Version: Wowza Streaming Engine™ 4.9.6+3 build 20251002163549 released October 8, 2025.
Java support: Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.6 is compiled using Java 17 (OpenJDK Java SE JRE 17.0.12) but can be used with Java versions 17 or 21. For more details, see Java version information.
New features and functionality in Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.6
Webhooks support for streaming notifications
Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.6 introduces webhook functionality, enabling real-time notifications for key streaming events. Instead of continuously polling the REST API, you can now register webhook endpoints to receive event updates automatically as they happen. These enhancements improve both efficiency and responsiveness, making it easier to monitor, automate, and manage streaming workflows with minimal overhead. For more information, see:
- Create webhooks to monitor streaming events in Wowza Streaming Engine
- Create webhooks to monitor streaming events using the Wowza Streaming Engine REST API
- Wowza Streaming Engine Webhooks.json configuration reference
Installation and update considerations for Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.6
If you're updating to Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.6 from a base installation of Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.3 or earlier, see Updating to Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.0 and later.
Note: Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.28 and later doesn't include an updater or installer for macOS.
When using the Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.6 installer to add a new instance of Wowza Streaming Engine on Windows, you may need to install additional dependencies to ingest SRT MediaCaster streams or use the generic SRT stream targets destination to publish an SRT stream. For more information, see our Ingest and publish an SRT stream guide.
For step-by-step instructions on how to install or update Wowza Streaming Engine, see the following articles:
- Install – Install and configure Wowza Streaming Engine
- Update – Update your Wowza Streaming Engine installation
Breaking changes in Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.6
Java version information
Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.0 - 4.9.6 is officially certified, thoroughly tested, and optimized to run seamlessly with the Java 21 JRE. You get the following Java features:
- Installer details – Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.0 - 4.9.6 is compiled using Java 17 (OpenJDK Java SE JRE 17.0.12), but new installations include a JRE for Java 21 (OpenJDK Java SE JRE 21.0.3). You can roll back to Java 17 if needed. Older Java versions (16 and below) are no longer supported and cannot be used with Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.0 and later.
- Updater details – When using the updater for Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.0 - 4.9.6, we verify that the Java 21 Virtual Machine (JVM) is present before completing the upgrade. If Java 21 isn't detected on the machine, the update is canceled with a message containing recommended steps. If you need a new version of Java, the updater includes JRE 21 with instructions explaining how to copy it from the root of the installer to the Wowza Streaming Engine installation folder. When updating to Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.0 - 4.9.6 from a base installation of Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.28 or earlier, check these considerations.
- Supported Java versions – If you prefer, you can manually install a different Java version. We support Java versions 17 or 21 with Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.0 - 4.9.6.
While we tested Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.28 - 4.9.6 with the Java 21 Runtime Environment (JRE), we didn't recompile it using Java Development Kit (JDK) 21. If you build a custom module using Java 21, it may not work with Wowza Streaming Engine if your source code includes Java 21 features.
Note: New installations of Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.28 and later deliver generational support for the Z Garbage Collector (ZGC). To use Java 21 with Generational ZGC on Windows, you must be running a 64-bit version of Windows 10 (version 1803 or later) or Windows Server 2019 or later. You also need a 64-bit JVM.
If your Wowza Streaming Engine workflow utilizes custom modules or plugins, we recommend testing them with Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.28 - 4.9.6 in a non-production environment before updating your media server software. The following Java modules are included with the JRE and installer for the Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.28 - 4.9.6:
- java.base
- java.datatransfer
- java.desktop
- java.instrument
- java.logging
- java.management
- java.management.rmi
- java.naming
- java.prefs
- java.rmi
- java.scripting
- java.scripting.jgss
- java.security.sasl
- java.sql
- java.transaction.xa
- java.xml
- jdk.crypto.cryptoki
- jdk.crypto.ec
- jdk.httpserver
- jdk.management
- jdk.management.agent
- jdk.naming.rmi
- jdk.unsupported
- jdk.xml.dom
- jdk.attach (available with Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.28 and later)
- jdk.internal.jvmstat (available with Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.28 and later)
- jdk.jcmd (available with Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.28 and later)
- jdk.jfr (available with Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.28 and later)
- java.net.http (available with Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.28 and later)
If you have other dependencies, you must install a Java 17 JRE or JDK for Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.0 - 4.9.6 that includes these dependencies. For more information, see Manually install and troubleshoot Java on Wowza Streaming Engine.
You can also refer to the Wowza Streaming Engine support for Java page to learn more about the different Java versions we support.
Detailed list of changes in Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.6
These changes were made since the release of Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.5:
- Added support for webhook notifications to actively monitor various streaming events.
- Added the ability to programmatically configure SRT listener mode using the Wowza Streaming Engine REST API.
- Updated the Facebook Graph API to version 23.0.
- Updated the OpenSSL library used for encryption with SRT workflows on Windows installations to version 3.5.2.
- Added ARM variants for Wowza Streaming Engine images in the wowza/wowza-streaming-engine and wowza/wowza-streaming-engine-manager Docker Hub repositories.
- Fixed an issue when using SRT listener mode that caused failed connections when publishing a stream name containing a period character.
- Fixed an issue where copying an application configured for SRT ingest and HLS output doesn’t produce the same PublishMethod settings in the Application.xml.
- Fixed an issue causing an additional space to display between a file name and the SMIL file extension in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager.
- Fixed an issue related to reduced performance and growing memory usage when using the Transcoder and NVIDIA workflows with Ubuntu 24.04.
- Fixed an issue with Wowza Video stream targets failing to connect to certain AWS regions, and made all regions available.
- Fixed an issue causing 514 live stream repeater response codes when using WebRTC with SecureToken content protection and origin edge workflows.
- Fixed an issue where VOD subtitle tracks could intermittently fail to load or disappear during playback when switching tracks, seeing, or selecting subtitles.
- Fixed an issue related to read-only permissions and using Wowza Streaming Engine REST API operations.
- Fixed an issue where region changes for Wowza Video stream targets did not take effect, and made the Wowza Video Region dropdown uneditable after stream target creation.
- Fixed an issue causing duplicate subtitle tracks in HLS manifests when using a SMIL file to deliver an ABR HLS stream with WebVTT subtitles enabled.
- Fixed an issue where excessive handleRTPPacket: RTP sequence jump outside expected bounds warnings caused stream timeouts and large log files.
- Fixed an issue preventing some European language characters in DVB Teletext subtitles from displaying by adding level 1.5 decoding support.
- Fixed a deadlock issue in WMSReentrantReadWriteLock caused by read-to-write lock upgrades across multiple threads, which caused Wowza Streaming Engine to become unresponsive.
- Fixed an issue preventing debug statistics from being logged for SRT listener mode when srtDebug and srtTimesToPrintStats properties are enabled in the VHost.xml.
- Fixed an issue in the wowzamedia/wowza-streaming-engine-linux 4.9.5 Docker image where containers didn't define a non-root, dedicated user.
- Fixed an issue where duplicate #EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY-SEQUENCE tags in playlists with Akamai stream targets caused playback failures on iOS.
- Fixed an issue with CEA-608 captions where unsupported characters were not being substituted correctly.
- Fixed CVE-2025-41234 security vulnerability by upgrading to Spring Framework (org.springframework) 6.1.21 and Spring Boot (org.springframework.boot) 3.3.13.
- Fixed CVE-2025-48989 and CVE-2025-41249 security vulnerabilities by upgrading Tomcat (org.apache.tomcat) to version 10.1.33 and Spring Framework (org.springframework) 6.2.11.
- Fixed an issue preventing video playback when using graphic overlay images and the default transcoding pipeline on Windows.
Known issues with Wowza Streaming Engine 4.9.6
For a detailed list of currently known issues, see Known issues with Wowza Streaming Engine.
