Live streams
Who can watch a stream
The API key decides who may send; the stream password or the project decides who may watch. Open, private and project streams.
Two separate questions. Who may send: whoever has an API key, with what its plan allows (cameras, viewers at once, data rate, recording). Who may watch: where the stream lives and the stream password its sender chose. The API key is never what viewers type.
Three kinds of stream
| Kind | Who sees it, and what they type |
|---|---|
| Personal, private (the default) | Listed for every signed-in Kymoscope user. To watch, they type the stream password the sender set. End-to-end encrypted: Kymoscope never has the password or the key. |
| Personal, open | Listed for every signed-in user, who watch with nothing to type. Not end-to-end encrypted: anyone can watch, so Kymoscope could too. The list marks it Open. |
| Project | Listed only for the project’s members, who watch with nothing to type (the project’s key). End-to-end encrypted. |
Choosing it in the sender
The API key decides where the stream goes: a project’s key publishes into that project, a personal key a personal stream. For a personal stream, the sender sets:
| Sender | Settings |
|---|---|
| Collector | On the source: stream_password: file:stream-password.txt (or env:…, or the text), and visibility: open for an open stream. See Site collector. |
| Python | LiveStream(API_KEY, "Rig A", password="…"), or visibility="open" with no password. |
| LMU and AC plugins | Password= and Visibility=private or open in KymoscopeLiveTelemetry.ini. |
- Choose a long stream password (12 characters or more): a personal stream is listed for every signed-in user, and a short password can be guessed. The sender logs a line when it is shorter.
- A sender with no stream password uses its API key’s secret instead, as before, and logs a line asking for one.
- A project’s streams need no password: its members open them. One set there is not used.
Watching
- In the workspace, click Live in the rail. Your streams and your projects’ come first, then Others: every personal stream of other users.
- Click Connect. An open stream, one of yours or one of your projects connects at once.
- For someone else’s private stream, type its stream password (ask its sender) and click Join. This browser remembers it, and passes it, sealed, to your other browsers: you type it once.
Recordings and changing the password
- A stream’s recordings use the stream’s key: whoever may watch the stream opens its recordings, with the same password.
- A new stream password is a new key: viewers type the new one. Recordings made before keep opening with the old one.
- To keep a stream out of the list, put it in a project (plans that create projects).