming, and when you might want to use a "shared nothing" architecture for maximum reliability.

What You'll Need

• A Speedify account with a Dedicated or Self-Hosted Speedify Server add-on
• A laptop or encoding device running the Speedify client
• Two or more internet connections (for example, two LTE connections and one Wi-Fi connection)
• A destination streaming server (Facebook Live, Twitch, RTMP, RTSP)

Standard Streaming Setup with Speedify

Most users can get started with live streaming using a standard Speedify account and Speedify's public servers. If you're doing professional streaming, though, you may want a Dedicated Server, which means your stream runs on hardware that no one else is sharing at the same time.

In a typical setup, a film crew uses a laptop that handles both encoding and the Speedify client. That laptop connects to multiple internet connections at once, for example two LTE connections and one Wi-Fi connection. Speedify distributes the video stream across all three connections, and the Dedicated Speed Server reassembles it before delivering it to your streaming destination.

Speedify Dedicated Server Setup

For events where reliability is critical, some users go a step further with a "shared nothing" architecture. In this setup, you use two separate PCs, each with a complete encoding and Speedify client configuration, and each connecting to a different Dedicated Server hosted at a different data center.

Dedicated Servers are very reliable, but major internet outages do happen. If the value of your event is high enough, a single point of failure is a real risk. The shared nothing setup removes that risk: if one PC or one LTE carrier fails mid-event, the other continues streaming without interruption.

In the diagram above, the encoder on the second PC and the second LTE carrier have both failed mid-event. The video continues to stream from the first PC using only LTE 1 and the Wi-Fi connection, because each machine was connected to a separate Dedicated Server. If you want to provide your own server, we also offer a Speedify Self-Hosted Server option.

Connecting to a Specific Dedicated Server

To guarantee that each computer in a shared nothing setup connects to a different Dedicated Server, use the Speedify Command Line Interface (CLI). Specifying the server directly ensures the two PCs don't end up on the same hardware. If the connection to your specified Dedicated Speed Server fails, Speedify will automatically connect to another available Dedicated Speed Server.