The publish URL

The publish URL is what you paste into your encoder to broadcast. It carries your key inside, so it’s different for every key and it changes when the key changes.

How to copy it

1. Go to Stream Keys.
2. Check that the Protocol and the Region on that row are the ones you’re going to use.
3. Hit Publish. The button turns into Copied and you’ve got it on the clipboard.
4. Paste it into your encoder as-is, without trimming it.

You’ve also got it on the dashboard, under Live signal, with Copy publish URL.

You copy it, you don’t type it

The URL carries your key and, in SRT and SRTLA, an exact parameter. One character too many or too few and it won’t connect, with an error that usually looks like authentication. Always copy it from the dashboard: if you’re unsure whether the one in your encoder is the right one, wipe it and paste it again.

Without typing it: the QR code

On your phone, out on the street and in a hurry, the best move is not to copy or paste anything.

1. On Stream Keys, hit QR code on your key.
2. Pick the format: Moblin, which creates the stream inside the app, or Other encoder, which carries the publish URL as plain text for anything else.
3. Hit Show QR code and scan it with your phone. If you’re reading it from another device, hit Full screen and turn the brightness up.

The code is built from the Protocol and the Region the key has at that moment: if you change either, or you Rotate the key, you have to scan it again.

That code is your key

The code carries your key inside. Anyone who photographs it can broadcast on your channel. The dashboard keeps it hidden until you hit Show QR code: treat it like a password — don’t show it on stream, don’t share it and don’t leave it in a screenshot. If you think it’s been seen, rotate the key.

What shape it has

You don’t need to write it, but you do need to recognise it:

Protocol	Shape of the publish URL
RTMP	rtmp://<server>/<your-key>
SRT	srt://<server>:<port>?streamid=publish:<your-key>
SRTLA	srtla://<server>:<port>?streamid=publish:<your-key>

Three things you can see in there:

• The publish: bit marks that you’re going to broadcast. The playback URL is the same but with read:.
• In RTMP the publish URL and the playback URL are the same one. Sharing it hands over both.
• In SRTLA the URL starts with srtla://, not with srt://. In Moblin you paste it as-is, scheme included (Broadcasting with Moblin).

Some encoders ask for the URL and the streamid in two separate fields. In that case, split the URL at the ?: what’s in front is the server and publish:<your-key> is the streamid. See Broadcasting with any other encoder.

What changes it

Three things, and only three:

Action	What happens
Changing the Region	The server in the URL changes. The dashboard tells you with Region updated; copy it again with Publish
Changing the Protocol	The scheme, the port and the format change. A Protocol updated notice with the new URL
Rotating the key	The value of the key changes, and it lives inside the URL. The previous one stops working there and then

After any of the three, your encoder is still pointing at the old URL until you update it. Copy it again with Publish and paste it before your next stream, or the dashboard will tell you No signal.

Not with the stream running

Changing region or protocol mid-stream doesn’t fix anything on the fly: stop, update the URL in the encoder and start again.

See also

• Regions — which one to pick and what happens when you change it.
• Rotating and security — when to rotate and what breaks when you do.
• My feed isn’t arriving — if you pasted the URL and nothing comes in.