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Live Streaming

How does Live Streaming work?

Updated over a week ago

Streaming is an important tool for many different operations. Live Streaming in Air Control is encrypted end to end and includes built-in audio communication.

Starting a Stream:

Starting a drone stream is done from the in-flight menu, and can be turned on or off at any time throughout the flight as long as the account permissions allow it. The pilot will tap "Fly" or select a mission, proceed through any assigned workflow, and open the main menu on the "Connect Aircraft" screen.

Once streaming is enabled, you will see two icons appear on the screen. One icon shows the status of the stream, if the symbol is green then the stream is running and accessible from the web. If the stream is red, an error occurred and you should turn the stream off and back on again to resolve it.

The other icon, the microphone, is for audio communication. Both the web and mobile app starts out muted, so as long as the device has a microphone and the permissions have been granted, you can tap the red microphone button to unmute and talk.

The Air Control mobile app can also start a stream from the mobile device's camera:

Because of iOS security settings, the Air Control iOS app can only stream aircraft that are supported in flight. This includes most legacy DJI aircraft with the exception of those that fly with the newer firmware and SDK in DJI Fly or Pilot 2.

On Android, users can continue streaming while switching to another flight app. This allows us to support streaming from a range of drones including Skydio, Autel, and Parrot, as well as on DJI SmartControllers and RC Pro Controllers which includes the Mavic 3 series and the Matrice 300. Here's more info on how to switch apps while streaming on Android:
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Viewing a Stream

Viewers can watch up to 4 streams at once, and up to 50 viewers can join a single stream. Stream viewers can also locate the pilot's position on the map from the included Lat, Long coordinate on the stream.

Streaming quality is largely dependent on the device being used to broadcast and the internet connection quality. If you experience high latency or low frame rate, try reducing your quality settings or switching to another network. Close other unused apps in the background. The platform is capable of handling streams up to 720p HD quality.

The streaming dashboard screenshot showing multiple live streams at the same time.

If your browser is only loading a black screen when you click to view it, please make sure you grant any needed permissions. These can be accessed from the URL bar:

If this does not resolve the issue with viewing from a web browser, please reach out to support as we may need your IT department to whitelist streaming IP addresses if the issue is potentially firewall or security related.

Sharing the Stream

Any user that has permission to access the streaming dashboard can also generate a shareable link so that others can access live drone feeds without the need for logging in. This link is automatically copied to the clipboard. Once invited users click the link and select a stream, they will be provided a field to enter their name or identifier.

Every stream share link that is generated is unique and will automatically expire in 24 hours. You can generate links manually on the streaming dashboard, or automatically with an alert every time a stream is started.

Since they're good for a day, you can generate one the night before or the morning of an event and send it out to those that need it. It can also be forwarded along to anyone else as well.

Alerts can be set up to automatically share the stream link with a predetermined list of users or emails (for those not on the account). At a minimum, you can set the alert recipient as yourself and determine who should get access from there.

Using the alerts, you can set up a predetermined list of people that will receive the stream share link every time a stream is started.

If someone needs access at-any-time to the streaming dashboard, we can provide them login credentials to the account.

Get Air Control installed:

For more info on using Air Control with SmartControllers and RC Pro Controllers, please see the video below along with the Advanced Streaming help article:

If you have an enterprise account and need any assistance with streaming reach out through the chat feature or directly to Support@Aloft.ai.
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