How can save streaming bandwidth when there is no user connecting to the stream.

[Navin_Chandran]

Hi,

i want to know,is there a setting where i can set, when the stream should be online.

ie , most of the time no one will be watching the stream. so i want to conserve the bandwidth coming through wowza server.

so is there a setting or it should be done programmatically. i guess there is only java environment to develop ( no C#.net). that a concern for me.

kindly help out , this is my first day with wowza.

With Regard’s,

Navs.

[Jason_Hilton]

Hi,

If you’re using Wowza Streaming Engine for live streaming you will be publishing the live stream to the server which will use bandwidth. If you’re using a .stream file or other MediaCaster stream then you can start/stop this stream in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager as shown in the IP camera re-streaming tutorial

If you’re only using IP camera sources for this application and only providing these streams to RTMP or RTSP based playback clients then you can edit the [Wowza-Install]/conf/AppName/Application.xml file and change the StreamType to “rtp-live” which will tell Wowza Streaming Engine to start the stream when the playback client connects. Note that HTTP based streaming protocols (Adobe HDS, Apple HLS, Microsoft SS and MPEG-DASH) require packetization and this means the stream needs to be constantly running. The auto-startup nature of using StreamType “rtp-live” makes this unsuitable so is limited to RTMP and RTSP playback.

When using an origin/edge configuration, clients will connect to the edge to playback the live streams. If an edge server doesn’t have any clients connected it will not stop pulling the source from the origin to save bandwidth between the origin and edge. When the first playback client connects, the edge will then start pulling the required source.

Jason

[Zoran]

Hello,

After making the changes to your application’s configuration file, as Jason suggested, you should make sure that the IP camera stream is not published on your Wowza application if there are no playback clients. If the stream is not published, this particular stream name should not appear in the incoming streams list.

When a playback client requests the .stream file configured with the RTSP address of your IP camera, then Wowza will initiate the connection to that particular camera. When the last playback client disconnects, the incoming stream should be removed from the incoming stream list.

Can you perform this test and let us know the results?

Zoran

[Navin_Chandran]

Thanks Jason for the reply.

“If you’re only using IP camera sources for this application and only providing these streams to RTMP or RTSP based playback clients then you can edit the [Wowza-Install]/conf/AppName/Application.xml file and change the StreamType to “rtp-live” which will tell Wowza Streaming Engine to start the stream when the playback client connects. Note that HTTP based streaming protocols (Adobe HDS, Apple HLS, Microsoft SS and MPEG-DASH) require packetization and this means the stream needs to be constantly running. The auto-startup nature of using StreamType “rtp-live” makes this unsuitable so is limited to RTMP and RTSP playback.”

i am using the above said principle. so i changed the application.xml and restarted the server. even still when there is no playback client connected to the system. “Bytes In” is increasing. is there a way make sure the wowza media server read from the camera on when there is a active playback client trying to view the stream

Thanks

Navs

[Ronnie_Landqvist]

Hi!

I attempted this solution, i.e. StreamType to “rtp-live” according to above in the xml-file and restarted the server. Unfortunately, the RTSP-stream did not dissapear when no user was connected to the server.

Any clues?

Wowza Streaming Engine Version 4.7.5 (build 21763)

Wowza Streaming Engine Manager Version 4.7.5 (build 21763)

[Ronnie_Landqvist]

Hi again,

I got this to work now, but not perfectly.

If I have zero users connected and try to connect with my first user using VLC, that will always fail. I notice that the “Incoming Stream” appears in Wowza but almost immediately disappears, so there seems to be something wrong with timing (Wowza to slow or VLC giving up to early)?

If I have two users connecting more or less simultaneously, then I manage to get it working.

Is there some parameter to set that fixes this, either from VLC side or preferably from Wowza side?

Thanks in advance!