How to Live Stream From a DJI Drone

Live streaming from a DJI drone used to be a janky and low quality experience. It previously involved 3rd party software and screen capturing of your mobile device, which unfortunately included all the on screen display graphics seen when flying a drone.

The latest update to the DJI Fly app includes a native live streaming feature, which vastly improves and simplifies the live streaming experience.

In this guide we’ll show you how to use the new live streaming feature and we’ll provide thoughts on how we think it performs. Follow our step by step tutorial below:

Step 1:

Connect your DJI drone to the DJI Fly app, as you normally do.

Step 2:

Once connected go to the ‘Transmission’ tab in the settings.

Step 3:

Tap ‘Live Streaming Platforms’.

Step 4:

Click the ‘RTMP’ icon.

Step 5: 

Under ‘Livestream Settings’ you’ll need to enter your RTMP broadcasting URL. Next you’ll need to choose your broadcasting resolution and bitrate.

And that’s all there is to it! You’ll need to make sure your phone or wifi internet connection is stable. During my testing I had a few drop outs during the stream which was mainly due to the my less than stable 4G connection of my phone.

In terms of use cases for this live streaming feature, I’d say it’s mainly for users to stream directly to a Facebook page, providing some interesting content.

If you want to incorporate live streaming from a DJI Drone into a professional production you will need a video switcher or live encoding software that accepts an RTMP, or HLS (which StreamShark can encode for you) input as a source.

Notes:

• Audio is recorded straight from the phones microphone and it doesn’t currently let you set a different audio source. You can mute the microphone.
• Android users need to manually download the APK here https://www.dji.com/au/downloads/djiapp/dji-fly
• It currently requires inline authentication for RTMP. This means you can’t have a separate username and password for authentication.
• If you’re running Android 12 you will need to download a beta version of the DJI Fly app.