Wowza Community

Wowza Media server Sizing for 3000 attendees

Hello,

I’am trying to size a video broadcast solution for 3000 attendees.

The idea is to integrate Wowza with Cisco TCS. The operation would be as follows:

1x Video Endpoint -> Cisto TCS -> Wowza

The issue I’m having is with sizing number of instances and the physical server to support this solution. Cisco TCS will allow a maximum of 2 simultaneous independent streams.

This is the sizing I’m considering for 3000 attendees:

  • 6 instances of Wowza media server

  • Based on the performance Benchmark, I’m considering Server 3 with the following specs

Processor: Single Intel Xeon CPU E3-1285 V3 @ 3.60GHz

Cores/Threads: 4/8

Memory: 32 GB

Motherboard: Supermicro X10SAE

OS: Ubuntu 12.04 (64-bit)

Java: Java 8 (64-bit)

GPU/Acceleration: Built-in HD4600 with Intel Quick Sync

Link for server benchmark post: https://www.wowza.com/docs/wowza-transcoder-performance-benchmark

Am I too far from the optimal solution? Is this sizing ok?

Regards,

Nuno Soares

Hello Nuno,

I can’t make any recommendation as to what hardware you should purchase.

My advice would be to ensure you’re able to take the a hardware back if it does not meet your needs.

That being said, the minimum hardware requirements for a production server are listed on the Wowza.com website. Here is a direct link where you can find this information:

http://www.wowza.com/products/streaming-engine/specifications.

Usually, when discussing streaming, the main bottleneck can be the internet bandwidth available at the server side. You will need to make sure that your server has enough bandwidth available to deliver the streams to all your connected clients. Here is a high level formula that you can use for calculating the necessary bandwidth for your server:

Total Bandwidth = streaming clients * stream bandwidth + 20% IP overhead.

Of course, different hardware setups behave differently and in order to know your server/system total capacity, you should perform your own tests on the hardware running your Wowza Streaming Engine software.

You can access our Load Test Tool here:https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-get-flash-rtmp-load-test-tool

To request the Load Test Tool, click the link at the bottom of this page. In order to get the Load Test Tool, you must electronically sign a Load Testing Software Agreement. To complete that agreement, you’ll need the last five (5) digits of your Wowza Streaming Engine software license key and a valid email address. After you’ve signed the Load Testing Software Agreement and Wowza has verified your information, you’ll receive an email within three (3) business days that includes download instructions.

We do have a list of supported NVENC GPU cards which can be seen in the article below.

https://www.wowza.com/docs/server-specifications-for-nvidia-nvenc-and-nvidia-cuda-acceleration-with-wowza-transcoder

We also have a list of which CPUs have Quick Sync enabled, in the following article.

https://www.wowza.com/docs/server-specifications-for-intel-quick-sync-acceleration-with-wowza-transcoder

If you choose to test hardware for accelerated encoding with Wowza, you should not commit to the purchase until you have confirmed that it does suit your needs.

Please let me know if I can clarify any of this for you, or if you still have questions that I can assist with.

Regards

Jason Hatchett