The Video Packager is a service that transcodes RTMP streams to HLS format. It integrates with the Red5 Pro autoscaling system via Stream Manager 2.0, automatically packaging live streams for CDN delivery or local storage.

Overview

The Video Packager:

• Receives requests from Stream Manager to transcode specific streams
• Pulls RTMP from Red5 Pro origin nodes
• Outputs HLS segments to S3 or local filesystem
• Reports metrics to Kafka for autoscaling visibility

Use Cases

CDN Distribution: Package RTMP streams to HLS for delivery via AWS CloudFront or other CDNs:

Origin Node (RTMP) → Video Packager → S3 → CloudFront → Viewers

Local HLS Serving: For deployments without S3 access, output to local storage with built-in HTTP serving:

Origin Node (RTMP) → Video Packager → Local Files → Built-in Server → Viewers

Architecture

The Video Packager runs as a separate node type in the autoscaling cluster:

When a stream starts on an origin node, Stream Manager sends a request to the Video Packager to begin transcoding. The Video Packager pulls the RTMP stream, generates HLS segments, and uploads them to the configured output destination.

Output Modes

S3 Output (Default)

HLS segments are uploaded directly to Amazon S3:

s3://{bucket}/{prefix}/hls/{stream_guid}/
├── playlist.m3u8
├── segment00000.ts
├── segment00001.ts
└── ...

Configure with:

• R5AS_OUTPUT_TYPE=s3
• R5AS_S3_BUCKET={bucket-name}
• R5AS_S3_REGION={region}

File Output

HLS segments are written to local filesystem:

{base_path}/hls/{stream_guid}/
├── playlist.m3u8
├── segment00000.ts
├── segment00001.ts
└── ...

Configure with:

• R5AS_OUTPUT_TYPE=file
• R5AS_FILE_OUTPUT_BASE_PATH=/var/hls
• R5AS_FILE_SERVE_ENABLED=true (optional built-in HTTP server)

Quick Start

1. Configure NodeGroupConfig

Add a video_packager role to your NodeGroupConfig:

{
  "images": {
    "video_packager": {
      "name": "video_packager",
      "image": "video-packager-base-image",
      "cloudProperties": "instance_type=VM.Standard.E4.Flex-1-4"
    }
  },
  "roles": {
    "video_packager": {
      "name": "video_packager",
      "imageName": "video_packager",
      "capabilities": ["VIDEO_PACKAGER"],
      "lifecycle": "AUTO",
      "initScripts": [
        "docker run -d --name as-video-packager --network host -e R5AS_NODE_START_CONFIG=$R5AS_NODE_START_CONFIG -e R5AS_S3_BUCKET=my-bucket -e R5AS_S3_REGION=us-west-2 -e R5AS_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID=AKIA... -e R5AS_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=... -v /usr/local/red5pro/nodeStartConfig.json:/usr/local/video-packager/conf/nodeStartConfig.json your-registry/video-packager:latest"
      ]
    }
  },
  "groups": {
    "region1": {
      "rulesByRole": {
        "video_packager": {
          "nodeRoleName": "video_packager",
          "min": 1,
          "max": 3
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

2. Deploy the NodeGroup

Deploy the NodeGroupConfig via Stream Manager Admin API. See NodeGroupConfig documentation for details.

3. Verify Operation

Once deployed, verify the Video Packager is healthy:

curl http://{video-packager-ip}:5080/health

For more detail including active streams:

curl http://{video-packager-ip}:5080/health/details

Security note: Port 5080 is the internal command port used by Stream Manager to control the Video Packager. Do not expose this port to the public internet. Configure your cloud security groups to allow access only from Stream Manager and your internal network.

Stream States

When a stream is being processed, it transitions through these states:

Streams transition from WAIT to LIVE once the RTMP connection is established and HLS output begins. When the source stream ends normally, the stream is removed. If an error occurs, the stream briefly enters ERROR state before being cleaned up.

Next Steps

• NodeGroupConfig Examples
• Environment Variables Reference