Monitoring Live Streams

Introduction

Stream Health is a built-in monitoring feature that gives a continuous visibility into the quality of a live input stream. As soon as the stream goes live, Qencode starts collecting key performance metrics every 10 seconds — including video and audio bitrate, framerate, and resolution — and makes them available in both a visual dashboard and API.

Use Stream Health to:

• Catch quality problems early, before they affect your viewers
• Investigate past incidents by reviewing historical metric data

Summary Panel

At the top of the Stream Health page, a summary panel shows the most recent values recorded during the last active session.

Video Bitrate

The Video Bitrate tab displays a time-series area chart of the measured input video bitrate over the selected time range.

Use this chart to identify drops or spikes in video quality. A stable stream should hold a relatively flat line near your target bitrate. Sudden drops may indicate network congestion or encoder instability on the sender side. Spikes above your expected bitrate can indicate a misconfigured encoder.

Audio Bitrate

The Audio Bitrate tab displays a time-series area chart of the measured input audio bitrate over the selected time range.

The curve here often mirrors the video bitrate chart. A sudden drop in audio bitrate — especially if the video bitrate remains stable — usually points to an issue with audio encoding on the sender side.

Framerate

The Framerate tab displays a time-series area chart of the measured input frames per second over the selected time range.

A healthy stream holds a steady line close to your target FPS (for example, 30 fps). Dips below the target suggest the encoder is struggling to maintain output — typically due to CPU load, insufficient upload bandwidth, or an unstable source.

Resolutions

The Resolutions tab displays a proportional bar showing the distribution of input resolutions detected during the selected period.

Session Timeline

The Session Timeline tab displays a paginated table of raw metric samples, sorted by timestamp from newest to oldest. Each row represents one 10-second health snapshot and includes the following columns:

Use the Session Timeline when you need to pinpoint exactly when a quality issue occurred and correlate it with events in your encoder or network logs.

API Reference

Stream health metrics are available via the API for programmatic access, automation, or integration with external monitoring systems.

Endpoint

GET /v1/live-streams/{stream_id}/health

Query Parameters

Response Example

{
  "metrics": [...],
  "count": 42,
  "aggregated": false,
  "time_bucket": null,
  "interval": null,
  "summary": { ... },
  "time_from": "2026-03-13 16:00:00",
  "time_to": "2026-03-13 17:00:00"
}

Response Fields

Raw Mode Response (aggregated: false)

Returned when time_bucket is absent or set to none. Rows are ordered newest first.

{
  "stream_id": "abc123",
  "timestamp": "2026-03-13 17:00:00",
  "video_bitrate": 5824,
  "audio_bitrate": 192,
  "framerate": "29.97",
  "time_connected": 3720,
  "encoder": "RTMP Client",
  "video_codec": "H264",
  "video_data_rate": 5000,
  "resolution": "1920x1080",
  "input_frame_rate": "29.97",
  "audio_codec": "AAC",
  "audio_data_rate": 192,
  "audio_channels": 2,
  "audio_sample_rate": 44100,
  "audio_sample_size": 16
}

Aggregated Mode Response (aggregated: true)

Returned when time_bucket is set to any value other than none. Rows are ordered oldest first.

{
  "time_bucket": "2026-03-13 17:00:00",
  "sample_count": 6,
  "avg_video_bitrate": 5600,
  "min_video_bitrate": 4800,
  "max_video_bitrate": 5824,
  "avg_audio_bitrate": 192,
  "min_audio_bitrate": 190,
  "max_audio_bitrate": 194,
  "avg_framerate": 29.95,
  "min_framerate": 29.80,
  "max_framerate": 29.97,
  "avg_input_frame_rate": 29.97,
  "avg_video_data_rate": 5000,
  "avg_audio_data_rate": 192,
  "max_time_connected": 3720,
  "resolution": "1920x1080",
  "video_codec": "H264",
  "audio_codec": "AAC",
  "encoder": "RTMP Client"
}

Summary Object

The summary field is always present in the response and provides statistical aggregates across the entire queried time range.

"summary": {
  "total_samples": 360,
  "video_bitrate": { "avg": 5600, "median": 5700, "min": 4800, "max": 5824, "p10": 5000, "p90": 5800 },
  "audio_bitrate": { "avg": 192, "median": 192, "min": 188, "max": 196, "p10": 190, "p90": 194 },
  "framerate":     { "avg": 29.95, "median": 29.97, "min": 28.50, "max": 29.97, "p10": 29.80, "p90": 29.97 },
  "resolution": "1920x1080"
}

Need More Help?

For additional information, tutorials, or support, visit the Qencode Documentation page or contact Qencode Support at support@qencode.com.