1. Introduction
Wowza Streaming Engine (known as Wowza Media Server) is an extensible, fully interactive and high-performance media streaming software platform that provides services like live and on-demand streaming, remote recording and chat capabilities to a large variety of media player technologies. One of the advantages of Wowza Streaming Engine is an easy-to-use, browser-based interface for creating and managing live and video on demand (VOD) streams.
If you want to stream live video from IP camera, DVR etc. you can use Wowza Streaming Engine which provides support for many different input sources as shown in fig 1.
Figure 1. Wowza Streaming Engine workflows (Source: Wowza.com)
Capture:
In Table 1, you can see all the audio, video codecs, preconfigured cameras and encoders that are supported by Wowza Streaming Engine to capture video. You can directly provide RTMP or RTSP/RTP directly from IP cameras to Wowza Streaming Engine.
Table 1: Wowza Streaming Engine accepts (Source: Wowza.com)
Manage:
In Table 2, you can see the protocols, codecs and resolution which are managed and provided by Wowza Streaming Engine.
Table 2: Wowza Streaming Engine outputs (Source: Wowza.com)
Deliver:
In Table 3, you can see the targeted video players, devices and services that can receive video from Wowza Streaming Engine.
Table 3: Wowza Streaming Engine targets
2. Download & Installing Wowza Streaming Engine
2.1 Getting license key for Wowza Streaming Engine.
The link below helps you get license key for Wowza Streaming Engine.
https://www.wowza.com/pricing/trial
2.2 Install and configure Wowza Streaming Engine.
The below link helps you configure Wowza Streaming Engine. https://www.wowza.com/forums/content.php?217-How-to-install-and-configure-Wowza-Streaming-Engine
3. Other services
Wowza provide many other services as mentioned below.
3.1 Wowza Streaming Cloud
Wowza provides Wowza Streaming Cloud service which lets you easily stream live video to any device (Like mobile device, TV etc.), scaling automatically to handle audience of any size, anywhere. Inputs of Wowza streaming cloud accept videos from nearly any H.264 encoder, RTSP stream or IP camera and transcode the cloud video to create and deliver high-quality streams in multiple bitrates and different formats that can be played on virtually any device. If you use Wowza Streaming Cloud service, then you don’t have to purchase or maintain hardware (servers), or install or run the software locally. You pay only for the resources you use. You can broadcast to audiences on the scale of large or small, any time and at any location.
Wowza Streaming Cloud provides a simple, browser-based interface to understand what you’re using to capture and encode your video and set your playback options, followed by letting Wowza Streaming Cloud do the remaining work. Wowza Streaming Cloud provides the information you need to connect with your source encoder for your viewers to watch the stream, and then it performs adaptive bitrate (ABR) transcoding on the stream by using the robust, reliable technology you’ve come to expect from Wowza.
For more information: [http://www.wowza.com/resources/WowzaStreamingCloud_UsersGuide.pdf]
3.2 Wowza GoCoder Application
Wowza provides GoCoder encoding application for both IOS and Android. Using this application, the device can publish live streams to a Wowza™ media server. GoCoder is a live video and audio encoding application designed for devices running Android 4.2.2 (API 18) or later and IOS. You can use Wowza GoCoder to capture and deliver live audio and video content over 4G, 3G, and Wi-Fi systems to a Wowza media server/engine, which can then broadcast the content as HD-quality H.264 adaptive bitrate streams to any screen.
You can download Wowza GoCoder application at below link.
https://www.wowza.com/products/gocoder
3.3 Wowza GoCoder SDK
Wowza provide Wowza GoCoder™ software development kit (SDK). Which help in development of live audio and video-streaming application with a cross-platform API that provides capture and encoding support for a broad range of handheld devices (iOS / Android).
Features and benefits of the Wowza GoCoder SDK include
• iOS and Android device support
• Accelerated application development process
• Reduced development risk
• Detailed video and audio encoder controls
• Support for 4K video resolution
• Easy to integrate with Wowza Streaming Engine and Wowza Streaming Cloud
You can download Wowza GoCoder SDK from below link.
https://www.wowza.com/products/gocoder/sdk
For more information:
[https://www.wowza.com/uploads/images/Wowza-Tech-Guide-Building-Live-Mobile-Streaming-App.pdf]
4. 4K Video streaming using Wowza streaming engine on Eragon 820 based on Snapdragon 820
To demonstrate Wowza streaming engine, we have created live video streaming demo on Eragon 820 platform based on APQ8096 SoC. In this demo, for AV capture and streaming, we use applications like Wowza GoCoder or RTMP application developed by eInfochips. 4K AV stream is started from Eragon820 board and sent to Wowza Streaming Engine. On the other end, the mobile device or video player can playback the live video stream using Wowza server URL. As you can see in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Wowza Streaming Demo setup
Using Wowza Streaming Engine, we can easily stream Audio & Video to a vast variety of mobile devices, SMART TV and video players at the same time. If needed, runtime video transcoding is also supported on Wowza Streaming Engine.
We can easily deploy Wowza Streaming Engine at the AWS Marketplace.
eInfochips service:
If a customer wants to enhance their product to have the video streaming capability, eInfochips can help in the following ways:
Development of Android / iOS application for streaming Audio and Video to Wowza Streaming Engine
• Deploy Wowza Streaming Engine on AWS Marketplace or In customer premises
• 4K Live Streaming or VOD Services.
To know more, Contact us.