• How to use miniCaster live stream encoder with Wowza Media Server

    Published on 02-01-2012 08:18 AM      Number of Views: 12212  
    8 Comments Comments
    The following are step by step instructions for setting up the miniCaster encoder for live streaming to Wowza Media Server. For more information about the miniCaster, see http://www.minicaster.com/.


    1. Create application folder [install-dir]/applications/live
    2. Create configuration folder [install-dir]/conf/live and copy [install-dir]/conf/Application.xml into this new folder
    3. Edit the newly copied Application.xml file and make the following changes (some of these settings may already be present):

      1. Set the Streams/StreamType property to: live
        Code:
        <StreamType>live</StreamType>
      2. Set the HTTPStreamers property to: cupertinostreaming, smoothstreaming, sanjosestreaming
        Code:
        <HTTPStreamers>cupertinostreaming,smoothstreaming,sanjosestreaming</HTTPStreamers>
      3. Set the Streams/LiveStreamPacketizers property to: cupertinostreamingpacketizer, smoothstreamingpacketizer, sanjosestreamingpacketizer:
        Code:
        <LiveStreamPacketizers>cupertinostreamingpacketizer, smoothstreamingpacketizer, sanjosestreamingpacketizer</LiveStreamPacketizers>
      4. Set the RTP/Authentication/PlayMethod to: none
        Code:
        <PlayMethod>none</PlayMethod>


      Download: Right click Application.xml to download a pre-configured version of Application.xml.

    4. Edit [install-dir]/conf/publish.password and add a user name and password to control publishing access (below is an example of the file with the username myuser and password mypassword):
      Code:
      # Publish password file (format [username][space][password])
# username password
myuser mypassword
    5. Using a text editor, create the file [install-dir]/content/mpegts.stream set the contents of this file as shown in the example below:
      Code:
      udp://0.0.0.0:10000
    6. Log into http://my.minicaster.com/to configure the device with the appropriate Broadcast Settings. Set the Delivery Profile with the following:
      Code:
      Host: [wowza-ip-address]
Delivery Mode: RTP
Port: 10000


    7. Start Wowza Media Server

    8. To broadcast to Wowza Media Server, set the Stream switch to Onfrom the my.minicaster.com web interface.

      Note: If everything is set up correctly, you will see the following indicators in the my.minicaster.com web interface:
      Code:
      Input signal is green
      Now Streaming... status message
    9. Publish the stream using StreamManager

      Refer to the Publish section of the MPEG-TS tutorial


    Note: If you receive an error, double check that the contents of your [install-dir]/content/mpegts.stream file matches what you have entered in the miniCaster Delivery Profile settings.

    Playback
    • To play using Adobe Flash player (RTMP):

      Wowza Media Server 3.5
      Double-click [install-dir]/examples/LiveVideoStreaming/FlashRTMPPlayer/player.html, enter the information below, and then click the Connect button.

      Wowza Media Server 3.1.2 and earlier
      Double-click [install-dir]/examples/LiveVideoStreaming/client/live.html, enter the information below and click the Play button.

      Code:
      Server: rtmp://[wowza-ip-address]/live
Stream: mpegts.stream
    • To play using Adobe Flash Player (San Jose/Adobe HTTP Dynamic Streaming):

      Wowza Media Server 3.5
      Double-click [install-dir]/examples/LiveVideoStreaming/FlashHTTPPlayer/player.html, enter the information below, and then click the Connect button.

      Wowza Media Server 3.1.2 and earlier
      Double-click [install-dir]/examples/LiveVideoStreaming/clientOSMF/bin-release/LiveOSMFPlayer.html, enter the information below and click the Play button.

      Code:
      Stream: http://[wowza-ip-address]:1935/live/mpegts.stream/manifest.f4m
      Note: The HTTP link above will not play directly in a browser. The stream can only be played from an OSMF based Flash player that is embedded in an HTML page. To play the stream from a remote system, copy the contents of the clientOSMF/bin-release folder to a web server.

    • To play using an Apple iOS device (Cupertino/Apple HTTP Live Streaming):

      Enter the following URL into the Safari web browser:

      Code:
      http://[wowza-ip-address]:1935/live/mpegts.stream/playlist.m3u8
      Note: The Apple iPhone 3GS (and older) and iPod touch devices require that video be encoded using H.264 format (Baseline profile level 3 or lower) and AAC or MP3 stereo audio. The iPhone 3GS and newer devices support Baseline profile. See How to find Apple iOS device supported profile and level information.

      Note: This stream can also be played using the Safari web browser or QuickTime 10.x on a computer running Mac OS X Snow Leopard version 10.6 or later.

    • To play using Microsoft Silverlight (Smooth Streaming):

      Wowza Media Server 3.5
      Double-click [install-dir]/examples/LiveVideoStreaming/SilverlightPlayer/player.html, enter the information below, and then click the Connect button.

      Wowza Media Server 3.1.2 and earlier
      Double-click [install-dir]/examples/LiveVideoStreaming/clientSilverlight/Default.html, enter the information below, and then click the Play button.

      Code:
      http://[wowza-ip-address]:1935/live/mpegts.stream/Manifest
    • To play using RTSP/RTP player or device:

      Enter the following URL into the RTSP/RTP player:

      Code:
      rtsp://[wowza-ip-address]:1935/live/mpegts.stream


    See Also:
    How to set up live streaming using an RTMP-based encoder
    How to troubleshoot RTSP/RTP playback
    How to set up an application for RTSP/RTP streaming
    How to configure Apple QuickTime player for RTSP/RTP playback on Windows
    How to configure VLC player for RTSP/RTP playback (RTSP/RTP interleaved and tuning

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

    Note: The above tutorial is only one way to stream live from a miniCaster encoder to Wowza Media Server. The web interface to the miniCaster device has many options for configuring input and output streams. When streaming to Wowza Media Server, it is important that the Delivery Profile is configured appropriately for your Wowza Media Server instance.

    Note: It is very important to carefully follow the instructions provided in the How to troubleshoot RTSP/RTP playback to properly configure Wowza Media Server for RTSP/RTP streaming.


    1. Categories:
    2. Adobe Flash,
    3. Apple iOS,
    4. Live,
    5. Microsoft Silverlight,
    6. Mobile,
    7. RTSP/RTP
    Comments 8 Comments
    1. arturp - 02-13-2012, 07:13 AM
      It would be nice to have a "Publishing the stream" section in this tutorial and mention one have to start the stream from the Stream Manager before anyone can play it (http://[wowza-address]:8086/streammanager).
    1. rrlanham - 02-15-2012, 06:31 AM
      I added a link to the Publish section of the MPEG-TS tutorial

      Thanks,
      Richard
    1. tktnopbtupeuxpastest - 09-20-2012, 06:04 AM
      Hello,

      I'm planning to buy a minicaster encoder for doing some test.
      But I'm just looking for an information that I didn't found on this forum or on the official website.

      Like we can see on this configuration printscreen, it's possible to choose between multiple output profile :


      Does minicaster is compatible with dynamic streaming with key frame alignment ?

      Best Regards.
    1. rrlanham - 09-20-2012, 07:12 AM
      I don't know, but you can enable this debug property to find out:

      http://www.wowza.com/forums/content....rame-alignment

      Richard
    1. cadymaritz - 12-03-2012, 06:14 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by rrlanham View Post
      I don't know, but you can enable this debug property to find out:

      http://www.wowza.com/forums/content....rame-alignment

      Richard
      Do you know if one can send more than one bitrate to wowza using the minicaster and RTP stream?
    1. rrlanham - 12-05-2012, 05:11 AM
      I do not know if that encoder is capable of sending more than one stream, but if it is they have to be key frame aligned for switching to work. This is how to debug key frame alignment:
      http://www.wowza.com/forums/content....rame-alignment

      Otherwise, the best way to do ABR is with the Wowza Transcoder:
      http://www.wowza.com/forums/content....live-streaming

      Richard
    1. cadymaritz - 12-21-2012, 01:48 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by rrlanham View Post
      I do not know if that encoder is capable of sending more than one stream, but if it is they have to be key frame aligned for switching to work. This is how to debug key frame alignment:
      http://www.wowza.com/forums/content....rame-alignment

      Otherwise, the best way to do ABR is with the Wowza Transcoder:
      http://www.wowza.com/forums/content....live-streaming

      Richard
      Hi Richard

      I've managed to play around and figure it out.
      1. You need to use RTP streaming as is said in the tutorial (RTMP does not support multiple bitrates on Minicaster).
      2. Then you need to create multiple .stream files.
      3. Then you need to start receiving each .stream file seperately in the streammanager.



      Code:
      live/_definst_
Streams:
mpegts1.stream[stop receiving stream][reset receiving stream]
mpegts2.stream[stop receiving stream][reset receiving stream]
[start receiving stream]
      This works fine. I have not yet tested an ABR setup as I only require the end users to manually switch between a high and low quality stream for now.
    1. rrlanham - 12-21-2012, 08:02 AM
      Cool, thanks for the update. Also note that you can use /conf/StartUpStreams.xml to start streams when Wowza is re-started instead of StreamManager.

      Richard