StreamSentry

StreamSentry is a web app (with a lightweight desktop agent) that continuously monitors your live stream from multiple real-world vantage points and alerts you when viewers are actually having a bad experience. Instead of relying on encoder stats or platform dashboards, it runs automated “synthetic viewers” that join your stream like a normal audience member, measuring startup time, buffering, bitrate drops, audio desync, and end-to-end latency. It supports common workflows for Twitch/YouTube Live/custom HLS/DASH and can watch multiple renditions to detect ABR ladder problems. When issues happen, it provides a plain-English incident summary and a short timeline of what changed (CDN edge, ingest region, bitrate, dropped frames) so producers can act fast. This is not glamorous, but it’s the kind of operational tooling that saves streams, sponsors, and reputations.