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best host for live video chat

Wowza Streaming Engine
#1

I would like to start a live video chat website like tinychat.com using wowza i know its possible to use wowza/red5 to create a site like that however i’ve been told i would need a huge bandwidth (some said a dedicated server is also necessary) host offer to do this . i came across some offers online but considering the fact that i haven’t done a site like this before i am a noob when it comes to live video chat bandwidth issues , so i would like you guys to tell me which offer you feel would be best for my project , i am expecting an average or high traffic . below are the links of the offers .

http://www.hostgator.com/dedicated.shtml

If you have other host / options i would also love to hear about them.

#2

Wowza Media Systems does not recommend hosting providers.

Charlie

#3

In general and for chat I would suggest a dual quad core server with 8GB of ram and dual or quad 1Gbps network interfaces. Chat uses very little disk (all streaming is done in RAM). The machine I am describing is very standard and will provide quite a few chat connections. You should be able to at least saturate a 1Gbps ethernet port with this kind of hardware. The total number of sessions is going to depend on bitrate of each session.

I hope this helps.

Charlie

#4

Seems like an OK machine. A bit older technology. Only single processor. half the memory suggested. Not a bad machine to get started.

Charlie

#5

Selecting hardware is not that precise. You just need to balance cost against performance. You see my recommendation above.

Charlie

#6

Storage is not important for chat since nothing is saved to disk. 4GB of ram is sufficient for a single CPU and 8GB of ram for dual CPU. The total bandwidth in terms of bytes transferred per-month is not very interesting. This is reallly a factor of cost. You will need to run some calculations to determine how much total bytes your server will move each month. This is a tough calculation. It depends on the bitrate of the stream, the number of streams and the duration of each stream. The other important factor with bandwidth is the uplink speed. It is best to get an uplink speed of 1Gbps.

Charlie

#7

I really don’t know. Like I said, lots of factors. You have to look at the total bandwidth you will use in a month based on bitrate, number of sessions and duration. If the bitrate of a session is 500Kbps then that equats to 500/8 or 62.5 bytes per second of bandwidth usage. So then you need to estimate how many users will stream for how long.

The uplink speed is most likely going to be 100Mbps or 1Gbps. There is probably not a 500Mbps option. it is a physical thing. You may want to do a lot more Googling to learn how this stuff works before asking questions here. This is getting beyond what we will provide for free support.

Charlie

#8

Hi sid848,

Storage probably doesn’t matter so much for a chat site. I say just get whatever fits in your budget. If your site becomes too popular, you’ll need to upgrade your hardware. But, that’s not a concern in the beginning. Getting it actually working is what you need to concentrate on. And you don’t need the most expensive server to start with.

#9

Hi sid848,

Here is your calculation for a 512kbit video stream on your 1Gbit connection:

(1000Mbit * (1024kb/1Mbit))/512kbit = 2000

So, you can have a maximum of 2000 streams at one time.

But, you have a 100TB limit. So the equation is:

100TB⋅1024GB/1TB⋅1024MB/1GB⋅1024KB/1MB⋅8Kbit/1KB = 858993459200kbits/month

858993459200/30days/24hours/60min/60sec = 331,401.8kbits/s

Or about 1/3 of 1Gbit/s. So, on average, you can only use 1/3 of your 1Gbit connection.

Therefore, on average you can host 2000/3 = 666 connections.

IOW, your server can host an evil number of connections.

#10

I think the answer is “it depends”. Number expected users, how much you are streaming, etc etc.

I think Charlie’s recommendation is a good one.

IMO, the order you have: bandwidth, memory, storage is prob highest to lowest priority.

I would also make sure you have 4 processors. That’s probably #2 or #3.

#11

Wowza Media Systems does not recommend hosting providers.

Charlie

I know that but considering the fact that i am new with all of these i would appreciate if someone with more experience using wowza / live video chat makes a suggestion on what could be best . It doesn’t necessarily have to be the name of a hosting company for example someone could tell me the bandwidth required , ram , space /gigabyte / terabyte , cost etc just the basic things i really need to know to start the project . So please understand i am not looking to start a competition between hosts i just need guidance from those who are experienced with this.

#12

In general and for chat I would suggest a dual quad core server with 8GB of ram and dual or quad 1Gbps network interfaces. Chat uses very little disk (all streaming is done in RAM). The machine I am describing is very standard and will provide quite a few chat connections. You should be able to at least saturate a 1Gbps ethernet port with this kind of hardware. The total number of sessions is going to depend on bitrate of each session.

I hope this helps.

Charlie

Hi Charlie thanks for your timely response . I came across a host that offers the following :

Intel Xeon 3450 (Quad Core)

4 GB DDR3 Memory

2 X 250 GB Hard Drive

10 TB Bandwidth

does the above seem strong enough to power a live video chat website like tinychat were users with webcams can chat with each other ?

#13

Seems like an OK machine. A bit older technology. Only single processor. half the memory suggested. Not a bad machine to get started.

Charlie

okay judging by your statement the machine kind of sucks lol , okay so i would have to look for 8gb instead of 4gb , i get that part however your statement “A bit older technology. Only single processor” caught my attention , can you please suggest a better processor i could use for this , i wouldn’t want to be caught up in a messy situation and have my live video chat website crash or something .

#14

hope i’m not asking too much questions but i noticed host providers easily throw around large storage for example the 10TB storage above while being "stingy " with memory so in my case of stating a live video chat website what is more important :

A. BANDWIDTH

B. MEMORY

C. STORAGE ?

#15

???

#16

hope i’m not asking too much questions but i noticed host providers easily throw around large storage for example the 10TB storage above while being "stingy " with memory so in my case of stating a live video chat website what is more important :

A. BANDWIDTH

B. MEMORY

C. STORAGE ?

still hoping someone answers

#17

Storage is not important for chat since nothing is saved to disk. 4GB of ram is sufficient for a single CPU and 8GB of ram for dual CPU. The total bandwidth in terms of bytes transferred per-month is not very interesting. This is reallly a factor of cost. You will need to run some calculations to determine how much total bytes your server will move each month. This is a tough calculation. It depends on the bitrate of the stream, the number of streams and the duration of each stream. The other important factor with bandwidth is the uplink speed. It is best to get an uplink speed of 1Gbps.

Charlie

Can a bandwidth of say 5TB be enough for this project ? Also considering the fact that i’m running on a budget can an uplink speed of 500mb do ? Also what does the term “uplink speed” mean really (i know its a noob question)

#18

I really don’t know. Like I said, lots of factors. You have to look at the total bandwidth you will use in a month based on bitrate, number of sessions and duration. If the bitrate of a session is 500Kbps then that equats to 500/8 or 62.5 bytes per second of bandwidth usage. So then you need to estimate how many users will stream for how long.

The uplink speed is most likely going to be 100Mbps or 1Gbps. There is probably not a 500Mbps option. it is a physical thing. You may want to do a lot more Googling to learn how this stuff works before asking questions here. This is getting beyond what we will provide for free support.

Charlie

Hi guys its been a while since i’ve made a post here ,if been busy looking for the perfect dedicated hosting plan for a live video chat website . I came across this i would like to know if its strong enough for a live video website.

Quad Core Xeon 5430 - NEW!

NEW! 4 x 2.66GHz

NEW! 2 x 500GB HDD

NEW! 8GB RAM

1 GigE (1000Mbit) dedicated port

100TB transfer

or

Intel Quad Core Xeon 3220 - 4 x 2.40GHz

2 x 500GB HDD

8GB RAM

1 GigE (1000Mbit) dedicated port

100TB monthly transfer

#19

thank you

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