Version: Wowza Media Server 3.0.3

For the most up-to-date information for this release, visit the Articles section of the Wowza forum. To get started, read the online Wowza Media Server 3: Quick Start Guide.

Release Notes

New Major Features in Wowza Media Server 3

- Wowza Transcoder AddOn (documentation and online tutorial)

- Supports live adaptive bitrate (ABR) for Flash, Silverlight, and Apple HLS
- Ingest from live encoders, IP cams, TV headends, and more...
- Transcoding from MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2, and H.264
- Delivery of H.264 over any protocol supported by Wowza Media Server
- Leverages commodity GPU acceleration hardware

- Intel® Quick SyncTM (Sandy Bridge) (documentation)
- NVidia® CUDA™ (documentation)

- Wowza nDVR) AddOn (documentation and online tutorial)

- Single nDVR cache - HTTP playback for Flash, HLS, and Silverlight
- Support for pausing, resuming and rewinding a live stream
- Multi-bitrate support
- Multi-server support

- Wowza DRM) AddOn (documentation and online tutorial)

- Integration with Verimatrix VCAS™ for playback on HLS devices with ViewRight™ clients
- Microsoft PlayReady® for Silverlight smooth streaming client playback
- On-the-fly encryption for live and Video On Demand
- For live: encryption per-stream with the ability to rotate keys
- For VOD: encryption per-asset or per-session with the ability to rotate keys

Some other new features in Wowza Media Server 3

· Support of timed data events in live and video on demand streams for iOS streaming.

· Rich APIs for Wowza Transcoder AddOn and Wowza DVR AddOn customization

· HTTPProvider to retrieve bitmap image of transcoded stream

· Control of video and audio PID and streamIDs for outgoing MPEG-TS

· Ability to select streams from a multi-program MPEG-TS stream by program ID, audio language or PID

· Ability to specify a play start time and duration for HTTP video on demand streaming

· Redirection of HTTP or RTSP sessions through server-side code

· Support for subtitle tracks for MP4 video on demand playback

· API for resolving MediaList (SMIL file requests) through Java API

· MP4 video on demand playback and recording support of data events (AMF0/AMF3)

· And much much more.

For a complete list of changes see: Wowza Media Server 3.0.3: Release Notes

Documentation

All documentation for Wowza Media Server 3 can be found here:
Wowza Media Server 3 Documentation
Here are a few direct links to get started:

- Quick Start Guide
- Wowza Transcoder AddOn
- Wowza nDVR AddOn
- Wowza DRM AddOn

Support

To obtain free support for this release, either visit the Wowza forum or send email to support@wowza.com.

When emailing support@wowza.com be sure to provide the following information:

- Wowza Media Server 3 version and build number
- Platform, operating system and Java version on which Wowza Media Server is running
- Detailed description of problem which includes the following:

- URL of tutorial or instructions being used
- Player technology being used (Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, iOS device, Set-top box...)
- Zip up and send [install-dir]/logs, [install-dir]/conf and [install-dir]/transcoder folders
- Live encoder/IP camera manufacturer/version and exact encoding settings (live streaming only)

Comments or Issues

Wowza Media Server Tuning

For up to date tuning instructions, see the following forum thread:
General Tuning Instructions

Wowza Transcoder on Windows Server 2003 and 2008

To run the Wowza Transcoder on Windows Server 2003 and 2008 the following two components are required:

· .NET Framework 3.5.1 Feature

· Desktop Experience

Connecting over RTMPT or RTMPTE

The default Server.xml file is configured to listen on port 1935 only (the default rtmp port). To connect to the server over rtmpt you can either uncomment the port 80 configuration section in the [install-dir]/conf/VHost.xml file or connect over rtmpt using port 1935 (example: rtmpt://localhost:1935/applicationname).

Memory Settings

If you are running into OutOfMemory errors while running the server, you may want to increase the maximum size of the Java heap. Consult the General Tuning Instructions for more information.

JAVA_HOME environment variable on Windows platform

Wowza Media Server on the Windows platform uses the JAVA_HOME environment variable to determine the location of the Java environment under which to run. If you have problems starting Wowza Media Server on Windows, double check to be sure the JAVA_HOME variable is pointing to a Java 6 (aka 1.6), Java 7 (aka 1.7) or greater Java environment. Also when making changes or upgrades to your Java environment that may affect the installation path, be sure to update the JAVA_HOME variable to point to the new location. The JAVA_HOME variable should point to the base folder of the Java installation. This is the folder that contains the bin folder.

64-bit OS and Java Required for Wowza Transcoder

Wowza Transcoder must be used with a 64-bit Operating system (either Windows or Linux platforms) and must run against the 64-bit version of Java.

Windows Service

By default Wowza Media Server Windows service is set to Manual startup. This is so it does not conflict with the version started from the command prompt. Consult the Starting and Stopping the Server section of the User's Guide for more information on how to change this to Automatic startup.

OS X Service

By default the com.wowza.WowzaMediaServer OS X service is set to Disabled startup. This is so it does not conflict with the version started from the command prompt. To enable the launchd service to startup automatically when the machine is restarted issue the following command in a terminal window:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.wowza.WowzaMediaServer.plist

To disable:

sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.wowza.WowzaMediaServer.plist

Wowza Transcoder Hardware Acceleration

When running under a Windows 64-bit OS, the hardware acceleration (NVIDIA CUDA and Intel Quick Sync) used by the Wowza Transcoder, is only available when running Wowza Media Server 3 as a standalone application. Due to driver accessibility restrictions while running under a Windows service, the hardware acceleration will not be available and only software encoding be invoked in this case.

JMX and the Windows Service

When running Wowza Media Server as a Windows service, the JMX interface will not be available unless the service is running as a named user. To configure the service to run as a named user, go to Settings>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services and right click on the Wowza Media Server service and select Properties. Next, click on the Log On tab, change the Log on as radio to This account and enter a user name and password for a local user.

Debug Logging

To turn on Wowza Media Server debug logging, edit the [install-dir]/conf/log4j.properties file and change the log level on the first line from INFO to DEBUG.

Relocating Wowza Media Server

The Mac OS X and Linux installers do not provide an option to choose the location of the installation of the base server files. For Mac OS X this location is /Library/WowzaMediaServer-[version] and for Linux it's/usr/local/WowzaMediaServer-[version]. All the server startup scripts locate the server files through a symbolic link named /Library/WowzaMediaServer (Mac OS X) and /usr/local/WowzaMediaServer (Linux). If you wish to relocate the base server files you can move them where you choose and update this link using the ln -sf command.