To create a custom HLS IPTV server without any panel, install NGINX with RTMP module support. Use FFmpeg to transcode your streams into .m3u8 segments. Set up an NGINX config to host the HLS segments and playlists securely. You should use HTTPS with a Let's Encrypt SSL certificate. To avoid stream theft, implement signed URLs or token-based authentication. Use cron jobs to monitor and restart FFmpeg processes if they crash. For scalability, use a CDN in front of your origin to cache streams.