Live stream

Video delivered in real time as it happens — the webinar, the event, the broadcast — encoded and sent to viewers on the fly.

Updated: May 2026 5 min read Delivery
In short

A live stream is video encoded and delivered to viewers in real time as it is captured — the webinar or broadcast they watch as it happens — rather than a file uploaded and played back later.

What is a live stream?

A live stream is video delivered to viewers in real time as it is captured, rather than uploaded in advance. The camera or screen feed is encoded, cut into short segmentsHLS (HTTP Live Streaming)Apple’s adaptive streaming protocol. Uses .m3u8 manifests and segmented delivery; supported on every browser, device and smart TV.Open definition → and sent out continuously, so an audience anywhere can watch an event as it unfolds.

The opposite is video on demand (VoD)VoD (Video on Demand)Pre-recorded video a viewer can start any time — the opposite of live. Transcoded once, then served from the CDN on request.Open definition → — pre-recorded video a viewer starts whenever they like. The two often connect: most live streams are recorded and become a VoD replay afterwards. Live is defined by two hard constraints — latencyLatencyThe delay between a moment happening and a viewer seeing it. Critical for live — Low-Latency HLS brings it down to 2–5 seconds.Open definition → (how far behind real time) and reliability under sudden load.

How a live stream works

Capture & encode

A camera or screen feed goes into an encoder (OBS, vMix, or hardware) that sends it to the platform over RTMP or SRT.

Transcode on the fly

The platform transcodesTranscodingRe-encoding a source video into multiple resolutions and bitrates so a player can switch between quality levels on the fly.Open definition → the incoming feed into multiple quality levels in real time, so the player can adapt to each viewer's connection.

Segment & deliver

The stream is segmented and served through a CDNCDN (Content Delivery Network)A global network of edge servers that caches video close to viewers, cutting latency and absorbing traffic spikes.Open definition →, which fans it out to viewers near them — the key to scaling to large audiences.

Record to replay

The session is recorded automatically and becomes an on-demand replay when it ends.

Ingest protocols: RTMP, SRT, WebRTC

"Ingest" is how your encoder gets the feed into the platform — separate from how viewers watch it (which is HLS/DASHDASHDynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP — an open ISO standard using .mpd manifests, common for DRM-protected premium content.Open definition →). The common options:

ProtocolStrengthBest for
RTMP Universal encoder supportThe default for most streams
SRTReliable over unstable networks (recovers packet loss)Remote / field production
WebRTCSub-second, browser-nativeTwo-way, conversational live

Whichever you send in on, viewers still receive an adaptive HLS/DASH stream — ingest and playback are two different halves of the pipeline.

Further reading

Denis Konnov

Written by

Denis Konnov Verified

CMO at Kinescope

Denis leads marketing and content at Kinescope, working closely with the platform's engineers. This glossary is reviewed and kept up to date by the team building Kinescope's streaming, encoding and CDN delivery infrastructure.

FAQ

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A live stream is video delivered in real time as it is captured — the feed is encoded, segmented and sent to viewers on the fly, rather than uploaded in advance. Webinars, events, product launches and broadcasts are live streams; the opposite is video on demand (VoD).

A live stream is delivered in real time as it happens; VoD (video on demand) is pre-recorded and can be started any time. Many live streams are recorded and become VoD afterwards — the replay. Live is about latency and reliability under load; VoD is about storage and instant access.

A source (camera or screen), an encoder that sends the feed over RTMP or SRT (OBS, vMix, or hardware), and a platform to transcode and deliver it to viewers. Kinescope ingests your RTMP/sRTMP stream, transcodes it into adaptive quality levels, and delivers it via its own CDN.

Both carry the feed from your encoder to the platform (ingest). RTMP is the long-standing default — universally supported by encoders, but built on TCP. SRT is a newer protocol designed for reliable delivery over unstable networks, recovering from packet loss better. You send in over one of them; viewers still watch over HLS/DASH.

On Kinescope, yes. Every live stream is recorded automatically and becomes a normal on-demand video the moment it ends, so the replay is ready to embed or gate without any manual export.

That depends on the delivery network. Because Kinescope serves live from its own global CDN, concurrency scales with bandwidth rather than a fixed cap — large events are fanned out across many edge servers, not served from one origin.
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