Get Started with Resi (Hardware Encoder to Web)

Updated May 31, 2023 17:27

This guide will walk you through getting started with your Resi hardware, getting your account set up, broadcasting, and understanding your viewership. If you’re unable to complete your setup, please contact Resi’s technical support team.

In addition to this guide, Resi recommends signing up for an onboarding session. A member of the Resi Success Team will walk through using Studio and you’ll be able to ask any questions you have. All team members using Resi are welcome to attend.

1. Access Studio

After you complete the sales process, you’ll receive two emails:
- An automated user invite from Studio, prompting you to log in and access your account for the first time.
- A welcome email from our support team with information and links to get you started using Studio.
If you don’t receive the user invite email, first check your spam folder to confirm future correspondence won’t be filtered there. If you didn’t receive it all, contact Resi’s technical support team.

2. Confirm your account settings

First, log into Studio from the user invite email you received.

The first time you log into Studio, it will automatically determine your data center. This configures your account to the closest data center for peak performance. Once this process is complete, click Continue to Studio to access your account.

We recommend familiarizing yourself with your Studio Settings and making sure they’re configured correctly:
- Web Presets - Web presets define video and audio channel settings used for transcoding content from your encoder to a web destination. Make sure the audio and video channels match your intended usage. Resi creates an unlisted preset called “Default,” using video channel 1 and audio channels 1 and 2. Learn more
- Web Channels - Web channels temporarily store your web videos until they expire and provide embed options. Since web channels only broadcast the most recent content that you’ve broadcasted, Resi recommends creating web channels for each type of event you’re going to stream. By doing so, you can avoid overwriting content you want to broadcast before it expires. You can create as many web channels as you need to store content. Learn more
- Encoder Presets - Encoder presets contain input and output settings your hardware encoder will use to capture, store, and send content to the cloud. Learn more
Make sure your input signal matches the output signal from your camera/switcher. If it doesn’t, you’ll see color bars instead of your content. Learn more about fixing color bars.
- Encoder Channels - Encoder channels are folders in the cloud where the original captured format of video content is stored.
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Your Resi hardware will come with setup instructions. You can also find them here: Encoders | Decoders.

1. Connect your encoder to your equipment

Your hardware setup may be different than others depending on what you’d like to accomplish. The simplest path is to directly connect your camera to your encoder with an SDI cable. Organizations have also had success with audio SDI embedders, switchers, and other accessories. Generally, to power up an encoder and set your signal up:
1. Connect your cables. Make sure the power cable, ethernet cable, and SDI cable are connected securely. If you prefer, you can use HDMI cables with server-grade encoders.
2. Turn on all equipment in line from the camera to the encoder.
3. Turn on the encoder when everything’s connected. The power switch will be on the back. You should see the blue light power on and the lights blinking by the network cable.
Learn more about setting up an encoder.

2. Set up web streaming

To stream to the web, you’ll embed the player into your hosting platform (website, Church Online Platform, etc.) and/or use Stream URLs to stream through an OTT app, depending on the plan you have with Resi.

Before proceeding, check to make sure your web presets and web channels are configured correctly.

Learn more about setting up web presets.

Learn more about creating web channels.

3. Use embed options

Use an embed code to place the web player directly into your website. You can also use Stream URLs to embed your player in a different hosting platform or OTT app (depending on your subscription level with Resi).
- If you want the embedded player to always display the most recent content, use the web channel embed options.
- If you want the embedded player to display a specific event until it expires, use the embed options from that event’s details page.
4. Stream to platforms that accept RTMP

If you want to broadcast to a platform that accepts RTMP, you just need to configure them in Studio from the RTMP page in Studio and you’ll be set to go. Once you’ve entered a destination’s stream key and URL, you can use that destination when scheduling a broadcast. To add streaming to custom (RTMP) destinations to your account, contact your customer success manager or the Resi Success Team at success@resi.io.

5. Connect social media destinations

You can broadcast to both YouTube and Facebook with Resi. First, you’ll need to link your social media accounts to your Resi account.

To connect your Resi account to YouTube or Facebook,
1. Navigate to Settings > Social Media.
2. Click the + Link Account button in the top-right.
3. Select the social media platform you want to link and grant access.
4. Enter your credentials and follow the instructions provided by the sign-in utility and follow the steps they provide to link your account.
5. When you click Save, the account will show up in your social media destinations.
If it’s your first time streaming to a YouTube account, YouTube will place a 24-hour hold before you can stream. We recommend connecting your Resi account to your YouTube account well ahead of your event date.

For step-by-step guides to linking and broadcasting to YouTube and Facebook, see:
- How to Stream to YouTube
- How to Stream to Facebook
Facebook’s access token lasts three months, after which, you can renew it simply by selecting the “renew access” button within Studio. Learn more
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Before you test your hardware and begin to broadcast, configure your network to optimize streaming with Resi.

1. Check your bandwidth requirements

Before you can start broadcasting your video, make sure you have the bandwidth to do so at your broadcast site. To access the dedicated bandwidth you need to broadcast, check in your encoder preset:
1. Navigate to Settings > Encoder Presets.
2. Click the preset you want to use for your broadcast.
3. Ensure your preset has the appropriate input, output, and A/V channel settings.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see Resi’s Bandwidth Recommendation Calculator, which is how much bandwidth you needd for a high-quality stream. It’s calculated as 2.5x the total combined bitrate.
2. Disable captive portals or whitelist your hardware

Authorization from a captive portal page can often time out and cause data interruptions. If your network uses a captive portal to allow internet access, you will need to disable this security measure for your encoder and decoder.
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Once you have set up your account and hardware, run tests to make sure your encoder is receiving a signal, and that your audio and video signals are coming through correctly.

1. Test if your encoder is receiving a signal

To test and make sure the audio and video are being captured, start your encoder to see what it’s capturing. You can start your encoder from the Dashboard. Click Start next to the encoder you want to use.
1. In the modal that appears, configure your encoder broadcast and click Start Encoder.
2. Navigate to the Encoder Videos tab. The live encoder video will appear as the most recent encoder video.
3. Click the video to start playing it. Check and make sure your video and audio are coming through correctly.
If you see color bars, make sure the output format from your camera matches the input format in the encoder preset you’re using. Learn more

Our support team is unable to troubleshoot the path your signal takes from the camera to your encoder. However, we do have troubleshooting resources in our Help Center.

2. Test your broadcast

Once you’ve set up destinations, you’re ready to test a broadcast to make sure it works the way you need it to before going live to your viewers. To test your end-to-end configuration, start a test broadcast by manually create a web video from an encoder video.
1. Navigate to your Media > Encoder Videos.
2. Hover over an encoder video and click the actions icon > Start a Web Video.
3. Configure your web event in the next page.
4. Choose the playout behavior for the web player. Learn more
5. Click + Add Social Destination to select YouTube and/or Facebook. You’ll need to add them one at a time.
6. Once you click Start, the web video will start and show up as the most recent web video in your web videos tab.
7. Check to make sure the audio/video plays back properly.
If you see color bars, make sure the output format from your camera matches the input format in the encoder preset you’re using. Learn more

You’re ready to go live! If you haven’t already, before your first broadcast Resi recommends scheduling an onboarding session.
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Now that you’ve connected, configured, and tested your setup, you’re ready to broadcast. Just as when you tested your setup, you can schedule or manually start a stream. Manually starting an event allows you to begin broadcasting immediately.

With Resi’s scheduling feature, you can create events ahead of time and repeat them as often as you would like. The encoder will start at the time you choose and your web/social media broadcasts will begin at the time you choose.

Schedule a live event
1. Navigate to the Schedule page in Studio.
2. Add an event by clicking the + Add Event button in the top right or hovering over the date and clicking Add Event.
3. Configure the event’s details in the next page and select your destinations by clicking the + Add Destination button. You can broadcast to:
You’ll need to configure each destination individually. Once you do, the destinations your scheduled event will broadcast to will be listed under Content Destinations.
1. Click Save to schedule the event. It will now appear on the schedule and broadcast at the date/time you’ve selected.
For a step-by-step guide to scheduling an event, see Schedule an Event.

Manually start an event

If you’re manually starting a live event, make sure to start your encoder first, which will create an encoder video to start a web video from. You can start your encoder from either the Dashboard or your Encoders page.
1. Click Start next to the encoder you want to use.
2. In the modal that appears, configure your encoder event.
3. Click Start Encoder.
4. The live encoder video will be the most recent encoder video in the Encoder Videos tab.
5. Hover over the encoder video you want to create a web video from and click the actions icon > Start a Web Video.
6. Configure your web video in the next page.
7. Choose the playout behavior for the web player. Learn more
8. If you want to broadcast to social media, click + Add Social Destination to select YouTube and/or Facebook. You’ll need to add them one-by-one.
9. Once you click Start, the web video will start and show up as the most recent web video in your web videos tab.
For more details, see Manually Start or Stop a Web Video.
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After your broadcast ends, your content doesn’t completely disappear and you can check viewership statistics for it. Here’s what you can do after your broadcast:
- Save a video to the Content Library: Resi’s storage, archiving, and Resi TV tool.
- Manage your web video
- Schedule a replay of your video
- Understand your viewership through Resi analytics
1. Save videos to the Library

After your event is finished, you can save any web video to your saved videos tab indefinitely if you’ve subscribed to Resi’s Content Library. Each video will have its own embed code and stream URLs, so you’ll be able to create an archive and play back the content wherever and whenever you’d like. From this tab, you can:
2. Manage web videos

Once you’ve broadcasted live content to web or social media destinations, it will appear in your Media until it expires as a web video. You can either watch or use web videos for on-demand events or to schedule for the next replay event. From this tab, you can:
Learn more about managing your Media.

3. Schedule a replay

A replay event re-broadcasts the most recent content in a web channel to your viewers. When they watch it, they’ll experience it as if it were live. For example, if you broadcast a service on Sunday and you want to replay it Monday for those who may have missed it, you can schedule a replay event using the web channel which has that content. It will then re-broadcast at that time.

Learn more about scheduling a replay event.

4. Understand viewership

After you’ve gone live, you can see details about who watched your broadcast from the Analytics page.

Currently, Resi provides analytics for the embed player, stream URLs, Facebook, and library videos.

4a. View your audience statistics
1. Navigate to the Analytics page.
2. Choose a date range from the dropdown menu or calendar. Make sure your selected date range covers the event(s) you want to learn about.
1. Select the destination you want to see data from:
1. Customize your view to get the information you need. Learn more
2. Your audience is broken into eight metrics to analyze viewership data. This is how you’ll see your viewers, views, time watched, and more.
1. Below the event metrics, the viewer breakdown section provides information about how and where your content is viewed. Change this by clicking the Viewer breakdown by drop-down menu and selecting an option.
4b. The heat map

At the bottom of the Analytics page is a heat map. It’s a visual representation of where your content is being streamed around the world. Markers point out specific cities where your events are viewed and a Heat Map that shows you the "hottest" regions that are consuming your content. Expanding the map will give you a more broad "heat" distribution and zooming in will narrow it. You can choose whether either the markers or heat distribution are visible by selecting or deselecting them at the top of the map.

Learn more about analytics.
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