Wowza Media Server 2 for EC2 Edition Quick Start Guide

Wowza Media Server 2 for Amazon EC2 Edition : Quick Start Guide

Introduction

Application Configuration
Stream Types
Supported Media
Content Storage
Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP - Adobe Flash Player)
Apple HTTP Live Streaming (Cupertino Streaming - iPhone, iPod touch)
Smooth Streaming (Microsoft Silverlight)
RTSP/RTP/MPEG-TS (QuickTime, VLC, mobile devices, set top boxes, encoders)

Installation

Getting Started with Wowza Server for EC2 Edition
Installing the Server / Sizing Guidelines
Starting and Stopping the Server
Ports Used for Streaming
How to verify Wowza Server is running
Installing Examples

Tutorials

How to play a video on demand file
How to publish and play a live stream (RTMP or RSTP/RTP based encoder)
How to publish and play a live stream (MPEG-TS based encoder)
How to publish and play a live stream (native RTP encoder with SDP file)
How to re-stream video from an IP camera
How to re-stream audio from SHOUTcast/Icecast
How to setup video chat application
How to setup video recording application
How to stream and record a live video
How to develop server-side code

Administration

Logging
Server Tuning
Management and Monitoring (JConsole and JMX)

Introduction

This document is a very short and quick tutorial to get you started with Wowza Media Server 2 on Amazon EC2. Wowza Media Server 2 is high performance media streaming server software for delivering content to the following player technologies and devices: Adobe Flash® (Adobe Flash player), Microsoft Smooth Streaming (Microsoft Silverlight® player), Apple HTTP Live Streaming (iPhone™, iPod® touch, Safari® browser, QuickTime® player), Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP/RTP) (QuickTime player and VLC media player and many mobile devices) and MPEG2 Transport Streams (MPEG-TS) (set-top boxes and IPTV solutions).

For more in-depth information consult the Wowza Media Server User's Guide, and the Wowza Server for Amazon EC2 User Guide. For more up to date information visit the online forums at: http://www.wowzamedia.com/forums. Once your EC2 server is running download the Wowza examples here or download and install the Wowza Server Developer edition which includes all of the examples and will allow you to become familiar with the Wowza Media Server 2 on your local machine before working with EC2.

This document refers to third party software that is not licensed, sold, distributed or otherwise endorsed by Wowza. Please ensure that any and all use of Wowza software and third party software is properly licensed.

Installation path: On the EC2 Wowza Server there are symbolic links (which are similar to Windows Shortcuts) set up for the most commonly accessed directories. In this document we will refer to the symbolic link /home/wowza as the folder to which Wowza Media Server was installed whenever a valid symbolic link exists.

Linux	/usr/local/WowzaMediaServer
Symbolic links from:	/home/wowza/

Application Configuration

One of the many advantages of running Wowza Media Server 2 for EC2 Edition is that there are several applications (eg: live broadcast, Video on Demand, etc..) pre-configured. But for the sake of illustrating how each application is configured by a user we'll first describe how you would create a new application. An application is defined simply by creating a folder in the /home/wowza/applications folder. For example, to create a new application named myapplication, create the folder:

/home/wowza/applications/myapplication

The application is now ready to use for simple video on demand streaming. It will use the default configuration file which is located in the /home/wowza/conf folder:

/home/wowza/conf/Application.xml (Default configuration file)

To give an application its own Application.xml instead of using the default configuration file, create a folder with the same name in the /home/wowza/conf folder and copy the default configuration file to the new folder.

/home/wowza/conf/myapplication/Application.xml (Configuration file for myapplication )

It is a common mistake to put the Application.xml file in the /home/wowza/applications/[application] folder. All configuration files for Wowza Server and its applications are in the /home/wowza/conf folder.

A single application can be configured to deliver a live or video on demand stream to the Adobe Flash player, the Silverlight player, an Apple iPhone or iPod touch device and an RTSP/RTP based player at the same time (with the exception of video on demand delivery to RTSP/RTP which is not supported in the current version).

Consult the User's Guide for more details on the configuration items defined in Application.xml.

Stream Types

In Wowza Media Server 2 MediaStreams represent a incoming or outgoing stream of video, audio or metadata. Wowza Server provides a mechanism for defining custom server-side MediaStream implementations or stream types. These stream types are configured using the Streams/StreamType property in the Application.xml file. The following table list the more commonly used stream types and their intended use (for a complete list consult the User's Guide):

default	Video on demand streaming of static Flash media, H.264/AAC and MP3 content
record	Video recording
live	Publish and play live video content (best for one-to-many streaming of live events)
live-lowlatency	Publish and play live video content (best for one-to-one or one-to-few video/audio chat applications)
live-record	Same as live in addition content will be recorded
shoutcast	Audio re-streaming of a SHOUTcast/Icecast MP3 or AAC+ audio stream
shoutcast-record	Same as shoutcast in addition content will be recorded
liverepeater-origin	Origin stream type used by live stream repeater to deliver a single streaming using origin/edge configuration
liverepeater-edge	Edge stream type used by live stream repeater to deliver a single stream using origin/edge configuration
rtp-live	Re-streaming of an RTSP/RTP, native RTP or MPEG-TS stream
rtp-live-record	Same as rtp-live in addition content will be recorded

Supported Media

Wowza Media Server 2 supports the following media file formats: FLV (Flash Video), MP4 (QuickTime container) and MP3 content (see table below for common file extensions). To play video on demand content, the proper prefix must be perpended to the file name to create a stream name. For example to play the MP4 file mycoolvideo.mov use the stream name mp4:mycoolvideo.mov . The following table lists the more common file type prefixes (for a complete list consult the User's Guide):

flv:	FLV (Flash Video - this is the default media type so the qualifier and the file extension can be omitted) Example: "flv:mycoolvideo.flv"
mp4:	MP4 (QuickTime container - .mp4, .f4v, .mov, .m4v, .mp4a, .3gp, and .3g2) Example: "mp4:mycoolvideo.mov"
mp3:	MP3 (.mp3) Example: "mp3:mycoolsong.mp3"
smil:	SMIL (XML files used to configure multi-bitrate streams - .smil)

Content Storage

Wowza Media Server 2 is configured by default to use a single content directory which is located at /home/wowza/content . You can change the default content location on an application by application basis by changing the Streams/StorageDir property in Application.xml to the desired content path.

You can also stream content from the Amazon S3 service. Instructions for how to do so are in the "Streaming Media Directly from S3" section of the Wowza Server For AmazonEC2 User's Guide

Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP - Adobe Flash Player)

Wowza Media Server 2 can stream multi-bitrate live and video on demand content to the Adobe Flash player over RTMP. Wowza Server is a great alternative to Flash Media Interactive Server (FMIS) and Flash Media Streaming Server (FMSS). It supports media streaming as well as other features such as: Shared Objects, video recording, video chat, remote procedure calls and more. Wowza Server supports all video and audio formats that the Flash player supports:

Video

H.264
VP6
SorensonSpark
Screen Shared codec

Audio

AAC - AAC, High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) and AAC Low Complexity (AAC LC)
MP3
Speex
NellyMoser ASAO.

The Adobe Flash player is a cross-browser, cross-platform technology that exists on many personal computing and mobile devices. The Adobe Flash plugin runs SWF files that are generated by Flash authoring tools such as the Adobe Flash authoring tool and Adobe Flex. ActionScript is the most common Flash programming language. Using ActionScript, a SWF file can be programmed to do many things within a web page including playing streaming media. Wowza Server and the Flash player communicate using an NetConnection object and media is streamed using a NetStream object.

The NetConnection.connect method is used to establish a connection between Wowza Server and the Flash player. The NetConnection.connect method takes an RTMP URL in the following form:

[protocol-method]://[wowza-address]/[application]/[application-instance]

where:

[protocol-method]	rtmp, rtmpe (encryption), rtmpt (tunneling), rtmpte (encryption and tunneling) or rtmps (tunneling over ssl)
[wowza-address]	IP address or domain name and port of server running Wowza Server (default port 1935)
[application]	Application name
[application-instance]	Application instance name (if omitted defaults to _definst_)

For example, to connect to a Wowza Media Server 2 at the address mycompany.com using the application name myapplication , the URL to use in the NetConnection.connect method is:

rtmp://mycompany.com/myapplication

The NetStream.play method is used to start streaming. It takes as its first argument a stream name. For example, to play the media file mycoolvideo.mov you would use the stream name mp4:mycoolvideo.mov . Some pre-built player combine the server connection URL used in the NetConnection.connect method and the stream name used in the NetStream.play method into a single URL. This URL takes the form:

[protocol-method]://[wowza-address]/[application]/[application-instance]/[stream-name]

For example to connect to a Wowza Server at the address mycompany.com , using the application name myapplication to play the video on demand file named mycoolvideo.mov the URL is:

rtmp://mycompany.com/myapplication/mp4:mycoolvideo.mov

For more details regarding Flash streaming including secure streaming using SecureToken and RTMPE and multi-bitrate streaming, see the User's Guide.

Apple HTTP Live Streaming (Cupertino Streaming - iPhone, iPod touch)

Wowza Media Server 2 can stream multi-bitrate live and video on demand H.264, AAC and MP3 content to the iPhone, iPod touch, and specific versions of QuickTime player and the Safari browser using the Apple HTTP Live Streamingprotocol. Apple HTTP Live Streaming is a chunked based streaming protocol that uses HTTP for delivery. All media chunking and packaging necessary to deliver a stream using this protocol is performed by Wowza Server. Apple HTTP Live Streaming is referred to in the Wowza Server documentation and configuration files as Cupertino Streaming.

Cupertino streaming leverages a playlist wrapper to describe the list of chunks available for streaming. A Cupertino streaming playlist URL has the following form:

http://[wowza-address]/[application]/[application-instance]/[stream-name]/playlist.m3u8

where:

[wowza-address]	IP address or domain name and port of server running Wowza Server (default port 1935)
[application]	Application name
[application-instance]	Application instance name (if omitted defaults to _definst_)
[stream-name]	stream name with stream prefix

For example, to play the video on demand file located on the Wowza Media Server 2 at the address mycompany.com , using the application name myapplication with the file name mycoolvideo.mov the URL is:

http://mycompany.com:1935/myapplication/mp4: mycoolvideo.mov /playlist.m3u8

The iPhone and iPod touch support the following video and audio formats:

Video

H.264 (Baseline profiile level 3.0 or below)

Audio

AAC - AAC, High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) and AAC Low Complexity (AAC LC)
MP3

The iPhone and iPod touch do not support a combination of H.264 video and MP3 audio in the same stream.

For more details regarding Cupertino streaming including secure streaming using AES-128 encryption and multi-bitrate streaming, see the User's Guide.

Smooth Streaming (Microsoft Silverlight)

Wowza Media Server 2 can stream multi-bitrate live and video on demand H.264, AAC and MP3 content to the Microsoft Silverlight player using the Smooth Streaming protocol. Smooth Streaming is a chunked-based streaming protocol that uses HTTP for delivery. All media chunking and packaging necessary to deliver a stream using this protocol is performed by Wowza Server. Microsoft Silverlight is cross-browser, cross-platform technology that exists on many personal computing devices.

Smooth Streaming leverages a playlist wrapper called the Manifest to describe the list of chunks available for streaming. A Smooth Streaming Manifest URL has the following form:

http://[wowza-address]/[application]/[application-instance]/[stream-name]/Manifest

where:

[wowza-address]	IP address or domain name and port of server running Wowza Server (default port 1935)
[application]	Application name
[application-instance]	Application instance name (if omitted defaults to _definst_)
[stream-name]	stream name with stream prefix

The Silverlight player in combination with Wowza Server supports the following video and audio formats:

Video

H.264

Audio

AAC - AAC, High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) and AAC Low Complexity (AAC LC)
MP3

For more details regarding Smooth Streaming including multi-bitrate streaming, see the User's Guide.

RTSP/RTP/MPEG-TS (QuickTime, VLC, mobile devices, set top boxes, encoders)

Wowza Media Server 2 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 MPEG2 Transport Stream protocol (MPEG-TS). This includes players and devices such as QuickTime Player, VideoLAN VLC player, set top boxes and mobile devices. Wowza Server can also accept incoming streams from encoding devices that use these same protocols. Wowza Server supports RTP and MPEG-TS in and out over UDP as well as Multicast. In addition, Wowza Server supports interleaved RTSP/RTP (which is where the RTP portion of the stream flows over the RTSP TCP connection) which enables RTSP/RTP to be delivered in network environment that do not allow UDP transmission.

An RTSP/RTP URL in Wowza Server has the following form:

rtsp://[wowza-address]/[application]/[application-instance]/[stream-name]

where:

[wowza-address]	IP address or domain name and port of server running Wowza Server (default port 1935)
[application]	Application name
[application-instance]	Application instance name (if omitted defaults to _definst_)
[stream-name]	Stream name with stream prefix

For example, to play the live stream located on the the Wowza Media Server 2 at the address mycompany.com , using the application name myapplication with the stream name mylivestream the URL is:

rtsp://mycompany.com:1935/myapplication/mylivestream

For more details regarding Real Time Streaming Protocol streaming including support for RTSP/RTP/MPEG-TS encoders, see the User's Guide.

Getting started with Wowza Media Server 2 for EC2 Edition

By using Wowza Media Server 2 on Amazon EC2 you get a pre-configured, pre-tuned Wowza Server running on hardware backed by Amazon ready to go with just the click of a button. But before you can get to the point you can just click and go you'll need to configure a few different pieces which we'll review here.

Review this page to understand the pricing. http://www.wowzamedia.com/ec2.html

You'll see that the pricing is a combined fee to both use the Amazon EC2 service and the Wowza Media Server. The billing is based on both an hourly rate and a per GB data transfer rate. There is a one hour minimum when you start a server so if you boot one up for just a few minutes then terminate it you will be charged for the entire hour. The Per Hour rate differs based on the size of the Instance and each instance can handle a different amount of traffic.

Go to http://www.amazon.com/ec2 to sign up for an Amazon Web Services(AWS) account.
Click here to subscribe to Wowza 2 for Amazon EC2 with your AWS account
-This signs you up for a recurring $5.00 USD monthly subscription fee. This fee allows you to run as many or few Wowza Media Servers you would like.
There are several ways to interact with a server running on EC2. The easiest way for most people is to use the Graphical User Interface (GUI) of Elasticfox. Elasticfox is a Mozilla Firefox plug-in. This Quick Start Guide assumes you are administrating your instace via Elasticfox.

Download and install Firefox if you don't yet have it. You can get Firefox here: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox
Download and install Elasticfox. The download, installation instructions and Getting Started Guide are available here:

http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?externalID=609

Installing the Server/Sizing Guidelines

The Wowza server is pre-installed and tuned as Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). The list of the most recent Wowza Media Server 2 for EC2 AMIs can be found at the Wowza Server 2 for EC2 Support page.

Our customers have found that the EC2 servers reach bandwidth limitations far before any other considerations. The guidelines we recommend are:

Small 150 mbs (Which is approximately 600 250/kbs streams)
Large 225 mbs (Approx. 900 250/kbs streams)
X-large 350 mbs (Approx. 1400 250/kbs streams)

Starting and Stopping the Server

To start an AMI using Elasticfox (Detailed instructions on starting and configuring your AMI using Elasticfox are in the Wowza Pro for Amazon EC2 users Guide):
    1) Start Elasticfox and enter your AWS Credentials.
    2) Configure KeyPairs for your instances.
    3) From the 'Images' tab enter the AMI ID in the 'Images' text box.
    4) Right click the AMI and select 'Launch Instance'. The default settings should launch a single small instance using the KeyPair you configured in step 2.

To stop an AMI using Elasticfox right click the instance from the 'Instances' tab and select 'Terminate'.

Note: Amazon recommends that you watch to confirm that your instance successfully shuts down. If for some reason it does not fully shut down you will continue to be billed for that instance.

Starting and Stopping the System Service

To start or stop the service you will need

EC2

To stop the service:

service WowzaMediaServer stop

To start the service:

service WowzaMediaServer start

Port Used for Streaming

The following ports are used by default by Wowza Media Server 2 for streaming. You will need to open up these ports on the 'Security Groups' tab of Elasticfox to enable streaming.

TCP 1935	RTMP (all variants), RTSP, Smooth and Cupertino Streaming
UDP 6970-9999	RTP UDP Streaming
TCP 8084-8085	JMX/JConsole Monitoring and Administration
TCP 8086	HTTP Administration

Note: Wowza Server by default binds to TCP port 1935 for all forms of streaming. To configure other ports for streaming, see the next section.

Elasticfox allows you to restrict access permission to each port by IP address range and protocol type. To open the port to all internet users enter '0.0.0.0/0' as the 'Host' address in the 'Grant New Permission' pane.

How to open additional ports for streaming

To open additional ports for streaming, edit /home/wowza/conf/VHost.xml and add additional port numbers to the HostPortList/HostPort/Port comma separated list of ports. If you open any of these ports on the server you will still need to open them using Elasticfox as described in the previous section. Below are the common ports used for the Wowza Server streaming protocols:

TCP 80	RTMPT, Smooth Streaming, Cupertino Streaming
TCP 443	RTMPS
TCP 554	RTSP

Note: Wowza Server cannot share the same TCP ports with other applications.

How to verify Wowza Server is running

You can verify Wowza Media Server 2 is running by connecting to it using a a web browser. To do this, open a web browser and enter the following URL:

http://[wowza-ip-address]:1935

Where [wowza-ip-address] is the ip address of the server running Wowza Media Server 2. You can view this address inElasticfox in the 'Public DNS' column of the 'Instances' tab. You can also 'right-click' on your instance and select 'Copy Public DNS Name to clipboard'. Once you've entered the above URL it should return the Wowza Server version number. If not, check to be sure the server is running and TCP port 1935 is open in Elasticfox 'Security Groups', on your router, firewall and/or software firewall (iptables on Linux).

Installing Examples locally

To view the example video files on the server you will need to download and unzip the files here.

Note: See the README.html at the root of each example folder for detailed information.

Tutorials

How to play a video on demand file

The Wowza Server for EC2 edition is preconfigured with an application named vod to stream video on demand content to the Adobe Flash player, the Microsoft Silverlight player and the Apple iPhone or iPod touch. For this tutorial we will use the Extremists.m4v sample video file that is located in the /home/wowza/content folder:

To play using Adobe Flash player :

Double-click examples/SimpleVideoStreaming/client/simplevideostreaming.html , enter the information below and click the Play button.

Server: rtmp://[wowza-address]/vod
Stream: mp4:Extremists.m4v

To play using iPhone or iPod touch :

Enter the following URL into the Safari web browser:

http://[wowza-address]:1935/vod/mp4:Extremists.m4v/playlist.m3u8

To play using Microsoft Silverlight:

Download the Smooth Streaming player from here: IIS_Smooth_Streaming_Player_Development_Kit_1.0_Beta_2.exe
Double click IIS_Smooth_Streaming_Player_Development_Kit_1.0_Beta_2.exe to extract the player
Edit Default.html and change the mediaSource property (line 85) to:

http://[wowza-address]:1935/vod/mp4:Extremists.m4v/Manifest

Double click Default.html and the video will begin to play.

Note: [wowza-address] is the IP address or domain name of the server running Wowza Server. You can view this address inElasticfox in the 'Public DNS' column of the 'Instances' tab. You can also 'right-click' on your instance and select 'Copy Public DNS Name to clipboard'.

Note: To play your own content, copy it into the /home/wowza/content folder and substitute it's file name for the Extremists.m4v file name above.

For more detailed information and instructions for mult-bitrate streaming see:

Forums: How to play a video on demand file

See also:

Example: examples/SimpleVideoStreaming
Forums: Using the Flash FLVPlayback component
Forums: Using JW Player
Forums: Using FlowPlayer
Forums: MediaSecurity AddOn Package
Forums: GeoIP Locking Module
Forums: Dynamic Load Balancing
Forums: Dynamic Bandwidth Detection (BWCheck)

How to publish and play a live stream (RTMP or RSTP/RTP based encoder)

The Wowza Server for EC2 edition is preconfigured with an application named live to stream live content to the Adobe Flash player, the Microsoft Silverlight player, the Apple iPhone or iPod touch and RTSP/RTP based players. This tutorial provides the basic steps for using RTMP or RTSP/RTP based live encoders such as; Telestream Wirecast, Apple QuickTime Broadcaster...:

To publish using RTMP based encoder:

Enter the Server URL and Stream Name information below and click the Publish or Start button on the encoder:

Server URL: rtmp://[wowza-address]/live
Stream Name: myStream.sdp

Note: These are generic instructions. Consult the Live Encoders forum section or your encoder's documentation for more detailed instructions.

To publish using RTSP/RTP based encoder:

Enter the Host Address and Stream Name information below and click the Publish or Start button on the encoder:

Host Address: [wowza-address]:1935
Stream Name: live/myStream.sdp

Note: These are generic instructions. Consult the Live Encoders forum section or your encoder's documentation for more detailed instructions.

To play using Adobe Flash player :

Double-click examples/LiveVideoStreaming/client/live.html , enter the information below and click the Play button.

Server: rtmp://[wowza-address]/live
Stream: myStream.sdp

To play using iPhone or iPod touch :

Enter the following URL into the Safari web browser:

http://[wowza-address]:1935/live/myStream.sdp/playlist.m3u8

To play using Microsoft Silverlight :

Download the Smooth Streaming player from here: IIS_Smooth_Streaming_Player_Development_Kit_1.0_Beta_1.exe
Double click IIS_Smooth_Streaming_Player_Development_Kit_1.0_Beta_1.exe to extract the player
Edit Default.html and change the mediaSource property (line 85) to:

http://[wowza-address]:1935/live/myStream.sdp/Manifest

Next, open a web browser and enter the URL for the Default.html web page. The video will begin to play.

To play using RTSP/RTP player or device :

Enter the following URL into the RTSP/RTP player:

rtsp://[wowza-address]:1935/live/myStream.sdp

Note: [wowza-address] is the IP address or domain name of the server running Wowza Server.

Note: The .sdp file extension on the stream name is not required. Some RTSP/RTP encoders do append this extension on to the stream name. To simplify the instructions, we have included the extension. If your encoder does not require the extension, you can remove it. Just be sure to also remove it from the stream name portion of the URL.

For more detailed information and instructions for mult-bitrate streaming see:

Forums: How to publish and play a live stream (RTMP or RSTP/RTP based encoder)

See also:

Example: examples/ Live VideoStreaming
Forums: Live Encoders
Forums: Troubleshooting live streaming issues
Forums: Using the Flash FLVPlayback component
Forums: Using JW Player
Forums: Using FlowPlayer
Forums: MediaSecurity AddOn Package
Forums: GeoIP Locking Module
Forums: Dynamic Load Balancing
Forums: Live Stream Record
Forums: Dynamic Bandwidth Detection (BWCheck)

How to publish and play a live stream (MPEG-TS based encoder)

Adobe Flash player only

The Wowza Server for EC2 edition is preconfigured with an application named rtplive to stream live content to the Adobe Flash player. This tutorial provides the basic steps for using a live encoder that publishes a stream using the MPEG2 Transport Stream protocol (MPEG-TS). These simplified steps leverage a featured built into Wowza Server that will only work with the Adobe Flash player. To stream to the Adobe Flash player along with the Microsoft Silverlight player, the Apple iPhone or iPod touch and RTSP/RTP based players see the All Player Technologies section below.

Open Port 10000 to UDP traffic from the 'Security Groups' tab in Elasticfox.
Using a text editor create the file /home/wowza/content/mpegts.stream set the contents of this file to udp://0.0.0.0:10000
Restart Wowza Media Server 2

From the Unix command line type service WowzaMediaServer restart

Configure the MPEG-TS based encoder to send a live stream to the IP address of the server running Wowza Server using port 10000

To play using Adobe Flash player:

Double-click /examples/LiveVideoStreaming/client/live.html, enter the information below and click the Play button.

Server: rtmp://[wowza-address]/rtplive
Stream: mpegts.stream

All Player Technologies

Below are the steps to set up an application named rtplive to stream live content to the Adobe Flash player, the Microsoft Silverlight player, the Apple iPhone or iPod touch and RTSP/RTP based players. This tutorial provides the basic steps for using a live encoder that publishes a stream using the MPEG2 Transport Stream protocol (MPEG-TS).

Connect to the instance to configure the publishing of the MPEG-TS stream. See the Wowza Server for Amazon EC2 User's Guide for details on how to connect to your instance via Telnet.
Using a Unix text editor such as as 'vi', edit the file /home/wowza/conf/rtplive/Application.xml file and make the following changes (some of these settings may already be present):

Set the Streams/StreamType property to: live
Set the HTTPStreamers property to: cupertinostreaming,smoothstreaming
Set the LiveStreamPacketizers property to: cupertinostreamingpacketizer,smoothstreamingpacketizer
Set the RTP/Authentication/PlayMethod to: none

Note: If you edit the file on a local machine
      then upload to the server chances are that the server will not
      correctly read the line breaks because Unix, Macintosh and Windows all
      use different conventions. There are some Unix tools such as
      'dos2unix'which will convert line breaks but since Unix does such a
      poor job reporting line break incompatibility we recommend you edit in
      Unix if at all possible.

Using a Unix text editor such as 'vi' create the file /home/wowza/content/mpegts.stream set the contents of this file to udp://0.0.0.0:10000
Using a Unix text editor such as 'vi', edit the file /home/wowza/conf/admin.password and add a username and password that will be used to start and stop the publishing of the MPEG-TS stream (below is an example of the file with the username myuser and password mypassword ):

# Admin password file (format [username][space][password]) # username passwordmyuser mypassword
Restart Wowza Media Server 2

type service WowzaMediaServer restart

Configure the MPEG-TS based encoder to send a live stream to the IP address of the server running Wowza Server using port 10000
Use the Stream Manager to start the MPEG-TS stream

Open a web browser and enter the url: http://[wowza-address]:1935/streammanager
Enter your admin username and password from above
Click the [start-receiving-stream] link just below the rtplive application folder
Select the MediaCaster Type : rtp
Enter mpegts.stream into the Stream Name field
Click OK

To publish a stream from the encoder:

Consult your encoder's documentation. Send the stream to the IP address of the server running Wowza Server and the port 10000 .

To play using Adobe Flash player :

Double-click examples/LiveVideoStreaming/client/live.html , enter the information below and click the Play button.

Server: rtmp://[wowza-address]/rtplive
Stream: mpegts.stream

To play using iPhone or iPod touch :

Enter the following URL into the Safari web browser:

http://[wowza-address]:1935/rtplive/mpegts.stream/playlist.m3u8

To play using Microsoft Silverlight :

Download the Smooth Streaming player from here: IIS_Smooth_Streaming_Player_Development_Kit_1.0_Beta_1.exe
Double click IIS_Smooth_Streaming_Player_Development_Kit_1.0_Beta_1.exe to extract the player
Edit Default.html and change the mediaSource property (line 85) to:

http://[wowza-address]:1935/rtplive/mpegts.stream/Manifest

Next, open a web browser and enter the URL for the Default.html web page. The video will begin to play.

To play using RTSP/RTP player or device :

Enter the following URL into the RTSP/RTP player:

rtsp://[wowza-address]:1935/rtplive/mpegts.stream

Note: [wowza-address] is the IP address or domain name of the server running Wowza Server.

For more detailed information and instructions for mult-bitrate streaming see:

Forums: How to publish and play a live stream (MPEG-TS)

See also:

Example: examples/ Live VideoStreaming
Forums: Live Encoders
Forums: Using an MPEG2 Transport Stream encoder
Forums: Troubleshooting live streaming issues
Forums: Using the Flash FLVPlayback component
Forums: Using JW Player
Forums: Using FlowPlayer
Forums: MediaSecurity AddOn Package
Forums: GeoIP Locking Module
Forums: Dynamic Load Balancing
Forums: Live Stream Record
Forums: Dynamic Bandwidth Detection (BWCheck)

How to publish and play a live stream (native RTP encoder with SDP file)

Adobe Flash player only

The Wowza Server for EC2 edition is preconfigured with an application named rtplive to stream live content to the Adobe Flash player. This tutorial provides the basic steps for using a live encoder that publishes a stream using the Real-time Transport Protocol (native RTP) with Session Description Protocol (SDP) files. These simplified steps leverage a featured built into Wowza Media Server 2 that will only work with the Adobe Flash player. To stream to the Adobe Flash player along withthe Microsoft Silverlight player, the Apple iPhone or iPod touch and RTSP/RTP based players see the All Player Technologies section below.

Consult your encoder's documentation and configure an outgoing stream and send it to the IP address of the server running Wowza Server. From the encoder software or interface generate an SDP file that describes the stream. Give it the name myStream.sdp and copy it to the /home/wowza/content folder .

To play using Adobe Flash player :

Double-click examples/LiveVideoStreaming/client/live.html , enter the information below and click the Play button.

Server: rtmp://[wowza-address]/rtplive
Stream: myStream.sdp

All Player Technologies

Below are the steps to set up an applcation named rtplive to stream live content to the Adobe Flash player, the Microsoft Silverlight player, the Apple iPhone or iPod touch and RTSP/RTP based players. This tutorial provides the basic steps for using a live encoder that publishes a stream using the Real-time Transport Protocol (native RTP) with Session Description Protocol (SDP) files.

Connect to the EC2 instance and navigate to the application folder /home/wowza/applications/rtplive. See the Wowza Server for Amazon EC2 User's Guide for details on how to connect to your instance via Telnet.
Edit the Application.xml file and make the following changes:

Set the Streams/StreamType property to: live

Using a Unix text editor such as 'vi', edit the file /home/wowza/conf/admin.password and add a username and password that will be used to start and stop the publishing of the camera (below is an example of the file with the username myuser and password mypassword ):

# Admin password file (format [username][space][password]) #username password myuser mypassword
Restart Wowza Media Server 2

type service WowzaMediaServer restart

Consult your encoder's documentation and configure an outgoing stream and send it to the IP address of the server running Wowza Server. From the encoder software or interface generate an SDP file that describes the stream. Give it the name myStream.sdp and copy it to the /home/wowza/content folder .
Use the Stream Manager to start the stream

Open a web browser and enter the url: http://[wowza-address]:8086/streammanager
Enter your admin username and password from above
Click the [start-stream] link just below the rtplive application folder
Select the MediaCaster Type : rtp
Enter myStream.sdp into the Stream Name field
Click OK

To play using Adobe Flash player :

Double-click examples/LiveVideoStreaming/client/live.html , enter the information below and click the Play button.

Server: rtmp://[wowza-address]/rtplive
Stream: myStream.sdp

To play using iPhone or iPod touch :

Enter the following URL into the Safari web browser:

http://[wowza-address]:1935/rtplive/myStream.sdp/playlist.m3u8

To play using Microsoft Silverlight :

Download the Smooth Streaming player from here: IIS_Smooth_Streaming_Player_Development_Kit_1.0_Beta_1.exe
Double click IIS_Smooth_Streaming_Player_Development_Kit_1.0_Beta_1.exe to extract the player
Edit Default.html and change the mediaSource property (line 85) to:

http://[wowza-address]:1935/rtplive/myStream.sdp/Manifest

Next, open a web browser and enter the URL for the Default.html web page. The video will begin to play.

To play using RTSP/RTP player or device :

Enter the following URL into the RTSP/RTP player:

rtsp://[wowza-address]:1935/rtplive/myStream.sdp

Note: [wowza-address] is the 'Public DNS Name' of the EC2 instance running Wowza Server.

For more detailed information and instructions for mult-bitrate streaming see:

Forums: How to publish and play a live stream (native RTP encoder with SDP file)

See also:

Example: examples/ Live VideoStreaming
Forums: Live Encoders
Forums: Using a native RTP encoder
Forums: Troubleshooting live streaming issues
Forums: Using the Flash FLVPlayback component
Forums: Using JW Player
Forums: Using FlowPlayer
Forums: MediaSecurity AddOn Package
Forums: GeoIP Locking Module
Forums: Dynamic Load Balancing
Forums: Live Stream Record
Forums: Dynamic Bandwidth Detection (BWCheck)

How to re-stream video from an IP camera

Adobe Flash player only

The Wowza Server for EC2 edition is preconfigured with an application named rtplive to stream live content to the Adobe Flash player. This tutorial provides the basic steps for re-streaming an IP camera that supports H.264 and AAC through Wowza Media Server 2 for delivery to the listed player technologies. These simplified steps leverage a featured built into Wowza Server that will only work with the Adobe Flash player. To stream to the Adobe Flash player along withthe Microsoft Silverlight player, the Apple iPhone or iPod touch and RTSP/RTP based players see the All Player Technologies section below.

Connect to your EC2 Instance and navigate to the /home/wowza/content folder. See the Wowza Server for Amazon EC2 User's Guide for details on how to connect to your instance via Telnet.
Using a Unix text editor such as 'vi' create the file /home/wowza/content/camera.stream and set the contents of this file to the full RTSP/RTP URL to camera.
Restart Wowza Media Server 2

type service WowzaMediaServer restart

To play using Adobe Flash player :

Double-click examples/LiveVideoStreaming/client/live.html , enter the information below and click the Play button.

Server: rtmp://[wowza-address]/rtplive
Stream: [full-rtsp-stream-url]

Where [full-rtsp-stream-url] is the rtsp:// URL to the IP camera stream

All Player Technologies

Below are the steps to set up an applcation named rtplive to stream live content to the Adobe Flash player, the Microsoft Silverlight player, the Apple iPhone or iPod touch and RTSP/RTP based players. This tutorial provides the basic steps for re-streaming an IP camera that supports H.264 and AAC through Wowza Server for delivery to the listed player technologies.

Connect to your EC2 Instance and navigate to the /home/wowza/conf/rtplive folder. See the Wowza Server for Amazon EC2 User's Guide for details on how to connect to your instance via Telnet.
Using a Unix text editor such as 'vi' edit the file /home/wowza/conf/rtplive/Application.xml file and make the following changes (some of these settings may already be present):

Set the Streams/StreamType property to: live
Add the following property to the MediaCaster/Properties container (be sure to get the correct <Properties> container):

<Property> <Name>forceInterleaved</Name> <Value>true</Value> <Type>Boolean</Type> </Property>

Using a Unix text editor such as 'vi' create the file /home/wowza/content/camera.stream set the contents of this file to the full RTSP/RTP URL to camera
Using a Unix text editor such as 'vi' edit the file /home/wowza/conf/admin.password and add a username and password that will be used to start and stop the publishing of the camera (below is an example of the file with the username myuser and password mypassword ):

# Admin password file (format [username][space][password]) #username password myuser mypassword
Restart Wowza Media Server 2

type service WowzaMediaServer restart

Use the Stream Manager to start the IP camera stream

Open a web browser and enter the url: http://[wowza-address]:1935/streammanager
Enter your admin username and password from above
Click the [start-stream] link just below the rtplive application folder
Select the MediaCaster Type : rtp
Enter camera.stream into the Stream Name field
Click OK

To play using Adobe Flash player :

Double-click examples/LiveVideoStreaming/client/live.html , enter the information below and click the Play button.

Server: rtmp://[wowza-address]/rtplive
Stream: camera.stream

To play using iPhone or iPod touch :

Enter the following URL into the Safari web browser:

http://[wowza-address]:1935/rtplive/camera.stream/playlist.m3u8

To play using Microsoft Silverlight :

Download the Smooth Streaming player from here: IIS_Smooth_Streaming_Player_Development_Kit_1.0_Beta_1.exe
Double click IIS_Smooth_Streaming_Player_Development_Kit_1.0_Beta_1.exe to extract the player
Edit Default.html and change the mediaSource property (line 85) to:

http://[wowza-address]:1935/rtplive/camera.stream/Manifest

Next, open a web browser and enter the URL for the Default.html web page. The video will begin to play.

To play using RTSP/RTP player or device :

Enter the following URL into the RTSP/RTP player:

rtsp://[wowza-address]:1935/rtplive/camera.stream

Note: [wowza-address] is the 'Public DNS Name' of the EC2 instance running Wowza Server.

For more detailed information see:

Forums: How to re-stream video from an IP camera

See also:

Example: examples/ Live VideoStreaming
Forums: Live Encoders
Forums: Re-streaming an RTSP/RTP stream
Forums: Troubleshooting live streaming issues
Forums: Using the Flash FLVPlayback component
Forums: Using JW Player
Forums: Using FlowPlayer
Forums: MediaSecurity AddOn Package
Forums: GeoIP Locking Module
Forums: Dynamic Load Balancing
Forums: Live Stream Record
Forums: Dynamic Bandwidth Detection (BWCheck)

How to re-stream audio from SHOUTcast/Icecast

Adobe Flash player only

The Wowza Server for EC2 edition is preconfigured with an application named shoutcast to stream live content to the Adobe Flash player. This tutorial provides the basic steps for re-streaming a SHOUTcast or Icecast stream through Wowza Media Server 2 for delivery to the listed player technologies. These simplified steps leverage a featured built into Wowza Server that will only work with the Adobe Flash player. To stream to the Adobe Flash player along with the Apple iPhone or iPod touch and RTSP/RTP based players see the All Player Technologies section below.

To play using Adobe Flash player :

Double-click examples/SHOUTcast/client/shoutcast.html , enter the information below and click the Play button.

Server: rtmp://[wowza-address]/ shoutcast
Stream: [full-SHOUTcast-url]

Where [full-SHOUTcast-url] is the full HTTP URL to a SHOUTcast or Icecast stream (see Note below on the proper URL to use)

All Player Technologies

Below are the steps to set up an applcation named shoutcast to stream live content to the Adobe Flash player, the Apple iPhone or iPod touch and RTSP/RTP based players. This tutorial provides the basic steps for re-streaming a SHOUTcast or Icecast stream through Wowza Server for delivery to the listed player technologies.

Connect to your EC2 Instance and navigate to the /home/wowza/conf/shoutcast folder. See the Wowza Server for Amazon EC2 User's Guide for details on how to connect to your instance via Telnet.
Using a Unix text editor such as 'vi' edit the file /home/wowza/conf/shoutcast/Application.xml file and make the following changes (some of these settings may already be present):

Set the Streams/StreamType property to: live
Set the HTTPStreamers property to: cupertinostreaming
Set the LiveStreamPacketizers property to: cupertinostreamingpacketizer
Set the RTP/Authentication/PlayMethod to: none

Using a Unix text editor such as 'vi' create the filee /home/wowza/content/radiostation.stream and set the contents of this file to the full HTTP URL to a SHOUTcast or Icecast stream (see Note below on the proper URL to use)
Using a Unix text editor such as 'vi' edit the file /home/wowza/conf/admin.password and add a username and password that will be used to start and stop the publishing of the camera (below is an example of the file with the username myuser and password mypassword ):

# Admin password file (format [username][space][password]) #username password myuser mypassword
Restart Wowza Media Server 2

type service WowzaMediaServer restart

Use the Stream Manager to start the SHOUTcast/Icecast stream

Open a web browser and enter the url: http://[wowza-address]:1935/streammanager
Enter your admin username and password from above
Click the [start-stream] link just below the shoutcast application folder
Select the MediaCaster Type : shoutcast
Enter radiostation.stream into the Stream Name field
Click OK

To play using Adobe Flash player :

Double-click examples/SHOUTcast/client/shoutcast.html , enter the information below and click the Play button.

Server: rtmp://[wowza-address]/shoutcast
Stream: radiostation.stream

To play using iPhone or iPod touch :

Enter the following URL into the Safari web browser:

http://[wowza-address]:1935/ shoutcast / radiostation.stream /playlist.m3u8

To play using RTSP/RTP player or device :

Enter the following URL into the RTSP/RTP player:

rtsp://[wowza-address]:1935/ shoutcast / radiostation.stream

Note: [wowza-address] is the 'Public DNS Name' of the EC2 instance running Wowza Server.

Note: The URL that is needed to connect to a SHOUTcast or Icecast server is one of the URLS that is contained within a .pls (SHOUTcast) or .m3u (icecast) playlist file. Most websites that publish SHOUTcast or Icecast streams present links on their sites that refer to these .pls and .m3u files. To re-stream a SHOUTcast or Icecast stream you must first download one of these playlist files to your local machine, open the file with a text editor and use one of the links found inside to connect to the published stream.

For more detailed information see:

Forums: How to re-stream audio from SHOUTcast/Icecast

See also:

Example: examples/ SHOUTcast
Forums: Live Encoders
Forums: Troubleshooting live streaming issues
Forums: Using the Flash FLVPlayback component
Forums: Using JW Player
Forums: Using FlowPlayer
Forums: MediaSecurity AddOn Package
Forums: GeoIP Locking Module
Forums: Dynamic Load Balancing
Forums: Live Stream Record
Forums: Dynamic Bandwidth Detection (BWCheck)

How to setup video chat application

Below are the steps to setup an application named videochat that we will use to illustrate Wowza Server's video chat capabilities using the Adobe Flash player. This example requires two computers running Adobe Flash in a web browser each with a web camera.

On computer1 :

Double-click examples/VideoChat/client/videochat.html , enter the information below and click the Connect button.

Server: rtmp://[wowza-address]/ videochat
Enter the information below then click the Publish and Play button

Publish: computer1
Play: computer2

On computer2 :

Double-click examples/VideoChat/client/videochat.html , enter the information below and click the Connect button.

Server: rtmp://[wowza-address]/ videochat
Enter the information below then click the Publish and Play button

Publish: computer2
Play: computer1

For more detailed information see:

Forums: How to setup video chat application

See also:

Example: examples/ VideoChat
Forums: Live Encoders
Forums: Troubleshooting live streaming issues
Forums: MediaSecurity AddOn Package
Forums: Dynamic Bandwidth Detection (BWCheck)

How to setup video recording application

Below are the steps to setup an application named videorecording that we will use to illustrate Wowza Server's video recording capabilities using the Adobe Flash player. This example requires a single computer running Adobe Flash in a web browser with a web camera.

Connect to your EC2 Instance and navigate to the /home/wowza/applications folder. See the Wowza Server for Amazon EC2 User's Guide for details on how to connect to your instance via Telnet.
Create application folder /home/wowza/applications/videorecording
Create configuration folder /home/wowza/conf/videorecording and copy /home/wowza/conf/Application.xml into this new folder
Using a Unix text editor such as 'vi', edit the newly copied Application.xml file and make the following changes (some of these settings may already be present):

Set the Streams/StreamType property to: record

Restart Wowza Media Server 2

type service WowzaMediaServer restart

On computer :

Double-click examples/VideoRecording/client/videorecording.html, enter the information below and click the Connect button.

Server: rtmp://[wowza-address]/videorecording
Click the Record button, say something into the camera then hit the Stop button

For more detailed information see:

Forums: How to setup video recording application

See also:

Example: examples/ VideoRecording
Forums: Live Encoders
Forums: Troubleshooting live streaming issues
Forums: MediaSecurity AddOn Package
Forums: Dynamic Bandwidth Detection (BWCheck)

How to stream and record a live video

To stream and record a live video at the same time, follow the instructions in the How to publish and play a live stream (RTMP or RSTP/RTP based encoder) tutorial above but in step #3.a set the Streams/StreamType property to live-record . The resultant file will be located in the /home/wowza/content folder. If you want more control over the recording process, see the LiveStreamRecord forum post.

See also:

Forum: LiveStreamRecord

How to develop server-side code

All of Wowza Server's server-side coding is done in Java. The easiest way to get started is to download and install the Eclipse based Wowza Integrated Development Environment (WowzaIDE) at http://www.wowzamedia.com/labs.html#wowzaide. Follow the instructions in the included User's Guide. It will guide you through the process of creating your first custom module.

See also:

Example: examples/ServerSideModules
Javadocs: /home/wowza/documentation/serverapi/index.html
Forum: Useful Code, Tuning and Troubleshooting

Administration

Logging

The Wowza Media Server 2 log files are written to the directory /home/wowza/logs . To turn on debug logging (increase the amount of information written to the logs) edit /home/wowza/conf/log4j.properties and change the log level on the first line from INFO to DEBUG. Due to it's increased load on the server, debug logging should not be used in a production environment.

Server Tuning

By default the Wowza Media Server 2 for EC2 is pre-tuned. For up to date tuning instructions, see the following forum thread:

General Tuning Instructions

Management and Monitoring (JConsole and JMX)

Wowza Media Server 2 uses Java Management Extensions (JMX) and JConsole for server management and monitoring. JMX is a protocol used for managing a Java-based server. JConsole is an application that ships with the Sun Java Developement Kit (JDK) that uses the JMX protocol to manage a Java-based server.

Enable JMX in Wowza Server

To enable the JMX interface all you need to do is unblock TCP traffic to ports 8084 and 8085 in your security group using Elasticfox. For more details please consult the Wowza Pro for Amazon EC2 User's Guide. Additional information is available in the Wowza Server Users Guide.

Connecting to Wowza Server Using JConsole

JConsole is included with the Sun JDK. Install the latest JDK, if you don't already have it, find JConsole here: [java-install-dir]/bin/JConsole.exe

If Wowza is installed on your PC or Mac, you can start JConsole from the Wowza Menu group with the "JConsole Startup" item.

With JConsole open, click the Remote Process then copy the Service URL into the box and enter user name "admin" and password "admin". Then click Connect button. When first connected you will see graphs for memory and cpu usage. Next click on MBean tab, then click the WowzaMediaServer node, which you can expand and drill down to all the attributes and operations available through JConsole and the JMX interface.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Application Configuration

Stream Types

Supported Media

Content Storage

Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP - Adobe Flash Player)

Apple HTTP Live Streaming (Cupertino Streaming - iPhone, iPod touch)

Smooth Streaming (Microsoft Silverlight)

RTSP/RTP/MPEG-TS (QuickTime, VLC, mobile devices, set top boxes, encoders)

Getting started with Wowza Media Server 2 for EC2 Edition

Installing the Server/Sizing Guidelines

Starting and Stopping the Server

Starting and Stopping the System Service

Port Used for Streaming

How to open additional ports for streaming

How to verify Wowza Server is running

Installing Examples locally

Tutorials

How to play a video on demand file

How to publish and play a live stream (RTMP or RSTP/RTP based encoder)

How to publish and play a live stream (MPEG-TS based encoder)

Adobe Flash player only

All Player Technologies

How to publish and play a live stream (native RTP encoder with SDP file)

Adobe Flash player only

All Player Technologies

How to re-stream video from an IP camera

Adobe Flash player only

All Player Technologies

How to re-stream audio from SHOUTcast/Icecast

Adobe Flash player only

All Player Technologies

How to setup video chat application

How to setup video recording application

How to stream and record a live video

How to develop server-side code

Administration

Logging

Server Tuning

Management and Monitoring (JConsole and JMX)

Enable JMX in Wowza Server

Connecting to Wowza Server Using JConsole