Live streaming

Open VidCellar → Live Streams to add a stream, and VidCellar → Live Settings for chat and reactions. Visitors see a live player only while the Pro license is active. VidCellar does not run the media server. You point it at one you already operate.

Each stream stores ingest details that visitors never see: an RTMP, RTMPS, SRT, or WHIP server and a stream key for OBS or another encoder. Playback can be a WebRTC WHEP URL (sub-second) and an HLS manifest (LL-HLS, about 2 to 5 seconds). The player tries WebRTC first and falls back to HLS. Safari uses native LL-HLS. Other browsers use the hls.js build from Lite, loaded only when needed. URL examples for SRS, Ant Media, MediaMTX, Cloudflare Stream, Janus through a WHEP gateway, and nginx-rtmp are in the stream editor.

The badge reads LIVE, OFFLINE, RECONNECTING, or ENDED. You can count down to a scheduled start and set an offline message. Status can be a manual override, a webhook from the media server (secured by a per-stream secret), or an automatic check of the HLS manifest. A playback watchdog reconnects a frozen stream.

Controls include muted autoplay with Tap to unmute, Jump to live with a latency readout, picture-in-picture, fullscreen, and keyboard shortcuts.

Chat and reactions

Chat is available to logged-in users and, if you allow it, to guests with a display name. Sending is optimistic. Slow mode, per-IP limits, a honeypot, link blocking for guests, reserved names, and WordPress disallowed comment keys are available. Hosts and moderators can remove a message, block a sender, and clear chat. Messages are kept for a retention period and are included in privacy export and erase.

Choose up to 8 emoji under Live Settings. Reactions float on the video or sit on a bar below it. They are batched and rate-limited. Real-time delivery uses adaptive REST polling by default, which suits shared hosting, or Server-Sent Events.

Place a stream

Use the block VidCellar Live Stream, VidCellar Live Chat, or VidCellar Video Embed, the matching Sidcraft Page Builder units, or the shortcodes [vidcellar_stream], [vidcellar_live_chat], and [vidcellar_embed]. The stream editor’s Embed box lists the attributes. You can set aspect ratio, maximum width, autoplay, mute, and whether the badge, title, chat, and reactions are shown.