This approach might make sense if your channel has multiple recurring broadcasts such that two broadcasts might occur simultaneously, making it infeasible for both broadcasts to use the same streaming settings. In this scenario, you would create a distinct liveStream resource for each liveBroadcast resource and then configure your streaming encoder to use the appropriate settings for each broadcast. Create one stream per broadcastĪnother common approach is to create a separate stream for each broadcast. However, only one event is live at any given time, and the video content for each broadcast is unique.Īny time an event occurs, you update the broadcast's status to either testing or live and proceed to broadcast that event on YouTube. In this scenario, every live event that you schedule for your channel uses the same streaming settings. You then create liveBroadcast resources in the API and bind all of those resources to the liveStream resource.
(Note that, if you have multiple channels, you must create a different stream for each channel.) So, you create one liveStream resource in the API and then use the content delivery settings from that resource to configure the encoder for the channel. As the channel owner, you have a single encoder and only want to configure the encoder one time. In the most common API use case, your YouTube channel has a series of scheduled or recurring live events. The remaining sections present three use cases that explain how API users typically use broadcasts and streams. It is also common for broadcasters to reuse the same stream for many different broadcasts if those broadcasts occur at different times. The same stream can be bound to up to three live broadcasts. A broadcast can be and needs to be bound to exactly one stream.Ī stream enables you to transmit audio-video content to YouTube, and it defines the settings for how you stream your content to YouTube. Each broadcast is a distinct YouTube video. It also discusses use cases that show how broadcasters use the YouTube Live Streaming API to create and manage those resources.Ī broadcast represents an event that can be watched on YouTube as it happens. This guide provides a brief overview of broadcasts and streams.