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The Broadcast component provides an easy way to livestream video or audio, including camera and screen sources. It automatically handles WebRTC connection and allows extremely low latency livestreaming.

Usage

The following example assumes a stream was created via useCreateStream, and the streamKey was passed to the Broadcast component.

Configuration

streamKey

The streamKey passed to the Broadcast component is used to connect to the WebRTC ingest URL.

title

The title for the content. This is highly recommended, since it is used for accessibility labels in the Broadcast. If you do not want to show the title visually, see showTitle.

showTitle

Enables/disables the title component.

displayMediaOptions

The display media stream options to use when requesting screen share. This is usually a set of audio and video MediaTrackConstraints which are passed to the browser to limit the sources available to the user.

aspectRatio

Sets the aspect ratio for the content. Highly recommended for a great broadcasting experience (for more information, see Cumulative Layout Shift). Defaults to 16to9.

controls

Configures the timeout for autohiding controls, default volume, and (only on web) if keyboard hotkeys for controlling the broadcast are enabled.

muted

Sets the video to muted when the broadcast started.

objectFit

Sets the video’s object fit property. Defaults to contain. cover is usually used when there is a guarantee that the aspectRatio matches the content displayed in the Broadcast.

showPipButton

Shows the Picture-in-Picture button to the left of the fullscreen button. Defaults to false. See children for an example on how to use the underlying <PictureInPictureButton />.
We support both the w3c standard (which most modern browsers support), as well as the older Safari/iOS spec. See the browsers which support Picture-in-Picture on caniuse.

theme

Sets the Player-specific theme overrides. It is recommended to use LivepeerConfig for any global app styles, and the theme prop to override those styles on a per-Broadcast basis.

children

Overrides the custom controls for the Player. See the Broadcast default controls for more details on how the ControlsContainer component is used. This can be used alongside renderChildrenOutsideContainer to render the children outside of the aspect ratio container. This is used for custom controls, so children of the Player can use useMediaController without any parent elements.

mediaElementRef

Sets the React callback ref passed to the underlying media element. Useful when integrating with third party tools, or when access to the underlying video element is needed (usually it isn’t!). Simple refs are not supported - only callback refs (which will be called when the underlying media element is set/updated on initial render).

onPlaybackStatusUpdate

Callback called when the Broadcast store status updates. This should be used with playbackStatusSelector to limit state updates. This allows developers to use the underlying state of the Broadcast component in their UI.

Technical Details

WebRTC Broadcasting

The Broadcast component uses WebRTC for broadcasting. This always uses STUN/TURN servers for the WebRTC connection, to allow the broadcast to circumvent corporate firewalls and other port blocks. We use the WHIP/WHEP standards for ingest/egress SDP negotiation, so this means that the Broadcast component can be used with any WHIP/WHEP ingest endpoint - not only the providers we have.
Last modified on March 3, 2026