Stream Live: Bring Your Own Ingest Domain
Live streaming platforms have multiplied over the past two years, but one thing remained constant: creators had to push their feed to Cloudflare’s domain. Even a platform named live-yoga-classes.com required users to configure an RTMPS key pointing at live.cloudflare.com. Starting today, every Stream account can define its own ingest domain from the dashboard, so creators can broadcast to a domain like push.live-yoga-classes.com.
The feature is available to all Stream accounts, including self-serve customers, at no additional cost. Each Cloudflare account with a Stream subscription may configure up to five ingest domains.
Secure CNAMEing for Live Video
Stream Live accepts only encrypted ingestion via RTMPS and SRT protocols. These ensure encryption between the broadcaster and Cloudflare servers, protecting against monster-in-the-middle attacks just like HTTPS. Many live ingestion platforms do not support unencrypted RTMP; Stream intentionally does not support insecure live streams.
Because unsecure CNAMEing would undermine this stance, you cannot simply point your domain at live.cloudflare.com. Instead, the implementation leverages other Cloudflare products such as Spectrum to support custom-branded domains in Stream Live without compromising broadcaster privacy.
Configuration Steps
- Add the domain to your Cloudflare account as a regular zone.
Add a zone to your Cloudflare account
- CNAME the domain to
live.cloudflare.com.
CNAME the zone to live.cloudflare.com
- With an active Stream subscription, navigate to the Inputs page and click the Settings icon.
Click on Settings icon on Live Inputs page
- Add the configured domain as a Live Ingest Domain.
Add Custom Ingest Domain
If the domain is accepted, you’ll receive a confirmation.
Confirmation of domain being added as an ingest domain
Once the ingest domain is added, test it by updating the connection settings in your broadcasting software. Full documentation: Stream Live developer docs.
Beyond Branding: Migration and Extensibility
Custom ingest domains offer more than a branding win. Removing the need to instruct users to point at live.cloudflare.com also reduces vendor lock-in and simplifies migration efforts. Platforms with an existing live pipeline can shift to Stream Live without asking end users to change any broadcasting app settings.
Support for custom keys is the natural progression. Today, Stream Live still requires keys generated by the platform, but “bring your own keys” is on the roadmap. Used together, custom domains and custom keys will enable zero-breaking-change migration to Stream Live for end users.
