Wowza Streaming EngineTM – Overview®

Wowza Media Systems, LLC.
February 2014, Wowza Streaming Engine

Copyright © 2006 – 2014 Wowza Media Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.

Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Copyright © 2006 – 2014 Wowza Media Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.
This document is for informational purposes only and in no way shall be interpreted or construed tocreate any warranties of any kind, either express or implied, regarding the information contained
herein.
Third-Party Information
This document contains links to third party websites that are not under the control of Wowza Media
Systems, LLC ("Wowza") and Wowza is not responsible for the content on any linked site. If youaccess a third party website mentioned in this document, then you do so at your own risk. Wowza
provides these links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply that
Wowza endorses or accepts any responsibility for the content on third party sites.
Trademarks
Wowza, Wowza Media Systems, Wowza Streaming Engine, Wowza Media Server, GoCoder, andrelated logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Wowza Media Systems, LLC in the
United States and/or other countries.
Adobe and Flash are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in
the United States and/or other countries.
Microsoft and Silverlight are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in
the United States and/or other countries.
Apple, QuickTime, iPhone, iPad, and Safari are either registered trademarks or trademarks ofApple, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product names, logos, designs, titles, words or phrases mentioned may be third party
registered trademarks or trademarks in the United States and/or other countries.
Third party trademarks are used solely to identify and describe third party products as being
compatible with Wowza products. Wowza is in no way sponsored, endorsed by, or otherwise
affiliated with any such third party trademark owners.

Copyright © 2006 – 2014 Wowza Media Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.

CopyrightWowza Streaming Engine Overview

Contents

Contents
Introducing Wowza Streaming Engine ......................................................................................................... 5	  Key Benefits ................................................................................................................................................. 5	  Serving Many Markets ................................................................................................................................. 6	  Simply Powerful Streaming .......................................................................................................................... 6	
  Delivering Any Media to Any Device, Anywhere ......................................................................................... 9	
  Broad Live Encoder Support ........................................................................................................................ 9	
  Broad Outbound Protocol Support ............................................................................................................... 9	
  Supported Video-on-Demand (VOD) Formats ........................................................................................... 12	
  Innovative Functionality .............................................................................................................................. 13	
  Browser-Based Management and Monitoring ............................................................................................ 13	  Closed Captioning ...................................................................................................................................... 14	
  Live Stream Recording ............................................................................................................................... 15	
  SHOUTcast Re-streaming.......................................................................................................................... 15	
  Multiple Levels of Content Security ............................................................................................................ 15	
  An Expansive Suite of Premium AddOns .................................................................................................. 17	  Wowza Transcoder AddOn ........................................................................................................................ 17	  Wowza nDVR AddOn ................................................................................................................................. 17	  Wowza DRM AddOn .................................................................................................................................. 18	
  Free AddOns .............................................................................................................................................. 19	
  Advanced Features ...................................................................................................................................... 20	
  Cost-Effective Scalability ............................................................................................................................ 20	
  Flexible Administration and Management .................................................................................................. 20	
  Extensibility with Back-End and Business Systems ................................................................................... 21	
  Compact and Embeddable ......................................................................................................................... 21	
  Free Wowza IDE ........................................................................................................................................ 21

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Contents

Deploying Wowza Streaming Engine ......................................................................................................... 22	
  Deployment Options ................................................................................................................................... 22	
  Server Editions ........................................................................................................................................... 23	
  Operating System Support ......................................................................................................................... 24	
  Installation Prerequisites ............................................................................................................................ 24	
  Server Specifications ................................................................................................................................. 24	
  Optimizing Performance ............................................................................................................................. 25	
  Summary ....................................................................................................................................................... 26	
  Resources .................................................................................................................................................. 26	
  Copyright © 2006 – 2014 Wowza Media Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.

Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Introducing Wowza Streaming Engine

Introducing Wowza Streaming Engine
Delivering content to any screen has become the most important broadcast industry trend, ranked
significantly higher than any other, according to the Devoncroft Partners 2012 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS).
®
Wowza Media Systems recognized this trend in 2007 when it rolled out its industrial-strength Wowza
TM®
Streaming Engine software, which at the time was called Wowza Media Server . Today, customers inmore than 150 countries use Wowza software to simultaneously stream content to PCs, smartphones,
tablets, IPTV set-top boxes, and other devices.
Wowza Streaming Engine is robust, customizable, and scalable server software that powers reliable
streaming of high-quality video and audio to any device, anywhere. Use it to build video and audio
applications and services that deliver engaging streaming for live events, news, surveillance, training, andon-demand videos. Whether deployed in the cloud or on-premises, you can leverage the powerfulcomponents and APIs of Wowza Streaming Engine to tailor streaming workflows with security andconfidence.

Key Benefits
Any Media to Any Device—Anywhere, Simplified
Wowza Streaming Engine accepts any video format and reliably delivers it in multiple formats andwith the highest possible quality to any connected device, anywhere. Platform-agnostic, multi-format,
and multi-screen, Wowza Streaming Engine accepts any video format and delivers content to the®
®
®
broadest range of player technologies and screens, including Adobe Flash Player; Microsoft
®
®
®
®
®
®
Silverlight player; Apple iPhone , iPad , iPod touch , and QuickTime player; Android™
smartphones and tablets; a variety of smart TVs; and IPTV/OTT set-top boxes.
Flexibility and Control
Every organization has unique needs and requirements, which makes one-size-fits-all streaming
solutions too limiting. Dedicated, customizable, and extensible, Wowza Streaming Engine software
integrates with third-party systems and includes powerful components, called AddOns, and APIs that
let you build solutions that grow and adapt to your evolving streaming needs.
Engaging View Experiences
Wowza Streaming Engine provides tools to that let you enhance your audience’s viewing experienceand maximize your reach as a content publisher. You can offer viewers DVR-like features such asplay, pause, and rewind; include closed captioning for hearing-impaired viewers; reach global
audiences by offering audio in a choice of languages; and offer immersive surround-sound audio.
High Performance and Scalability
Wowza Streaming Engine is multi-threaded software that delivers live and on-demand streaming fromstandard on-site hardware or through the cloud, letting you make the most of your hardware,
networking, and other resources. You can scale out live and on-demand streaming across large
regions and audiences, push live video to content delivery networks (CDNs), and choose from unicast
or multicast transmission.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Introducing Wowza Streaming Engine

Multiple Levels of Content Security
Wowza Streaming Engine offers a wide variety of security options so that you can protect yourstreams, networks, and audio and video assets. Choices range from standard support for Flash
RTMP encrypted streams and HLS AES-128 protection to studio-approved Digital Rights
Management (DRM).

Serving Many Markets
Wowza Streaming Engine simplifies online video-delivery workflows to improve productivity forthousands of organizations, large and small, in many industries and markets, including:•Content publishers•

TV broadcasters•

Radio broadcasters•

IPTV/OTT service providers•

K-12 and higher educational institutions•

Houses of worship•

Hosting companies•

CDN and streaming service providers•

Government organizations

See how Wowza Streaming Engine can benefit you at www.wowza.com/customers.

Simply Powerful Streaming
Today’s viewers are a demanding lot. They want their content everywhere—on their PC now, on theirtablet tonight. So you, as a content producer, can’t be tethered to a specific streaming technology.
You have to have to reach your audiences where they are: on any screen—whether it’s a computer,mobile device, smart TV, or set-top box—at any time. And this, to say the least, makes content
production and delivery challenging.
Streaming the Wrong Way: Segregated Workflows
Conventionally, content producers have used separate encoders and client-specific servers to deliver
streams to different players. This approach is costly on several fronts. First, you have to make a large
capital investment to acquire multiple client-specific encoders and servers, and then incur the costs ofmanaging separate delivery workflows. If you can’t afford to maintain multiple, separate
infrastructures, you’re limited in the number and types of delivery options you can offer.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Introducing Wowza Streaming Engine

Figure 1. Conventional, segregated streaming workflows are capital-, resource-, and labor-intensive.
Streaming the Right Way—with Wowza Streaming Engine
Wowza Media Systems developed its powerful streaming software to address the technological andoperational efficiencies of multiple, parallel streaming workflows. Indeed, Wowza Streaming Engine
software transforms the way organizations deliver streaming content. With Wowza Streaming Engine,
you can stream from a single H.264 encode (either live or on-demand) to all client types, eliminating
the need to invest in client-specific encoders and servers. This reduces operational costs associatedwith the hardware you need to maintain and simplifies the management of the production workflow,
allowing you to focus on a unified server infrastructure and deliver the best possible viewing
experience to your customers.
With Wowza Streaming Engine, you can choose from a broad range of conventional live RTSP/RTP,
MPEG-TS, and RTMP-based encoders, or accept source video from H.264 IP cameras or the Wowza
TM
GoCoder mobile encoding app. With the Wowza Transcoder AddOn, which is deployed on thesame hardware with Wowza Streaming Engine, you can ingest high-bitrate streams and transratethem into adaptive bitrate (ABR) or single bitrate streams for delivery over supported protocols. For
VOD, Wowza Streaming Engine can stream simultaneously to multiple clients from a single set of
MP4 files.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Introducing Wowza Streaming Engine

Figure 2. Wowza Streaming Engine ingests video from a variety of sources and outputs to a variety offormats for playback on many devices.
Wowza sets a new benchmark for media servers in terms of functionality, performance, flexibility, andsecurity. It effectively addresses the challenges that content owners and producers face when
delivering streaming content in the face of rapidly proliferating and ever-evolving video-capabledevices that rely on diverse playback technologies and protocols.
Finally, Wowza Streaming Engine is geared for high performance. Its tightly architected 64-bit Java
server is built for multi-protocol, multi-client media streaming. It scales effectively to meet the growing
demand for streaming content and its industrial strength architecture is specifically tuned to efficiently
use the modern generation of highly-threaded multi-core CPU and memory resources, as well as
higher storage I/O capacities. This scalability allows you to increase the efficiency of your server
infrastructure and benefit from the opportunities offered in a rapidly growing market.
For more on how Wowza streaming works, go to www.wowza.com/streaming.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Delivering Any Media to Any Device, Anywhere

Delivering Any Media to Any Device, Anywhere
With Wowza Streaming Engine, you can deliver live video and audio H.264 streams to any player,
any device, over any protocol supported by Wowza software, simultaneously from a single set ofsource live streams. You don’t have to create individual assets for the dozens of possible variations—or for the new protocols that come to market seemingly every time you blink.

Broad Live Encoder Support
Wowza Streaming Engine can accept incoming streams from H.264 encoding devices (encoders,transcoders, IP cameras, etc.) that use RTSP, RTP, and MPEG-TS protocols. This gives you great
flexibility to choose an encoder that fits your operation and budget, regardless of the protocol used todeliver content to the user device. For more details about supported encoders, go towww.wowza.com/forums/content.php?8-live-streaming-and-encoders.
In addition, Wowza enables mobile content operators to encode and broadcast live audio and video
through the Wowza GoCoder encoding app for Apple iPad and iPhone (iOS 5.0 or later). You can use
Wowza GoCoder to broadcast HD-quality live events using H.264 adaptive bitrate streaming. Wowza
GoCoder connects to Wowza Streaming Engine over 4G, 3G, and Wi-Fi networks. For more
information, go to www.wowza.com/addons/gocoder.
Wowza Streaming Engine repackages (transmixes) the incoming video/audio payload into thestreaming formats required by the destination devices. For example, if Wowza Streaming Engine isreceiving H.264 over MPEG-TS from an encoder for streaming to an iOS device, the server first
segments the payload into .ts chunks and then delivers the chunks using the HLS streaming format tothe device.
When you use Wowza Transcoder AddOn, the server can ingest an even greater range of encoding
protocols. Wowza Transcoder AddOn can accept channels (streams) containing video encoded in
H.264, MPEG-2, or MPEG-4 formats with a variety of audio encoding formats such as AAC, MP3,
Speex, and G.711. It transrates or transcodes these channels to multiple bitrates of H.263 (v2) or
H.264 video and AAC audio for adaptive or non-adaptive bitrate delivery over any outbound transport
protocol supported by Wowza Streaming Engine.
Additionally, you can use Wowza Streaming Engine can to re-stream SHOUTcast and Icecast (AAC,
AAC+, and MP3) audio streams and IP Camera (AAC, G.711 (µ-law and A-law), H.264, and MP3)
streams, which makes these streams accessible to listeners on supported player technologies.
For an up-to-date list of supported encoding formats and transport protocols, go to www.wowza.com/
media-server/specifications.

Broad Outbound Protocol Support
Wowza Streaming Engine supports many client and player protocols, including Apple HLS, Adobe
HDS, Microsoft Smooth Streaming, MPEG-DASH, and others.
Apple HTTP Live Streaming (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, QuickTime, and More)
Wowza Streaming Engine can stream adaptive bitrate live and on-demand video to the iPhone, iPad,®
and iPod touch (iOS version 3.0 or later); QuickTime player (version 10 or later); Safari browser

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Delivering Any Media to Any Device, Anywhere(version 4.0 or later); and other Apple HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)–compatible devices such as®
Roku and Amino set-top boxes and some brands of smart TVs that use the Apple HLS protocol.
Adobe HLS is a streaming protocol that uses small, discrete HTTP files or “chunks” for delivery. All
media-chunking and packaging required to deliver a stream using the protocol is performed on the fly
by Wowza Streaming Engine. When streaming video on demand content, Wowza Streaming Engine
supports MP4 files (QuickTime container) and MP3 files (FLV files aren’t supported at this time).
®
Apple iOS devices and Apple TV digital media extender support the following formats:

Video
•

H.264

Audio
•

AAC, AAC Low Complexity (AAC LC), High Efficiency AAC(HE-AAC) v1•

Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound (AC-3) and Dolby Digital
Plus (Enhanced AC-3 or E-AC-3)

•

MP3

®

Adobe HTTP Dynamic Streaming (Adobe Flash Player)
Wowza Streaming Engine can stream adaptive bitrate live and on-demand video to Flash Player–
compatible devices (Flash Player 10.1 or later) using the Adobe HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS)
protocol. Similar to Apple HLS, Adobe HDS is also a chunk-based HTTP streaming protocol. All
media-chunking and packaging required to deliver a stream using this protocol is performed on the fly
by Wowza Streaming Engine. The Adobe HDS protocol supports the following codecs:

Video
•

H.264

•

On2 VP6 (live only)

•
•

Audio
•

AAC, AAC Low Complexity (AAC LC), AAC High Efficiency(HE-AAC) v1 and v2

Screen video and Screen
video 2 (live only)

•

MP3

•

Nellymoser Asao (live only)

Sorenson Spark (live only)•

Speex (live only)

Microsoft Smooth Streaming (Microsoft Silverlight and More)
Wowza Streaming Engine can stream adaptive bitrate live and on demand video to Microsoft
Silverlight and other Smooth Streaming players using the Microsoft Smooth Streaming protocol.
Silverlight, the best-known of the Smooth Streaming clients, is a cross-browser, cross-platform
technology that exists on many personal computing devices. Smooth Streaming is a chunk-based
streaming protocol that uses HTTP for delivery. Wowza Streaming Engine performs all mediachunking and packaging required by Smooth Streaming on the fly, so you don’t need specialized
segmenting encoders or an IIS web server. The following formats can be used when streaming to
Smooth Streaming clients:

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Video
•

Delivering Any Media to Any Device, Anywhere

Audio

H.264

•

AAC, AAC Low Complexity (AAC LC), AAC High Efficiency(HE-AAC) v1 and v2•

Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound (AC-3) and Dolby Digital Plus
(Enhanced AC-3 or E-AC-3)•

MP3

MPEG-DASH (DASH Clients)
Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH), also known as MPEG-DASH, is an evolving
international standard for adaptive streaming. Wowza Streaming Engine supports the MPEG-DASH
standard, which offers all the benefits of Apple HLS, Adobe HDS, and Microsoft Smooth Streaming
but with a single, streamlined encoding workflow.
MPEG-DASH is similar to proprietary adaptive streaming technologies such as Apple HLS, Adobe
HDS, and Microsoft Smooth Streaming in that it's a chunk-based streaming technology that uses
HTTP for delivery. All media-chunking and packaging required to deliver a stream using thistechnology is performed on the fly by Wowza Streaming Engine.
The MPEG-DASH standard (ISO/IEC 23009-1) defines segment container formats for ISO BaseMedia File Format (ISOBMFF) and MPEG-2 Transport Streams (MPEG-2 TS). MPEG-DASH is
codec-agnostic and supports multiplexed and non-multiplexed encoding. Multiple content protection(DRM) schemes are supported; however, a Common Encryption (CENC) standard (ISO/IEC 23001-7)
is being developed in conjunction with MPEG-DASH to allow content to be encrypted once and thenstreamed to DASH clients that support different licensing systems.
With support for MPEG-DASH in Wowza Streaming Engine, you can:•Efficiently reach a broader audience with HD content at lower bitrates•

Deliver live and on-demand content in MPEG-DASH format•

Play back on DASH-AVC/264-compatible players•

Protect live and on-demand DASH streams using Common Encryption•

Deliver content over both DASH and non-HTTP protocols when using Wowza in an originedge configuration•

Deliver audio-only or video-only content•

Deliver streaming content that uses the Dolby Digital Plus audio codec

For more information about MPEG-DASH support in Wowza Streaming Engine, go towww.wowza.com/products/streaming-engine/features/mpeg-dash.
RTP/RTSP (QuickTime, VLC, 3GPP Devices, Set-top Boxes, and More)
Wowza Streaming Engine can stream live H.264, AAC, and MP3 content to players and devices that
support the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), and MPEG-2
Transport Stream protocol (MPEG-TS). This includes players and devices such as QuickTime Player,
VideoLAN VLC player, IPTV set-top boxes, and 3GPP devices. Wowza Streaming Engine supports RTP

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Delivering Any Media to Any Device, Anywhere

and MPEG-2 TS input and output over UDP as well as multicast. In addition, Wowza Streaming Engine
supports interleaved RTSP/RTP (which is where the RTP part of the stream flows over the RTSP TCP
connection), which enables RTSP/RTP to be delivered in network environments that don’t allow UDP
transmission.

Supported Video-on-Demand (VOD) Formats
Wowza Streaming Engine supports many VOD file formats, including FLV (Flash Video - .flv), MP4(QuickTime container - .mp4, .f4v, .mov, .m4a, .m4v, .mp4a, .mp4v, .3gp, and .3g2), PIFF (.isma and.ismv), and MP3 content (.mp3). H.264/AAC content in MP4 container files can be delivered to any
supported player technology.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Innovative Functionality

Innovative Functionality
Wowza Streaming Engine offers many innovative features and functions, from a browser-based
administrative dashboard that lets you create, manage, and monitor streams to support for closed
captions, live stream recording, and robust security options.

Browser-Based Management and Monitoring
Wowza Streaming Engine Manager lets you easily configure, manage, and monitor Wowza
Streaming Engine server software from a web browser on your computer, tablet, or phone. Althoughprogrammatic and command-line configuration and management of Wowza Streaming Engine isavailable, the browser-based manager enables publishers with a diverse range of technical abilities tohave greater control and confidence when streaming video.
With Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, you can create a live or VOD application for any event orcontent that you want to broadcast, including single-server or origin-server applications, edge
applications, and HTTP origin applications, depending on the size and scale of your broadcast andthe types of playback you want to support. For even simpler app-creation, you can specify default
settings and properties that apply to all of your streaming applications, such as creating SMIL files foradaptive bitrate streaming. Then, customize or refine these settings for individual applications.
With Wowza Streaming Engine Manager you can also perform a host of administrative tasks, such as
establishing secure log-ins and permissions for managing license keys, configuring security options,and managing IP addresses and port-based virtual hosting environments. You can configure andenable Wowza AddOns, including Wowza Transcoder AddOn, using the manager.
Finally, you can monitor resources for any individual application, in real time or historically, using
Wowza Streaming Engine Manager. For more information on Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, go
to www.wowza.com/products/streaming-engine/manager.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Innovative Functionality

Figure 3. Wowza Streaming Engine Manager lets you configure, manage, and monitor Wowza
Streaming Engine server software from a web browser on your computer, tablet, or phone.

Closed Captioning
Wowza Streaming Engine supports many closed captioning formats for live and VOD streams. It caningest caption data embedded in live streams and from a variety of file-based sources and convert
the data to appropriate caption formats for live and on-demand video streaming using the Apple HLS,
Adobe HDS, and RTMP protocols. This helps broadcasters to comply with the 21st Century
Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) of 2010 and with increasing requirements in theEuropean Union by providing captioning for television programs that are distributed over the Internet.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Innovative Functionality

For live streams, Wowza Streaming Engine can ingest closed caption information from Action
Message Format (AMF) onTextData events, onCaption events, or CEA-608 data embedded in thestream. These ingested captions can be delivered in Adobe HDS and RTMP streams as AMF
onTextData events, in Apple HLS streams as CEA-608 captions, or in Apple HLS streams for AppleiOS devices (iOS 6 or later) as Web Video Text Tracks (WebVTT) subtitles. In addition, CEA-608
caption data embedded in the stream can be passed through Wowza Transcoder AddOn for delivery
in Apple HLS streams to iOS-based devices.
For VOD streams, Wowza Streaming Engine can extract caption data from 3GPP Timed Text data
embedded in MP4 files or use caption files in a variety of formats including Timed Text Markup
Language (.ttml), SubRip Text (.srt), Scenarist Closed Caption (.scc), and Web Video Text Tracks(.vtt). These ingested captions can be delivered in Adobe HDS and RTMP streams as AMF
onTextData events, in Apple HLS streams as CEA-608 captions, or in Apple HLS streams for AppleiOS devices (iOS 6 or later) as WebVTT subtitles. Wowza Streaming Engine also supports delivery of
VOD sidecar files.

Live Stream Recording
Wowza Streaming Engine allows you to instantly record any incoming live stream to either the FlashVideo (FLV) or MP4 (QuickTime container) format and to automatically split the in-progress live
stream recording archives into multiple files, with the split points based on video duration, clock time,
or file size. You can use Wowza Streaming Engine Manager to control the recording process locallyor from a remote computer and specify when the recording starts and stops, the filename andlocation, the container format, and other details. Recordable live stream sources can be any
compatible live video device, including webcams encoded through the Flash player, encoders, IP
cameras, the GoCoder mobile encoding app, or streams originating from Wowza Transcoder AddOn.
Live stream recording is particularly useful for offering video messaging services, such as video
email, instant video feedback on websites using modern browsers, or for surveillance, training,education, or other applications that require content archiving for later replay.
Wowza nDVR AddOn provides special recording functionality that permits time-shifted playback oflive streams on HDS, HLS, and Smooth Streaming–compatible devices. It records live streams into aformat-normalized cache while simultaneously allowing users to play or pause a live stream, rewind
to a previously recorded point, or resume viewing at the current live point. An extensive set of APIs isavailable to build custom applications such as catch-up TV for creating an even more engaging
viewer experience.

SHOUTcast Re-streaming
Thanks to the exclusive Wowza Streaming Engine capability of SHOUTcast/Icecast re-streaming,delivering the best-sounding AAC/MP3 audio to the biggest audiences on the Internet has never beeneasier. This capability simplifies audio delivery by eliminating the need to install SHOUTcast-specificplayers on every client machine and device.

Multiple Levels of Content Security
One of the inherent advantages of streaming media is that it offers better content protection andsecurity than progressive downloading. However, streaming your content doesn’t always provide
sufficient security against content intrusion, unauthorized diversion, spoofing, and stream ripping.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Innovative Functionality

Wowza Streaming Engine provides several levels of protection to help guard your content against
these threats.
First, you can implement several types of all-around content protection for your streams. To help
protect content delivered using Apple HLS, Adobe HDS, Microsoft Smooth Streaming, and MPEGDASH, you can apply SecureToken challenge/response queries, RTMP and RTSP authentication,
stream name aliases, and encrypted streaming (RTMPE, RTMPTE, and RTMPS). For Flash, Wowza
Streaming Engine offers SecureToken protection, link encryption (RTMPS, RTMPE, RTMPTE), andfree AddOns for implementing other security measures, such as content URL protection and domain
verification. All of these security options can easily be implemented in the Wowza Streaming Engine
Manager.
In addition, for premium content, Wowza DRM AddOn offers studio-approved DRM protection by
providing integration with various third-party DRM Key Management Services. These services, fromTM
BuyDRM , EZDRM, and Verimatrix, deliver license keys to Wowza Streaming Engine during
encryption and to the viewer’s device during playback. Wowza DRM AddOn, which can be configured
and enabled in the Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, greatly simplifies on-the-fly encryption withkey rotation for delivery of live and VOD premium content to standard PlayReady and Verimatrix®
ViewRight clients.
In addition, Wowza Streaming Engine includes APIs that enable several encryption schemes for onthe-fly encryption of live and on-demand Apple HLS streams, including basic AES-128 encryption(chunk-level encryption supported by iOS and OS X players), SAMPLE-AES (sample-level encryption
for version 5 of the Apple HLS streaming protocol), ENVELOPE-PLAYREADY (supported by
BuyDRM player technology with Microsoft PlayReady DRM), and CHUNK-PLAYREADY (supported®
by INSIDE Secure player technology with Microsoft PlayReady DRM).
An API is also provided that enables decryption of PlayReady assets. This enables new scenarios,
such as flexible delivery within closed-network hospitality environments. For example, you cantransport HD mezzanine files to a location such as a hotel, airplane, or cruise ship, and then decrypt
the assets, transcode them to multiple adaptive bitrate streaming formats, re-encrypt them, anddeliver them to users' own devices.
For more information about the many ways that you can protect your streaming media with Wowza
Streaming Engine, go to www.wowza.com/products/streaming-engine/features/security.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

An Expansive Suite of Premium AddOns

An Expansive Suite of Premium AddOns
A variety of premium AddOn components are available to help you deliver, transform, enhance,
protect, and manage your audio and video streams.

Wowza Transcoder AddOn
Wowza Transcoder AddOn, which has been mentioned extensively in this Overview, provides theability to ingest a live stream, decode the video and audio, and then re-encode the stream to suit thedesired playback devices.
Wowza Transcoder AddOn runs on the same hardware as Wowza Streaming Engine to transform
incoming live streams from encoders, IP cameras, IPTV headends, and other live sources into
multiple stream sets for H.264-everywhere adaptive bitrate delivery to Adobe HDS, Apple HLS,
Microsoft Smooth Streaming, and RTMP clients. Wowza Transcoder AddOn also delivers nonadaptive streams over any transport protocol supported by Wowza Streaming Engine, including
RTMP, HDS, HLS, RTSP/RTP, MPEG-TS, and Smooth Streaming. CEA-608 caption data embedded
in live streams can be passed through Wowza Transcoder AddOn for delivery in Apple HLS streams®
to iOS-based devices. If available, Wowza Transcoder takes advantage of Intel Quick Sync,®
®
NVIDIA NVENC, or NVIDIA CUDA GPU acceleration to free up CPU for more outbound streaming
capacity.
Wowza Transcoder AddOn also lets you overlay static images on top of video using simple XML fileconfiguration, or to overlay static and dynamic images by using a Java-based API. This powerful toollets you create premium, branded experiences by adding a watermarked logo or lower-third ad, andcreate TV-like experiences for viewers such as tickers and subtitles. The AddOn supports H.263encoding for live video streams, enabling you to stream to audiences who may be using older mobile
devices.
For more information, go to www.wowza.com/products/addons/wowza-transcoder-addon.

Wowza nDVR AddOn
Wowza nDVR (network Digital Video Recorder) AddOn emulates the functionality of a local DVR box
on the Wowza server, enabling viewers to experience time-shifted playback on their computers,
tablets, smartphones, and TVs.
Wowza nDVR AddOn stores content in a normalized format accessible to Wowza Streaming Engine
for any-screen time-shifted playback. The AddOn then delivers the content out over the network in theappropriate streaming format to fulfill individual viewer requests for operations such as time-shiftedviewing or instant replays. Compared to client-specific nDVR implementations that store redundantversions of the content for each streaming format, Wowza nDVR AddOn significantly reduces cost by
minimizing network storage requirements and simplifying the delivery workflow for all screens.
Wowza nDVR AddOn enables Wowza licensees to increase value and viewer engagement by
delivering live streams as time-shifted services and providing features such as live pause, rewind,
instant replay, and resume.
For more information, go to www.wowza.com/products/addons/wowza-ndvr-addon.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

An Expansive Suite of Premium AddOns

Wowza DRM AddOn
Wowza DRM AddOn facilitates integration with various digital rights management platforms to deliveron-the-fly encryption for live and video-on-demand content to any screen. Wowza DRM AddOn canhelp you up-sell content for IPTV and OTT premium services and cross-sell content for multi-device
distribution. This premium AddOn provides simultaneous secure key exchange with multiple DRM
platforms. Individual live or on-demand content is encrypted on the fly with Microsoft PlayReady or
Verimatrix VCAS for delivery via Apple HLS and Microsoft Smooth Streaming to viewers on a wide
range of endpoints, including PCs and Macs, set-top boxes, smart TVs, game consoles,
smartphones, and tablets. For live workflows, per-stream encryption is available with the ability torotate keys. For on-demand workflows, per-asset and per-session encryption is available with theability to rotate keys.

Figure 4. Wowza DRM AddOn encryption methodology
Wowza DRM AddOn provides integration with the following third-party DRM Key Management
Systems, which deliver DRM license keys to Wowza Streaming Engine during encryption and to theviewer’s device during playback. This integration offers best-of-breed solutions to Wowza customers
who need studio-approved security for delivery of premium content.

Copyright © 2006 – 2014 Wowza Media Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

An Expansive Suite of Premium AddOns

Figure 5. Wowza DRM AddOn integration support
For more information, see www.wowza.com/products/addons/DRM.

Free AddOns
In addition to premium AddOns, Wowza offers many free AddOn components that enhance thefunctionality of Wowza Streaming Engine. The free Wowza StreamLock™ AddOn, for example,
provides near-instant provisioning of free 256-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates and greatly
simplifies deploying the proven security of SSL to safeguard traditional Flash streams using RTMPS.
StreamLock-provisioned certificates provide the best security when used with RTMP, but can also be
used for secure HTTP streaming (HTTPS).
Source code and APIs are included with many free AddOn components to enable you to extend andcustomize functionality to better fit your needs.
For a complete list of AddOns, go to www.wowza.com/products/addons.

Copyright © 2006 – 2014 Wowza Media Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Advanced Features

Advanced Features
Wowza Streaming Engine is built to deliver infrastructure-grade stability and operational robustness
that's well-suited for deployments of all sizes—from the smallest website to the largest CDN.

Cost-Effective Scalability
Cost-effective scalability of server infrastructure for live and VOD content is one of the most important
challenges you'll face with increasing demand for streamed content. Wowza Streaming Engine
effectively solves this challenge with multi-dimensional scalability:•

Thanks to its full 64-bit multi-threaded capabilities, Wowza Streaming Engine efficiently
manages CPU, memory, and disk I/O resources to get the most streaming out of available
hardware.

•Wowza Streaming Engine also provides features to scale the capacity for live and VODcontent across multiple servers to a virtually unlimited number of concurrent streams.

All of these components, paired with low operating expenses, enable you to scale effectively while
enjoying a much lower total cost of ownership.
Efficient Load Balancing
Wowza Streaming Engine can intelligently manage traffic across multiple-server clusters with robust
demand-based load balancing to ensure that streams are distributed evenly across servers without
overwhelming your infrastructure. To further optimize performance, you can customize specificmodules to create a CDN-style redirection of streaming requests to the closest server, based on theusers geographic location.
Video on Demand Scalability
With the MediaCache system built in to Wowza Streaming Engine, you can easily scale multipleserver VOD delivery networks. Using MediaCache, which you configure in the Wowza Streaming
Engine Manager, each edge server efficiently caches content from the centralized NAS/ASO of HTTP
storage to the local disk for immediate playback. Wowza MediaCache eliminates the bottlenecks
associated with origin server-based VOD delivery and lets you decide how long to keep content incache and when to purge it.
Live Streaming Scalability
Wowza Streaming Engine includes Live Stream Repeater (origin/edge) functionality that allows live
stream mirroring to multiple edge servers for delivery of streams to virtually unlimited audiences. For
added flexibility, any Wowza Streaming Engine node can be configured to act as a Live Stream
Repeater (origin) or edge server—or both, giving you maximum utility of the licenses you purchase.

Flexible Administration and Management
In addition to the Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, which lets you create, manage, and monitor
your streams, Wowza Streaming Engine offers a flexible, standards based Java Management
Extension (JMX) interface that works with a variety of administration consoles and management
systems.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Advanced Features

JMX is a standards-based technology that exposes Java application components through a unified
object interface. This interface can then be consumed by open source and commercial administration
consoles such as HP OpenView, Tivoli, IBM Websphere, BEA Weblogic, and many othermanagement platforms.
For simple administration, you can use JConsole, which is available with the Java JDK, to monitor
and control your local and remote servers. JConsole captures a wide range of data, giving you adetailed view of server performance; the status of applications, connections, and virtual hosts;
bandwidth utilization, and more.

Per-Session Logging for Complete Content Visibility
Content providers and their customers need access to detailed logs to see how their content isperforming. This information is used for a variety of business intelligence needs such as billing,
ascertaining viewer behavior, and gauging how well specific media assets are received by audiences.
Wowza Streaming Engine gives you visibility into your system performance by providing per-session
logs for all supported client types. For event logging, Wowza Streaming Engine uses the Java-based
Apache log4j logging utility. By default, the server is configured to log basic information to the console
window and detailed information to log files, using the W3C Extended Common Log Format (ECLF).

Extensibility with Back-End and Business Systems
Wowza Streaming Engine features a flexible custom module interface (API) that can be used toextend server functionality with custom modules or to integrate the server with backend and othersystems for billing, log analysis, content and asset management, or even integrate Wowza Streaming
Engine with SIP calling systems and IP PBXs. This can be done directly through Java, Simple Object
Access Protocol (SOAP), remote procedure calls (RPC), or the Java Native Interface (JNI).

Compact and Embeddable
Wowza Streaming Engine is implemented to be lightweight and embeddable. Its compact size offers
an opportunity to expand the applications for the Wowza Streaming Engine technology beyond thedata center by embedding it with other software and hardware products ranging from network
appliances, telepresence and video conferencing systems, security systems, carrier-grade delivery
platforms, or even consumer devices.
If your company wants to integrate Wowza Streaming Engine streaming capabilities with yourhardware or software products, or otherwise partner with Wowza, fill out our Partner Request form at
www.wowza.com/contact/partner.

Free Wowza IDE
To simplify and streamline the tasks of extending, configuring, and managing robust implementationsof Wowza Streaming Engine, Wowza offers the Wowza Integrated Development Environment (IDE),
a free tool that's based on the popular Eclipse™ application framework. Wowza IDE, which isavailable for the Windows and Mac OS X platforms, provides a rich environment that simplifies Javadevelopment tasks. It allows you to easily create, debug, and validate your server-side code before
you deploy it. Additionally, Wowza IDE supports the JMX standard for administration management
and monitoring.

Copyright © 2006 – 2014 Wowza Media Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Deploying Wowza Streaming Engine

Deploying Wowza Streaming Engine
This section provides the basic information you'll need to plan your Wowza Streaming Engine
deployment on site, in the cloud, or through a CDN.

Deployment Options
The way you deploy Wowza Streaming Engine depends largely on your resources and the scale ofyour broadcasts.
On-Premises Deployment
If you want to stream small, live events to local audiences, you can easily run Wowza Streaming
Engine as a single, onsite origin/edge server, ingesting video directly from an H.264 IP camera andbroadcasting directly to supported players. When you deploy Wowza Streaming Engine on-premises,
you simply pay for each active instance and can run multiple Wowza instances on multiple computers
using a single license key. You don’t need to purchase a separate license key for each machine.
Cloud Deployment
When you don’t want to manage the operation of the hardware or network, you can deploy Wowza
Streaming Engine in the cloud by partnering with a platform SAAS provider for high-quality delivery
over a reliable, more robust infrastructure. Cloud hosting:•

Saves you from having to invest in hardware resources and technological infrastructures are
your streaming needs grow.

•

Allows you to quickly scale up or down as your streaming needs change.

•

Lets you rely on the built-in redundancy of the providers’ systems.

Wowza Streaming Engine works with virtually all cloud-hosting services, including Amazon Elastic
TM
Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2 ) and Google Compute Engine.
CDN Deployment
When your audiences expand around the globe, you can deploy Wowza Streaming Engine with aContent Delivery Network (CDN) partner to broadcast your streams using the CDN’s widelydistributed, edge-networking infrastructure. CDN edge networks are optimized for real-time, globally
distributed online applications that require very low latency and high availability—such as live and ondemand video streams. CDNs:•

Have servers and data centers around the world, and stream content from a location closest
to the viewer.

•

Scale according to load and handle traffic spikes automatically.

•

Allow you to get up and running quickly.

Wowza Streaming Engine works with a number of CDN providers, including Akamai, Mirror Image,and Amazon CloudFront.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Deploying Wowza Streaming Engine

For more information on deployment options, go to www.wowza.com/products/streamingengine/deployment-options.

Server Editions
Wowza Streaming Engine is available in several editions. All Wowza Streaming Engine editions arelicensed software products and require acceptance of an end user license agreement (EULA) that
contains additional details, terms, and conditions. For the most current pricing, volume discounts, andto find out which licensing option is applicable to your specific business, go towww.wowza.com/pricing.html.
The following licensing editions are offered:•

Wowza Streaming Engine Trial Edition: This free edition provides functionality of Wowza
Streaming Engine for 180 days of use from the date of issue, including the Wowza
Transcoder AddOn, nDVR AddOn, and DRM AddOn. The trial version is limited to three (3)inbound and ten (10) outbound connections and does not include HTTP Origin functionality.
Wowza Transcoder AddOn streams contain audio/video watermarks. Other restrictions apply
as described in the Wowza Media Software End User License Agreement(www.wowza.com/docredirect.php?doc=licenseAgreement).

•

Wowza Streaming Engine Monthly Edition: This edition provides full, unrestrictedfunctionality of Wowza Streaming Engine and AddOns. It's a no-risk, all-inclusive subscription
license that's ideal for all applications and all users, including Content Delivery Networks(CDNs), Hosting and Streaming Service Providers. The Monthly Edition requires no up-front
investment or long-term commitment, and you pay monthly for the server instances and
AddOns that you use. You can cancel at any time. A single license key permits the use of anunlimited number of server instances and AddOns. The Monthly Edition is also valid for use
on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and other cloud computing environments
and includes maintenance and support.

•

Wowza Streaming Engine Perpetual Edition: This edition provides full, unrestrictedfunctionality of Wowza Streaming Engine, but requires separate license keys for each server.
In addition, each premium AddOn is licensed separately. Wowza nDVR AddOn and Wowza
DRM AddOn licenses provide unlimited connection capacity per instance. Each WowzanDVR AddOn and Wowza DRM AddOn license must be used with a Wowza Streaming
Engine Perpetual Edition license. Each Wowza Transcoder AddOn license is limited to one
incoming channel (stream) and an unlimited number of outbound streams per the Wowza
Streaming Engine Perpetual Edition license. Multiple Wowza Transcoder AddOn licenses canbe stacked on a single Wowza Streaming Engine Perpetual Edition license for additional
channel capacity. Full version upgrades may be charged an additional upgrade fee. Includes
one (1) year of maintenance and support. Not valid for use by Service Providers. For moredetailed information, contact sales@wowza.com.

•

Wowza Streaming Engine Developer Edition: This free edition is offered for long-term use
by developers. The Developer Edition provides full, unrestricted functionality of Wowza
Streaming Engine and AddOns, but is limited to 180 days of use from the date of issue, andis further limited to ten (10) concurrent connections with live streaming restricted to two (2)inbound and ten (10) total combined concurrent inbound and outbound streams. Wowza
Transcoder streams contain audio/video watermarks.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Deploying Wowza Streaming Engine

Note: Although the Wowza Streaming Engine Monthly and Perpetual editions don’t limit the numberof connections, connection capacity depends on your choice of physical or virtual server and specificapplications.

Operating System Support
Wowza Streaming Engine can be deployed on any platform that supports the Java Runtime
Environment (JRE). For best performance, we recommend a 64-bit operating system and acorresponding 64-bit Java runtime. To simplify deployment, Wowza Streaming Engine downloadable
installation packages are available for:•Windows•

Mac OS X•

Linux RPM (Red Hat Package Manager)•

Linux DEB (Debian Package Manager)•

Linux/Solaris (Straight install using the tar command)®

On the Windows and Mac OS X platforms, Wowza Streaming Engine is installed using an installer.
®
®
®
On Linux , Solaris , and other Unix -based platforms, the software is installed using a self-extracting
binary installer. Each installer includes the server and premium AddOn software. Wowza Transcoder
AddOn will work only on 64-bit versions of the Windows or Linux operating system. To download a
Wowza Streaming Engine installer for your specific OS, go to www.wowza.com/pricing/installer.

Installation Prerequisites
Because Wowza Streaming Engine is a Java™ application, JRE version 6 (or later) must be installed
in order to run. Install the most recent version of the JRE available for your platform, and be sure toselect the 64-bit Java installer if you’re running a 64-bit operating system. Download the free JREfrom www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html.

Server Specifications
In VOD applications, much of Wowza Streaming Engine's performance is driven by the underlying
system's I/O performance and is limited by how fast the hardware can deliver the streamed file bitsfrom the disk. To get the most throughput from your hardware, we suggest that you use RAID 0 or
RAID 10 configurations with as many drives as possible in the RAID array.
For production servers, the minimum configuration we recommend is a single quad-core CPU with atleast 1 GB of RAM per core, a dual disk in a RAID 0 (striping) configuration, and a 1 Gbps Ethernet
interface.
Wowza Streaming Engine has no per-server limits on the number of CPU cores. This means that you
can take full advantage of highly-threaded multi-core hardware for even higher streaming efficiency
and cost-effectiveness.
When using Wowza Transcoder AddOn, we highly recommend that you use Intel Quick Sync Video,
NVIDIA NVENC, or NVIDIA CUDA hardware acceleration.
To see a Wowza Streaming Engine specifications summary, go to http://www.wowza.com/mediaserver/specifications.

Copyright © 2006 – 2014 Wowza Media Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Deploying Wowza Streaming Engine

Optimizing Performance
The performance of Wowza Streaming Engine depends on the hardware you select and theapplications that you run. For example, on any given hardware configuration, connection capacity forvideo chat or live streaming applications will likely be higher than connection capacity for video on
demand applications because disk I/O is less of a factor for video chats or live streaming.
On standard servers with dual quad-core processors and multiple NICs, you can typically achieve up
to 5 Gbps of streaming performance if the server is properly tuned. Wowza Streaming Engine has
demonstrated the capability to deliver up to 10 Gbps of streaming throughput for both live and ondemand content on multi-threaded, multi-CPU computers that are finely tuned at the kernel level. To
optimize Wowza Streaming Engine software performance on production hardware, we provide a setof suggested general tuning instructions at www.wowza.com/forums/content.php?5-general-tuning.
We also offer a free Flash RTMP Load Test Tool to help you benchmark Wowza Streaming Engine
software performance on the hardware of your choice. For more information, go towww.wowza.com/forums/content.php?122-How-to-get-Flash-RTMP-Load-Test-Tool.

Copyright © 2006 – 2014 Wowza Media Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Wowza Streaming Engine Overview

Summary

Summary
The demand for streaming audio and video is growing exponentially, fueled by audiences that expect
high-quality, broadcast-like experiences and the ability to stream to PCs, mobile devices, smart TVs,and other devices whenever and wherever they want. For organizations that provide content, thatmeans supporting an ever-increasing number of protocols, formats, and playback devices. You haveto create video streams that adapt to changing network conditions, minimize storage requirements,
maximize performance of existing hardware, and meet other technical challenges—all while keeping
costs in check.
Wowza Streaming Engine addresses these challenges by providing robust, customizable, andscalable server software that powers reliable streaming of high-quality video and audio to any device,
anywhere.
Get
Wowza
Streaming
Engineatwww.wowza.com/pricingorgotowww.wowza.com/partners to contact one of our Wowza Streaming Partners and start streaming
content with confidence and control.

Resources
For the most up-to-date information about Wowza Streaming Engine, go to www.wowza.com.
For technical questions, go to the Wowza forums at www.wowza.com/forums or send an email tosupport@wowzamedia.com.
Wowza Streaming Engine documentation is available at www.wowza.com/resources.html.

Copyright © 2006 – 2014 Wowza Media Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.

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