Streaming to external m3u8 file

[jysteele]

Hello, I am attempting to set up a video stream and am fumbling, trying to find some guidance on how it works. I have streaming experience, but it's from over a decade ago and things have changed!

I work at a school that has smart boards that are capable of receiving a live video stream via m3u8 links. They receive the stream command from an external webpage. I have tested with a sample stream and confirmed the basic technique works.

I am running into trouble trying to set up a stream from our network (daily news, etc) that will send to an external m3u8 file. I think I can use vlc to do this, but can't quite put the pieces together.

Is there any documentation on how to do this or do I need to look into paid video servers?

The part I can't quite understand is how to connect the internal stream to a web based m3u8 file. I know the external file should point to the address on our network, but I can't figure out what that link is. When I set up a live stream in VLC, it makes a link ala, http://localhost/live However, I *think* the internal link should be *.m3u8 which is constantly updating the stream snippets. (I have tried saving to a m3u8 file, but it just captures a second or so of video, it is more of a snapshot)

I can set up port forwarding from our network through the firewall, but I'm not sure if that is enough to ensure whatever is being broadcast will be picked up. Do I need to broadcast to an internal web server with a m3u8 file on it, and then open that to the internet?

Thanks for any guidance! We spent a lot of money on the smartboards and I would love to be able to use them to their full abilities.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

VLC has the livehttp output for this, but you will need a separate HTTP server as front-end.