OBS problems with 4G/LTE internet

[timsabre]

I know some others on here are using OBS, I am having a mystery problem which I can't work out.

 

We've been using OBS to stream our church service, for various reasons we have had to move to a venue with no fixed internet so I have borrowed a Draytek LTE router to get an internet connection from the mobile network. I get a consistent 10MB down and 12MB up which is easily enough data for streaming my 720P video up to youtube.

 

Everything works fine for a while, OBS runs with a data rate between 2500 and 3000 kb/s depending on the movement in the picture. After a random amount of time, the data rate drops way down to less than 1000 kb/s, OBS drops lots of frames and Youtube starts complaining that it isn't getting enough data.

 

At this point if I run a speedtest again, I am still seeing the same data rates as before. Also, if I stop and restart the streaming on OBS, it is instantly back to the high data rate (Youtube allows a short break and just carries on fortunately). So it appears some short event on the internet connection causes OBS to get into a state where it can't transmit at the full data rate or can't catch up or something. Once the OBS streaming has been restarted it will run fine again, the problem may or may not randomly re-occur.

 

Can anyone help me identify what is happening?

[GaryNattrass]

I think they probably but a limit buffer on 4G upload to prevent people from using it to broadcast with also the date is probably sent in packets rather than a constant stream so at some point the buffer will fill up and grind to a hault.

 

Most of the pro 4G set-ups have multiple sim cards but even they can struggle at times.

[timsabre]

I think they probably but a limit buffer on 4G upload to prevent people from using it to broadcast with also the date is probably sent in packets rather than a constant stream so at some point the buffer will fill up and grind to a hault.

 

Most of the pro 4G set-ups have multiple sim cards but even they can struggle at times.

 

I wondered about that but I've been onto the network (O2) about it and they say there is no limit, I suspect that was not an engineering answer so there may be things they don't make public.

 

The odd thing is the way you can just click stop stream-start stream in OBS (no waiting, just click-click) and everything is back to normal. This is what makes me think it might be a local problem with OBS or my computer rather than the network.

I should say, we ran the exact same setup for several months using a fixed line internet connection and this did not happen. There are some posts on the OBS forum with a similar problem but no answers.

 

[Jivemaster]

O2 may tell you that there is no limit, but it's highly likely that your connection is throttled beyond a certain data quantity. What was a 10 per second connection goes down to a 1 per second if you use their idea of "too much" data or rate. Restart the stream and you restart the counters.

Limit -implies that the connection stops passing data

Throttled -implies that the data rate is limited -it would still pass giga whatsits but over days not hours. which is no good for live video.

 

 

If this has changed it's probably caused by something you've changed -internet access -network....

[Stuart91]

Whilst it may be more money than a small church is willing to spend, we've had very good results with a LiveU solo. It uses two 4G dongles (plus wifi and wired ethernet, if available) and spreads the data over multiple connections. This gives redundancy if one fails, but it can also balance the load which might help avoid capping or throttling.

[bruce]

How much diagnostics can you get from the Draytek?

 

I’ve been building a similar sort of setup today using a Mikrotik - and the diagnostics are excellent. With the mikrotik, you can even put 2 sims in it, and persuade it to prioritise the “best”. But it’s not the most intuitive one to configure...

[Jivemaster]

Prioritising best may not be a good option. If one gets throttled then that session must be dropped and remade to release the throttle. "SIM card" A for five minute then B for five minutes may be a better option.

[timsabre]

I'm not sure about diagnostics. It's a 2860LN. The best I've got so far is the signal quality / RSSI display which all looks OK.

 

Surely with 2 SIMs you'd need something at the other end to recombine the 2 connections into one. I don't think youtube can accept data from 2 different sources into one video.

[Stuart91]

Surely with 2 SIMs you'd need something at the other end to recombine the 2 connections into one. I don't think youtube can accept data from 2 different sources into one video.

 

The LiveU system uses their own server to do the recombining, and then squirts it on to Youtube etc.

 

I'm not quite sure how else it could be done.

[J Pearce]

Speedify have a setup that apparently does this, though I haven't tested it. Looking at possibly using it to give me network diversity for a run of streamed events that may be upcoming.

[GaryNattrass]

I have a Three 4G mobile router on my boat that costs me £17 a month for unlimited data:

 

It also has the ability to run diversity external antenna and as it is a full router you can connect via ethernet rather than USB so it may be worth checking it out and here on my boat in London I get huge bandwidth with just the local paddles on but I could run a couple of cables outside to an external aerial.

 

We use the full Live U and Terradek at work (SKY) and generally get Ok coverage but it all depends on the networks and a cross at half time in the old days of full crowds at sports events was a defo No No.

 

But then an emergency report post a terror attack done on an I-phone can give great results with very good HD video and sound.

Edited November 4, 2020 by GaryNattrass

[bigclive]

If there are other capable 4G services in your area, it might be worth trying a different network experimentally.

[timsabre]

Thanks for the suggestions. The LiveU is, as you suggest, a bit too expensive for a temporary solution. I have tried a Poynting external antenna on the Draytek unit which improved the time between failures but didn't fix it completely, so that makes me think it is a signal-dropout type issue rather than network restrictions. I will see if I can borrow a sim for another network.

[Jivemaster]

I like to watch a weekly series on youtube it's shot in 4k but sometimes if it's long (40+ minutes ish) the quality goes down to potato sometimes. I put it down to network throttling by my supplier (EE). If I log out and log back in again my screen returns to 4K.

[ImagineerTom]

just checking but is the simcard / account specifically a data plan or just a generic sim - we used to have problems with the 3G wifi routers because the sims/account that had been put in them were expecting a "normal" mix of call / text / data so automatically throttled fairly often because they didn't want people hotspotting their entire home internet needs off their mobile. When they switched us to an account that was specifically set up for data we got much better connections and speeds.