Simulive
Simulive is playing a pre-recorded video at a scheduled time as if it were a live broadcast. Instead of an encoder capturing a camera, a playout system reads the finished file and outputs it as a live stream, so every viewer joins the same moment and nobody can skip ahead. Chat, polls and Q&A can run alongside, and the session can switch to a real live feed at the end. Simulive pairs the reliability of recorded content with the shared timing of a live event.
How does simulive work?
A simulive event starts as an ordinary on-demand asset that has already been encoded. At the scheduled time, a playout system starts reading the file and produces a live stream from it: a live manifest that grows segment by segment, delivered through the CDN exactly like a camera feed. The player cannot tell the difference and shows it as live.
Because the output is live, viewers who join late start at the current position, not at the beginning, and they cannot seek past the live edge. With DVR enabled they can rewind within the window. When the file ends, the playout system can end the stream, play fallback content, or switch to a live input such as a presenter answering questions. Afterward the session can be published as on-demand, either as the original file or as a recording of what aired.
Simulive vs. premiere vs. live
A live broadcast is produced in real time. Anything that goes wrong, from a frozen camera to a fluffed line, goes out to every viewer, and the stream depends on the venue's encoder and connection holding up for the whole event.
Simulive removes that risk from the main content. The video was edited and encoded before it aired, so picture quality and timing are fixed in advance. A premiere is a form of simulive that social platforms offer: a scheduled first showing with a countdown and live chat, after which the video stays available on demand. In event and webinar tools the same pattern is usually called simulive. The differences are mostly about control: a platform premiere runs on that platform's player and terms, while simulive on your own stack runs on your player with your access rules.
When is simulive the right choice?
Simulive fits when the content can be finished in advance but the audience should watch together. Typical cases are a talk that must air in several time zones, a course lesson that each new cohort should start at the same moment, an episode premiere that fans watch and discuss in chat, and a town hall where leadership records once and each region gets its own slot.
It is also a fallback for risky conditions. A speaker on a poor connection can pre-record and join live only for the Q&A. A presenter in a different time zone does not need to be awake at broadcast time. It is the wrong choice when the content depends on events happening now, such as sport or breaking news. Label a recorded session as recorded, with the Q&A live; viewers notice when a recording is passed off as live.
How do you run simulive without an encoder?
The simplest simulive setup is a laptop running OBS that plays a video file into a stream. It works, but it re-encodes an already encoded file, ties the event to that machine and its connection, and needs someone watching it. If the laptop sleeps, updates or loses Wi-Fi, the event ends for everyone.
Server-side simulive takes the laptop out. The file already sits in the platform, encoded into its ladder, and a scheduler starts it as a live stream at the set time from inside the data centre. There is no upload during the event and no single machine at a venue to fail. The same file can be scheduled again for another time zone without anyone at the controls. A playout rundown can also chain items, so the recording hands over to a live feed and fallback content covers any gap.
How does FastPix handle simulive?
FastPix runs simulive from files already in your library. The live streaming product can play an on-demand video out as a scheduled live event, so the recording airs at the set time as a live stream without an encoder or a laptop at the controls. Viewers watch on the FastPix Player, with native SDKs for web, Android (Media3-based, including Android TV), iOS (AVPlayer-based, including tvOS and visionOS) and Flutter and Chromecast in beta, or on any HLS player, served from 300+ points of presence, with signed playback URLs to limit who can join.
For repeated slots or a full programme, Cloud Playout schedules recorded titles by time slot against the whole FastPix library. A rundown can mix recorded and live inputs and cut from one to the other automatically, so a pre-recorded talk can hand over to a speaker answering questions live, with a fallback item ready if anything is missing. The browser-based control room shows what is on air and lets an operator change the rundown mid-air. Channels can also go out to social platforms over RTMP(S), and Video Data reports concurrent viewers, startup, rebuffering and errors per channel.
Chat, polls and Q&A run in your own app beside the stream.
Simulive is part of the Growth plan, which includes a $25 monthly usage credit. Scheduled channels in Cloud Playout are $99 per channel monthly, after a 14-day trial.
