I’m looking into Wowza Cloud as a way to live-stream videos to a large number of viewers (e.g. 10 thousands - 1 million).
I’m trying to build a proof of concept by referencing Wowza example repo (https://github.com/WowzaMediaSystems/webrtc-examples).
The example uses WebRTC for playback, not HLS, which got me confused because I thought CDN that delivers live streams over HLS is automatically integrated with Wowza Streaming Cloud, therefore no point in connecting via WebRTC? Or was the example mainly for Wowza Streaming Engine, which can optionally integrate CDN?
Can someone please tell me the advantages/disadvantages of both approaches for playback (WebRTC vs HLS)?
(WebRTC for playback)
- Suitable for a small number of viewers (given that it only allows around 1,000 concurrent connections?)
- Adaptive bitrate streaming is difficult
- Cannot use nDVR
- Cannot use third-party HTML5 players (e.g. TheoPlayer)
(HLS for playback)
- Suitable for a large number of viewers (as it’s delivered through CDN)
- Adaptive bitrate streaming is easy
- Can use nDVR
- Can use third-party HTML5 players (e.g. TheoPlayer)
These are my assumptions, but would appreciate it a lot if someone could clear up my confusion.
Thanks