akka streams over tcp

Here is the setup: I want to be able to stream messages (jsons converted to bytestrings) from a publisher to a remote server subscriber over a tcp connection.
Ideally, the publisher would be an actor that would receive internal messages, queue them and then stream them to the subscriber server if there is outstanding demand of course. I understood that what is necessary for this is to extend ActorPublisher class in order to onNext() the messages when needed.
My problem is that so far I am able just to send (receive and decode properly) one shot messages to the server opening a new connection each time. I did not manage to get my head around the akka doc and be able to set the proper tcp Flow with the ActorPublisher.
Here is the code from the publisher:

def send(message: Message): Unit = {
    val system = Akka.system()
    implicit val sys = system

    import system.dispatcher

    implicit val materializer = ActorMaterializer()

    val address =     Play.current.configuration.getString("eventservice.location").getOrElse("localhost")
    val port = Play.current.configuration.getInt("eventservice.port").getOrElse(9000)

    /*** Try with actorPublisher ***/
    //val result = Source.actorPublisher[Message]    (Props[EventActor]).via(Flow[Message].map(Json.toJson(_).toString.map(ByteString(_))))

    /*** Try with actorRef ***/
    /*val source = Source.actorRef[Message](0, OverflowStrategy.fail).map(
  m => {
    Logger.info(s"Sending message: ${m.toString}")
    ByteString(Json.toJson(m).toString)
  }
)
    val ref = Flow[ByteString].via(Tcp().outgoingConnection(address, port)).to(Sink.ignore).runWith(source)*/

    val result = Source(Json.toJson(message).toString.map(ByteString(_))).
  via(Tcp().outgoingConnection(address, port)).
  runFold(ByteString.empty) { (acc, in) ⇒ acc ++ in }//Handle the future
}

and the code from the actor which is quite standard in the end:

import akka.actor.Actor
import akka.stream.actor.ActorSubscriberMessage.{OnComplete, OnError}
import akka.stream.actor.{ActorPublisherMessage, ActorPublisher}

import models.events.Message

import play.api.Logger

import scala.collection.mutable

class EventActor extends Actor with ActorPublisher[Message] {
   import ActorPublisherMessage._
   var queue: mutable.Queue[Message] = mutable.Queue.empty

   def receive = {
      case m: Message =>
         Logger.info(s"EventActor - message received and queued: ${m.toString}")
         queue.enqueue(m)
         publish()

      case Request => publish()

      case Cancel =>
          Logger.info("EventActor - cancel message received")
          context.stop(self)

      case OnError(err: Exception) =>
          Logger.info("EventActor - error message received")
          onError(err)
          context.stop(self)

      case OnComplete =>
          Logger.info("EventActor - onComplete message received")
          onComplete()
          context.stop(self)
   }

    def publish() = {
     while (queue.nonEmpty && isActive && totalDemand > 0) {
     Logger.info("EventActor - message published")
     onNext(queue.dequeue())
   }
 }

I can provide the code from the subscriber if necessary:

def connect(system: ActorSystem, address: String, port: Int): Unit = {
implicit val sys = system
import system.dispatcher
implicit val materializer = ActorMaterializer()

val handler = Sink.foreach[Tcp.IncomingConnection] { conn =>
  Logger.info("Event server connected to: " + conn.remoteAddress)
  // Get the ByteString flow and reconstruct the msg for handling and then output it back
  // that is how handleWith work apparently
  conn.handleWith(
    Flow[ByteString].fold(ByteString.empty)((acc, b) => acc ++ b).
      map(b => handleIncomingMessages(system, b.utf8String)).
      map(ByteString(_))
  )
}

val connections = Tcp().bind(address, port)
val binding = connections.to(handler).run()

binding.onComplete {
  case Success(b) =>
    Logger.info("Event server started, listening on: " + b.localAddress)
  case Failure(e) =>
    Logger.info(s"Event server could not bind to $address:$port: ${e.getMessage}")
    system.terminate()
}
}

thanks in advance for the hints.