Larix Broadcaster sends your phone’s video to the relay; the relay then publishes it to YouTube Live. These are two separate connections, with different URLs and credentials, so configure and test each leg independently.
You need the relay administrator’s ingest details for Larix and the current YouTube ingest details for the relay’s output. The relay software or service determines how that second connection is configured; there is no universal relay URL or set of server instructions.
Understand the two publishing connections
Think of the stream as a signal travelling through two distinct legs:
| Leg | Sender and destination | Connection details come from | What success looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ingest | Larix on your phone → relay | The relay administrator or relay service | The relay reports that it is receiving your stream |
| Output | Relay → YouTube Live | YouTube Live Control Room | YouTube shows a preview and reports a healthy incoming stream |
For the first leg, Larix acts as the encoder and publisher. Its connection points to the relay, not YouTube. Enter the relay’s protocol, host, application path and port if supplied, together with the stream name or key assigned for that relay input. Do not substitute your YouTube key unless the relay administrator explicitly says that the relay uses it as the ingest credential.
For the second leg, the relay acts as the publisher. Its destination is the YouTube ingest address and stream key shown in Live Control Room. Those values belong in the relay’s output settings, not in Larix’s connection to the relay. The YouTube documentation for RTMPS ingest explains the destination address and stream name used by the publishing connection.
This division matters when something fails. If the relay does not receive a signal, YouTube has not yet become the useful place to troubleshoot. If the relay receives video but YouTube does not, the phone-to-relay connection is already working, and you can focus on the relay’s output and YouTube’s destination details.
A relay can be useful when you need an intermediate point to forward or manage a mobile contribution before YouTube. It also adds another configuration and another place for a connection to fail. The exact settings depend on the relay product, how it accepts incoming streams, and how it forwards them. Confirm those details with its documentation or administrator rather than applying instructions written for an unnamed server.
Get the relay URL and stream name or key
Ask whoever manages the relay for the connection details intended specifically for Larix. At minimum, clarify the protocol, hostname, application path, and the stream name or key. A port may be part of the supplied address or provided separately. Also ask whether the relay expects RTMP or RTMPS and whether Larix should enter the stream name in a separate field or as part of a full URL.
Softvelum’s Larix connection documentation describes the connection URL as a server or application address plus a stream name or key. In practice, an encoder may present one field for the complete URL or separate fields for the server URL and stream name. Follow the layout Larix presents in your installed version and the format the relay administrator specifies.
For example, if the relay administrator gives you a base application address and a separate stream name, join them only when Larix expects a complete connection URL. If Larix has separate server and stream fields, enter each value in its own field. Do not add an application path, slash, port or query string by guesswork. A small formatting difference can direct the connection to the wrong endpoint.
Treat examples in documentation as examples, not credentials. A URL or key shown to explain a format is not a working destination for your relay. Use values issued for your own relay input, and keep them distinct from the YouTube output key. If the relay details are unclear, resolve the ambiguity before starting a test; guessing can make a valid connection look like a network problem.
Check that the phone can reach the relay from the network you intend to use. A phone on mobile data may behave differently from one on Wi-Fi, and a relay reachable only inside a local network is not necessarily accessible from outside it. If you manage the relay yourself, consult its product-specific network documentation for access rules and ports. Do not assume that router port forwarding is universally required; it depends on where the relay runs and how it is exposed.
The Larix Broadcaster pricing guide for India may help if you are choosing an app edition, but the connection details still come from the relay. Confirm protocol support and available settings in the Larix version and on the device you plan to use.
Add the relay connection in Larix
Open Larix Broadcaster’s connection settings and create a new publishing connection. Choose the protocol requested by the relay, then enter its ingest address and corresponding stream name or key. If the app offers a full Connection URL field, use the complete value in the format supplied by the relay administrator. If it offers separate server and stream fields, keep the values separate.
Before saving, compare the entered connection with the relay details one component at a time: protocol, hostname, optional port, application path, and stream name or key. Watch for leading or trailing spaces when copying credentials. Avoid putting YouTube’s stream key into Larix simply because it is the only key you recognise; the relay input and YouTube output are different publishing connections.
If the relay supports both RTMP and RTMPS, use the protocol it has configured and documented for your connection. RTMPS uses encrypted transport, but selecting it in Larix will not work if the endpoint was issued as a different protocol or if the relay does not accept it. The protocol, hostname, port and path need to agree across the client and relay configuration.
For the video and audio, start with a profile your phone can encode and your connection can sustain. YouTube’s live encoder settings list supported ingest formats and guidance for output. The right bitrate depends on the codec, resolution and frame rate you actually send, as well as the quality of your mobile uplink. Use the relevant row in YouTube’s current guidance rather than treating one bitrate as suitable for every phone or network.
YouTube recommends a two-second keyframe interval and says not to exceed four seconds. Check whether Larix exposes a matching setting in your build, then use the available controls rather than assuming all devices have the same options. For audio, confirm that the phone is capturing the intended microphone or other input and that the selected encoding is suitable for the stream. A picture in Larix’s local preview does not establish that the relay or YouTube is receiving audio.
A moving subject and a short spoken audio check make a better test than a static frame. They help you notice dropped frames, delayed movement, and missing sound before an audience relies on the stream. If you are sending a fixed programme rather than a phone camera, the OBS settings guide for a 24/7 ambient stream covers a different source workflow; do not transplant its settings without checking whether they fit Larix and your device.
Configure the relay’s YouTube output
In YouTube Live Control Room, open the stream’s settings and find the stream URL and key. Reveal and copy the RTMPS URL if you intend to use secure YouTube ingest. YouTube’s Help guidance on connecting to a live stream describes the stream settings and the connection details to provide to an encoder. Use the values shown for the stream you are preparing, not an example hostname or a remembered key from an earlier broadcast.
Enter that YouTube destination in the relay’s output configuration. The relay may have separate fields for the ingest URL and stream key, or it may expect a combined destination. Follow that relay product’s documentation for its own field format. YouTube’s developer documentation describes the RTMPS ingest address and stream name as separate values that some encoders combine as STREAM_URL/STREAM_NAME; this notation explains the relationship, not a universal relay configuration format.
Keep the two credential sets separate. The relay’s inbound credential authorises or identifies Larix’s feed to the relay; the YouTube stream key identifies the relay’s output to your YouTube stream. Limit who can see the YouTube key, and if it is exposed, replace it through YouTube’s controls and update the relay output. The relay product’s method for storing credentials varies, so check its documentation rather than assuming a particular security feature.
Some YouTube workflows show primary and backup ingest addresses. Use the destination appropriate to the stream and protocol displayed in Control Room, and only configure a backup route if the relay supports it and you understand how it behaves. Do not invent a backup address by changing a hostname, nor assume that the relay will fail over automatically.
A relay administrator may need to confirm that the output is enabled, associated with the intended YouTube destination, and configured to forward the incoming feed rather than a different source. Those controls are product-specific. For a long-running channel, it is also worth being clear about what happens if the relay loses its input or cannot reach YouTube: whether it stops, retries, or needs a manual restart depends on the relay you selected.
Start Larix and inspect the relay input
Run a test before the broadcast matters. Start the Larix connection and inspect the relay’s own status or preview, if it provides one. The first question is simply whether the relay recognises an incoming stream. Confirm that the picture moves and that audio is present, rather than relying only on a connection indicator.
If the relay reports no input, remain on the first leg. Compare Larix’s configured protocol, hostname, port, application path and stream name or key with the details supplied by the relay administrator. Confirm that the connection is enabled, that the phone has network access to the relay, and that the relay is listening for the expected connection. If possible, ask the administrator to check relay-side logs or status while you make a controlled test. Do not change the YouTube output key to solve a failure that occurs before the relay receives anything.
Once the relay receives a stable feed, confirm that it is forwarding to the intended output. The full path is not yet proven just because Larix shows a preview or the relay sees a connection. Keep the test running long enough to observe movement and audio, then continue to YouTube’s Live Control Room to verify the final leg.
For a channel built around repeatable content, the input test should reflect the real programme. If a phone is stationary for much of a devotional or study stream, check that the camera remains framed and the audio source is not muted or interrupted. If your main concern is recurring content rather than a live camera feed, the article on preventing a sleep stream from repeating the same short clip addresses programme rotation, which is separate from testing the relay path.
Check YouTube Live Control Room preview
With the relay forwarding, open the scheduled stream in Live Control Room and wait for YouTube to detect the incoming signal. Check the preview for both picture and sound, and read the stream health information. YouTube’s live streaming documentation recommends testing the broadcast and monitoring stream health; a preflight is where you can catch a wrong destination, unsuitable encoding, or unstable uplink without disrupting the intended programme.
The preview helps distinguish a relay output problem from an input problem. If the relay sees the phone but YouTube shows no incoming stream, recheck the relay’s output URL, output key and forwarding state. Confirm that the relay is targeting the same stream shown in Control Room, and that the chosen RTMP or RTMPS endpoint matches the configured protocol. A healthy Larix-to-relay connection does not validate the relay-to-YouTube connection.
If YouTube receives video but reports health warnings, review the stream’s codec, bitrate, frame rate, keyframe interval and audio. Match the encoder output to YouTube’s current guidance and to what Larix can produce on your device. Do not raise quality merely to remove a warning if the phone’s uplink is already unstable; a lower, sustainable output is more useful than a higher setting that repeatedly loses frames.
For a mobile test, use the same kind of network you expect during the real broadcast, including the relevant location and Wi-Fi or mobile-data arrangement. Upload capacity can change with local congestion and signal quality. A test from a fast office connection will not tell you whether the phone can hold a stable feed from another location. The guide to continuous YouTube Live encoder settings offers further context on destination-side encoding choices, though FFmpeg controls do not map directly to Larix menus.
Troubleshoot each connection separately
Follow the signal in order: phone, relay input, relay output, YouTube preview. Identify the first point where expected video or audio disappears, then investigate that leg. Changing unrelated settings across all components at once makes it harder to learn what fixed the fault.
| What you observe | First place to investigate | Checks to make |
|---|---|---|
| Larix cannot connect and the relay sees no input | Larix → relay | Confirm relay-issued protocol, host, port, path and input credential; check the phone’s network reachability |
| Relay receives the feed, but YouTube shows no incoming stream | Relay → YouTube | Check output destination, YouTube key, forwarding state and the selected RTMP or RTMPS URL |
| YouTube shows video but no sound | Audio through the path | Check Larix’s audio source and encoding, then verify whether the relay is forwarding audio |
| YouTube receives the stream but reports health warnings | Encoder output and mobile uplink | Compare codec, bitrate, frame rate and keyframes with YouTube guidance; test network stability |
No relay input. Start with the values Larix uses to reach the relay. Confirm every component against the relay administrator’s instructions, including whether a full URL or separate fields are required. Check that the selected relay connection is the one you actually started. If you are using a relay on a local network from outside that network, the administrator may need to address how it is exposed; Softvelum notes that router NAT or port forwarding can matter in particular local-network publishing cases, not all deployments.
Relay input exists, but YouTube does not see a stream. Move to the second leg. Confirm the output is enabled, the destination URL is copied from the current Control Room stream settings, and the output key belongs to that same stream. For an SSL or RTMPS error, check that the URL is the RTMPS variant and has not been copied from an example. YouTube notes that specifying port 443 can help with some SSL errors when the URL and encoder allow it; use the actual Control Room hostname and path, not a guessed address.
YouTube has video but no audio. Inspect the sound first at the Larix source: is the intended microphone or audio input active? Then check what reaches the relay, if it exposes a way to inspect audio, and whether its output forwards that audio. YouTube’s API identifies a missing audio stream as a stream-configuration issue, so do not assume a visible preview means sound is arriving. Check the encoder’s selected audio format against YouTube’s current guidance.
The feed is unstable. A mobile connection can vary even when the connection details are correct. Test with the phone in the intended location and watch for dropped frames or interruptions at the relay and YouTube. If Larix offers a suitable adaptive bitrate option, consider testing it; otherwise reduce resolution or bitrate to a level the uplink can sustain. Recheck YouTube’s recommended values for the chosen codec and output format rather than applying a single bitrate rule to every stream.
A relay can add useful separation between a mobile feed and YouTube, but it also creates another dependency to monitor. Write down which credential belongs to each leg, record the working protocol and endpoint details securely, and repeat the full-path test after changing the phone, network, relay configuration or YouTube stream. For a planned long-running channel, decide who can check the relay and Control Room if the stream drops; the relay’s retry and recovery behaviour depends on its implementation.
When choosing whether this workflow suits a longer-running channel, compare it with a file-based workflow. A phone-and-relay path is for a live camera or live contribution; a prerecorded loop has different failure points and operating demands. The comparison of 24/7 streaming services and OBS for Indian creators can help frame that choice without changing the connection rules described here.
When keeping a computer on solely to preserve a continuous broadcast becomes the specific pain, StreamNeo removes that computer from the operating path by turning an uploaded video into a YouTube live stream that can continue with your computer switched off. It is a YouTube-only file workflow, not a replacement for Larix when you need to send a live phone camera feed through a relay.
Before committing, compare the operating options on the pricing page. When the file and channel are ready, start free — 24-hour trial, no card.
FAQ
Does Larix connect directly to YouTube through the relay?
Larix connects to the relay, and the relay separately connects to YouTube. Configure both legs with their own destination details and credentials; Larix does not publish through an unconfigured relay.
Which stream key should I put in Larix?
Use the input stream name or key supplied for the relay. Use YouTube’s stream key in the relay’s output settings, unless the relay administrator has explicitly configured a different arrangement and supplied those instructions.
Should I use RTMP or RTMPS?
Use the protocol specified for each leg by its destination. If the relay accepts RTMPS from Larix, configure Larix accordingly; for YouTube, copy the current RTMPS URL from Live Control Room when using secure ingest.
What should I check first if YouTube has no preview?
See whether the relay reports an incoming Larix feed. If it does not, troubleshoot Larix-to-relay details; if it does, check the relay’s YouTube destination, key and forwarding state, then inspect Live Control Room for stream health.