---
title: 'RTSP: Real-time streaming protocol'
slug: Glossary/RTSP
tags:
  - Glossary
  - Real-time streaming protocol
  - Reference
  - rtsp
---
Real-time streaming protocol (RTSP) is a network protocol that controls how the streaming of a media should occur between a {{glossary("server")}} and a {{glossary("client")}}. Basically, RTSP is the protocol that describes what happens when you click "Pause"/"Play" when streaming a video. If your computer were a remote control and the streaming server a television, RTSP would describe how the instruction of the remote control affects the TV.

## See also

- {{Interwiki("wikipedia", "Real_Time_Streaming_Protocol","RTSP")}} on Wikipedia
- [RFC 7826](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7826) (one of the documents that specifies precisely how the protocol works)
- [Glossary](/en-US/docs/Glossary)

  - {{Glossary("RTSP")}}
