Send a stream from Wowza Streaming Engine to Wowza Video Legacy for transcoding

Learn how to send a live stream from Wowza Streaming Engine to Wowza Video for transcoding and delivery over the Wowza CDN on Fastly edge network to viewers.

Notes:

Before you start


Before you start, you should create a live application in Wowza Streaming Engine according to Create applications.

1. Configure Wowza Video to receive and distribute the stream


Start by creating a live stream in Wowza Video that uses Wowza Streaming Engine as the video source.

  1. Sign in to Wowza Video.
  2. Click the Live Streams tab, and then click Add Live Stream.
     
  3. On the Live Stream Setup page, enter a Live Stream Name, choose a Broadcast Location, then click Next.
  4. On the Video Source and Transcoder Settings page, select Wowza Streaming Engine as the source you want to use to connect to Wowza Video.
  5. Specify other video source settings, click Next, and complete the steps to create the live stream.
Note: For more information about live stream settings, see Add a live stream.

Wowza Video creates the live stream and displays the Overview tab of the live stream detail page. You can use the Connection Code that appears under the Video Snapshot when you configure a live application in Wowza Streaming Engine. The Connection Code begins with a 0 when Wowza Video is configured to transcode and deliver your stream to viewers.

2. Create a stream target to send a single-bitrate stream to Wowza Video


After creating a live application in Wowza Streaming Engine, it must be configured to send the stream to Wowza Video.

  1. In the sidebar navigation in Wowza Streaming Engine, click Stream Targets, then click Add Stream Target.
  2. On the Stream Target page, select Wowza Video Transcoder from the Wowza Target Destinations.
  3. On the Wowza Video Configuration page, provide the following:
     
    • Stream Target Name - A descriptive name for this target setup in Wowza Streaming Engine. The name must be unique and can't contain less-than (<), greater-than (>), colon (:), quotation (' and "), forward slash (/), backslash (), pipe (|), question mark (?), asterisk (*), double-dot (..), or tilde (~) characters.
    • Connection Code - The six-digit code generated by Wowza Video that's available on the Overview tab of the live stream detail page in Wowza Video.
  4. After entering the Connection Code, click Check Code and then specify the following:
     
    • Source Stream Name - The name of the incoming stream you specified in Wowza Streaming Engine when you set up the video source.
    • Start Wowza Video service automatically - If you want Wowza Streaming Engine to try to start the transcoder in Wowza Video immediately and publish the source stream, select the Start Wowza Video service automatically check box. If it isn't selected, you must start the transcoder manually in the web-based Wowza Video manager before the source stream is published.
  5. Click Add this target

3. Enable Stream Targets


Before you stream, you must enable the Stream Targets feature for the Wowza Streaming Engine application or the individual stream target you created.

  1. In the contents panel of your application, if you don't see a checkmark next to Stream Targets, click Stream Targets in the contents panel and then click Enable Stream Targets.

    When Stream Targets is enabled, a checkmark appears next to Stream Targets in the contents panel and the Stream Targets page shows Status is Enabled.

  2. If the Status of an individual stream target is Disabled, click the Enable icon for the stream in the Actions column.


     

  3. When prompted, click Restart Now so your change takes effect.

When a stream target is enabled, its status on the Stream Targets page is one of the following:

  • Starting. Wowza Streaming Engine is trying to start the transcoder in Wowza Video and publish the source stream.
  • Waiting. The target is enabled but is not yet pushing the stream to the Wowza Video destination because the target's configured source stream is not connected to the Wowza Streaming Engine input, Wowza Streaming Engine has not completed initialization of the connection to the Wowza Video destination, or the transcoder needs to be manually started in the web-based Wowza Video manager.
  • Active. The Wowza Video target configuration has been successfully retrieved and the stream is being pushed to the Wowza Video destination with the appropriate streaming protocol.
  • Error. Wowza Streaming Engine unsuccessfully tried to retrieve the Wowza Video target configuration and initiate streaming to the target destination. Errors might be due to an issue with the Wowza Video service, general connectivity issues, or an invalid target configuration such as an invalid Connection Code.

The status of each stream target updates automatically if your Wowza Streaming Engine application has fewer than 100 stream targets. If your application has more than 100 stream targets, you can click Refresh to update the status.

4. Test the connection 


  1. If you didn't select the Start Wowza Video service automatically setting when configuring the stream target in Wowza Streaming Engine, start the live stream in the Wowza Video web manager.
  2. Start the stream in the H.264 camera or encoder that's sending the stream to your application in Wowza Streaming Engine.
    The application ingests the live stream and sends it to Wowza Video.
  3. In Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, verify that the stream is published by clicking Incoming Streams for your application, and then clicking the stream name.

    The stream detail page displays the Status of the stream (Active) as well as details about connections, uptime, and throughput for the published stream.
  4. In the Wowza Video web manager, confirm that the live stream is playing by looking at the Video Thumbnail in the Overview tab of the live stream detail page.

    The video thumbnail displays a frame from the live stream every 5 seconds. The start date and time appear under the thumbnail. Source stream, transcoder, and delivery metrics begin to update.


     
     
  5. In Wowza Video, click Stop Stream at the top of the live stream detail page to end your test stream, and then stop the stream in the source camera or encoder.

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