Media Gateway overview
Updated
Overview and capabilities of Agora's Media Gateway service, including supported protocols, transcoding features, and common use cases.
Agora's Media Gateway service enables publishing RTMP, SRT, and WHIP streams into Agora's real-time voice and video channels. By performing advanced transcoding at the edge, it reduces latency compared to traditional RTMP streaming and unlocks new possibilities for publishing and controlling real-time media streams.
Compatible with popular streaming tools, Media Gateway lets broadcasters maintain their existing setups while leveraging Agora SDRTN(R) for seamless and reliable delivery.
Applicable use cases
| Use case | Description |
|---|---|
| Commentary from influencers and celebrities | Inject high-definition video streams into interactive channels. Multiple hosts can watch and interact in real time from different places. |
| Low-latency distribution | Distribute content to viewers faster and more reliably than with a CDN. |
| Recording and live broadcasting | A teacher records content in advance and injects it into a live classroom. Students and teaching assistants can watch the content and interact in real time. |
| 24-hour chat room | Background music is played continuously and is not interrupted when switching hosts. |
Start building
Enable Media Gateway
Turn on Media Gateway for your Agora project in Console.
Media Gateway quickstart
Generate a streaming key and publish an RTMP stream into Agora channels.
Product features
High reliability
Enhance service reliability with a globally distributed cluster deployment, ensuring high-quality and seamless user experience in every region.
Low latency
Experience seamless, real-time communication as the source stream directly enters the channel at the gateway, minimizing latency between the host and the audience.
Transcoding support
Employ advanced transcoding capabilities on media streams for bandwidth optimization, enhanced delivery speed, cross-device compatibility, and wider distribution.
Stable and easy to use
Simple and easy to use APIs help you integrate the feature quickly.
Safety compliance
Safe and secure real-time transmission of audio and video data without caching or collecting users' personal information.
Multi-format, multi-protocol media streaming support
Works with several audio and video codecs, streaming protocols, and media formats.
Feature details
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Media input | Supports generating a streaming key through a RESTful API or a local encryption algorithm, then pushing the source stream directly to Agora's gateway service. After a successful push, the media stream is automatically played in the channel for remote users. Streaming keys can be scoped to a single region or created as global keys that work across all Media Gateway regions. |
| Multiple media streaming formats and protocols | Supports H.264, H.265, and AV1 video codecs, AAC, OPUS, and G.711 (A-law and u-law) audio codecs, RTMP, SRT, and WHIP push protocols, and FLV and MPEG-TS media formats. |
| Custom transcoding parameters | Supports enabling transcoding for media streams input into the channel. If you enable transcoding, you can set parameters such as resolution, frame rate, bitrate, and whether to enable large and small streams. You can also transcode conditionally, so a stream is transcoded only when the source doesn't already meet your target specification. |
| Custom domains and TLS certificates | Supports managing your own RTMPS streaming domain and TLS certificate through the REST API, either by requesting an Agora-issued certificate or importing your own. |
| Dual-stream high availability | Supports binding two streaming keys to the same channel and user ID and pushing to a primary and backup domain simultaneously. Media Gateway can automatically fail over to the backup stream if the primary stream drops or degrades in quality. |
| Restricted access area | When activating Media Gateway, you specify the access area to ensure the transmission quality of the media stream. |
| Server event notification callback | Agora provides message notification services. After activating Media Gateway, you receive event notifications. |
Related APIs and implementation entry points
Use the following references when you implement the core Media Gateway capabilities described in Feature details:
- REST API overview: Review the base URL, authentication model, and the full API surface.
- RESTful authentication: Authenticate server-side requests before calling Media Gateway APIs.
- Query notification service IP address: Retrieve the callback IP ranges used by notification services.
The main API groups map to product features as follows:
| Feature area | APIs or guides |
|---|---|
| Media input and streaming key management | Use the streaming key APIs in the REST API overview to create, query, and delete streaming keys. For a local streaming key generation example or to create a global streaming key, see the Quickstart. |
| Online stream control | Use the online stream APIs in the REST API overview to query active streams, inspect stream details, force disconnect a stream, or mute and unmute audio or video. |
| Custom transcoding parameters | Use template APIs in the REST API overview to create, update, delete, or set default transcoding templates for ingress streams. To transcode only when needed, see Adaptive transcoding. |
| Custom domains and TLS certificates | Manage your own RTMPS domain and certificate by following RTMP and RTMPS streaming. |
| Dual-stream high availability | Set up automatic failover between a primary and backup stream by following Dual-stream. |
| Server event notification callback | Configure notifications by following Receive webhook notifications, then use the event type reference to interpret callback payloads. |