Best yet free - OBS Studio
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We have a video conferencing and live streaming product. The live streaming product is built on HLS but it can take can RTMP-in feed as well as output RTMP if needed to external providers. We, as well as a lot of our customers, use OBS Studio for sending the RTMP feed to our live streaming product. This is primarily because OBS Studio is a lot more extensible and has support for multiple devices, mics, cameras as well as combining of different feeds.
Pros
- RTMP Streaming with customizable bitrate
- Scene Composition and Switching + source control which allows for creators and our customers to move between different types of content they might have (different video feeds, slides etc)
- Audio mixer and audio control - noise gating, a/v syncing, audio source control
Cons
- Guide on using the software since it has a steep learning curve
- Mobile App or Remote Control - Some customers have asked if they could control parts of their stream using their mobile phones, especially source switching
- OBS doesn’t offer native cloud syncing for configurations, scenes, or settings.
Likelihood to Recommend
It is well suited for organization of any size as long as they are willing to spend some time with it. Some individuals might have difficulty configuring it if they aren't very much tech aware, but there are ample youtube guides to get people started with doing the basic streaming. Working with the scene, source and audio composition won't be as straightforward though. Some online solutions like Streamyard might do the job for individuals or teams which are not willing to get their hands dirty and are willing to pay for it. One of the best parts is lots of plugins exist out there already, and this is completely free and open source.
