Delivery networks and capabilities

Video has to travel from the venue's encoder to every viewer's phone over a delivery network. Vabu Streams sits in front of the network so that you write your code once. This page explains how to keep that code independent of the network.

The provider field

Every live stream and asset has a read-only provider field. It names the network that carries that video. In test mode it is simulated.

{ "id": "ls_01J9ZQ4M8T3K6Y2E5W7N0B1C9D", "object": "live_stream", "provider": "simulated" }

Show it in a log or a support screen if you like. Do not branch on it. When Vabu adds networks or moves an account, a check on the name would break and a check on a capability would not.

Today each account runs on one network that Vabu chooses for it. Choosing a network by audience region, with Nairobi first, and a second network on standby, are on What's coming.

Capabilities

A capability is something a network can do. Networks differ, so a few capabilities are not on every stream. Check the thing itself.

You want to	How to know	If it is not there
Send video over SRT	ingest.srt_url is set	Use rtmp_url
Send video over WHIP from a browser	ingest.whip_url is set	Use RTMP or SRT from an encoder
Use a backup address	ingest.rtmp_backup_url is set	Rely on the reconnect window
Run an audio-only stream	Create the stream with audio_only: true. The response confirms it.	A 422 provider_rejected error says why
Keep latency low	Create the stream with latency_mode: "low". The response shows what you got.	Use standard
Forward to other platforms	POST a simulcast target. status on the target says if it was accepted.	Targets with status: "errored" were refused
Cut clips from an asset	POST /v1/streams/assets/{id}/clips	A 409 asset_not_ready error means wait for ready
Sign playback tokens yourself	POST /v1/streams/signing_keys	409 dedicated_environment_required

Two rules keep your code safe:

1. Read the response, not the plan. Look at the fields you got back and branch on them.
2. Treat a refusal as information. 422 provider_rejected and 409 errors tell you what the network cannot do, in words you can show your team.

Ordered sources

A playback grant returns sources, an ordered list of links, with a failover rule. Play the first, and switch after failover.max_errors fatal errors in failover.window_seconds. Today the list has one item. Write the switch now, and a second source will work the day it appears. See playback and sessions.

Vabu events, not network events

Networks send their own signals when an encoder connects or a file is ready. You never see them. Vabu turns them into its own events, such as streams.live_stream.active and streams.asset.ready, with the same shape whatever the network. See stream events.