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MoQ Dev Sandbox

MoQ Dev Sandbox is available in the NetActuate Marketplace as a one-click, open-source appliance you can deploy into any NetActuate PoP. All-in-one Media over QUIC sandbox: relay, pre-rolled stream, and web player on boot. It is grouped under the Media & Streaming category.

What It Does

MoQ Dev Sandbox is a batteries-included Media over QUIC (MoQ) playground in a single VM. It bundles the reference MoQ relay, a publisher that pushes a pre-rolled test stream, and a web player/console, so a stream is already flowing the moment the box boots. Open the web UI and you immediately see MoQ working end to end, then point your own publishers and subscribers at the co-located relay to build against.

Media over QUIC is an emerging IETF live-media transport that carries sub-second live video and audio over QUIC / WebTransport, combining WebRTC-class latency with CDN-class scale in one architecture.

Key features

  • Relay + publisher + web player bundled in one box (no assembly required)
  • A pre-rolled test stream is live on boot; open the player and watch it instantly
  • Co-located reference relay (kixelated/moq-relay) to point your own MoQ tools at
  • Self-signed certificate generated at first boot; the whole pub->relay->player loopback is local, so the sandbox is self-contained and needs no domain
  • The certificate fingerprint and the live broadcast list are served on the relay port, so a browser player pins the cert and connects to the local relay
  • Open demo sandbox: no login, nothing to configure

Use cases

  • Developers exploring MoQ end to end for the first time
  • Building and testing a MoQ publisher or player against a working relay
  • A disposable, self-contained MoQ test stack in a PoP near you

Why run it on the NetActuate edge MoQ's whole value is low latency at scale via relays placed close to the audience. Standing the sandbox up in a NetActuate PoP lets you experiment with MoQ on the same kind of edge footprint a production anycast relay mesh would use.

Deployed from the NetActuate marketplace, the sandbox boots pre-configured: it generates its TLS certificate, starts the relay, begins publishing the pre-rolled stream, and serves the player only after a self-check confirms the stream is flowing. The MoQ media transport is QUIC over UDP, so the deploy network must allow UDP passthrough to the relay port. For real cross-machine browser playback, front the relay with a real domain and TLS certificate (WebTransport rejects an untrusted cert unless the fingerprint is pinned, as the bundled local player does).

Vendor and Project

MoQ Dev Sandbox is an open-source project, offered here under the Open Source listing with best-effort community support.

NetActuate supports the underlying infrastructure. Application-level support follows the listing SLA class (open-source, best effort).

Sizing

vCPURAMDisk
Minimum24 GB20 GB
Recommended48 GB40 GB

No VPU (hardware acceleration) is required for this appliance. Choose a size at deploy based on your expected load.

Configuration Fields

When you deploy, you provide these fields. They are written into the appliance at first boot.

FieldRequiredDefaultNotes
Player / console portNo8080TCP port for the web player / console (default 8080). Returns HTTP 200 once the relay is up and the pre-rolled stream is flowing, and shows the live player, the relay endpoint and the certificate fingerprint.
Relay UDP media portNo443UDP port for the MoQ / WebTransport (QUIC) media transport (default 443). Your network MUST allow UDP passthrough to it. The certificate fingerprint and the /announced broadcast list are served on this same port over TCP.

Using the Appliance

Deploy in minutes

  1. Open the player. Browse to http://YOUR_VM_IP:8080/ . A pre-rolled MoQ stream is already flowing; the page loads the web player and starts watching the bundled demo broadcast (use a WebCodecs + WebTransport capable browser).
  2. See the relay. The same page shows the relay endpoint (https://YOUR_VM_IP:443/), the certificate fingerprint, and the live broadcast list (http://YOUR_VM_IP:443/announced).
  3. Build against it. Point your own MoQ publisher or player at the relay, e.g. moq publish --url https://YOUR_VM_IP:443/ --name my-stream --tls-disable-verify fmp4 < your.fmp4 from the kixelated/moq CLI.

Exposure posture: the MoQ media transport is QUIC over UDP on port 443 - your network / firewall MUST allow UDP passthrough to it. There is no login (open demo sandbox). For real cross-machine browser playback, front the relay with a real domain and TLS certificate.

FAQ

Is there a software license fee? No. MoQ Dev Sandbox is open source and free to run. You pay only for the NetActuate infrastructure and bandwidth.

Which port does the appliance serve on? The primary service is published on port 8080 by default; see the configuration fields for any adjustable ports.

Who supports it? NetActuate operates the underlying infrastructure. The application itself is community-supported open source (best-effort SLA class).

Version and Changelog

VersionStatusReleased
0.10.15Current (default)2026-07-14

Deploy


Need Help?

Contact support@netactuate.com or open a support ticket from the portal.