Wowza Streaming Engine

README


Version: Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.26+3

Wowza Streaming Engine™ is robust, customizable, and scalable media server software that powers reliable streaming of high-quality video and audio to any device, anywhere.


New Features and Functionality

Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.26+3 contains the following improvement to the functionality of the media server:

Added CMAF improvements

To lead innovation and move the industry towards better playback and packaging standards, we've improved our Common Media Application Format (CMAF) workflows. SRT and CMAF formats offer the best end-to-end HEVC-capable playback over HLS, with significant bitrate reductions that can eliminate cost and bandwidth concerns. Version 4.8.26 of Wowza Streaming Engine delivers the following CMAF enhancements:

Updated castLabs DRMtoday module

We've updated the setup and documentation for the castLabs DRMtoday module to reflect its support for key rotation in version 3.1.0. Key rotation enhances security and minimizes vulnerabilities by allowing you to rotate keys that encrypt content over time. For more details about setting up secure video delivery in Wowza Streaming Engine, see the updated Set up castLabs DRMtoday article.

Improved AMD Xilinx accelerated transcoding

In Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.25 we added support to transcode WebRTC inputs with the AMD Xilinx Alveo U30 card in preview mode. While the preview version had some limitations, we've improved stability for WebRTC inputs when using the U30 cards in Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.26. These enhancements limit the number of crashes when resolution changes occur with input sources. For more, see WebRTC input-specific limitations in Wowza Streaming Engine.


System Requirements

Operating systems

The supported operating systems varies by workflow. For non-transcoded streaming, Wowza Streaming Engine media server software can be used on the following 64-bit operating systems:

If you use the Transcoder feature, Wowza Streaming Engine media server software supports the following 64-bit operating systems:

Install Wowza Streaming Engine on a clean operating system. If you want to update your earlier version of Wowza Streaming Engine to Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.26+3, see Update your Wowza Streaming Engine installation for instructions.

Java version

Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.26+3 is built on Java 11 (OpenJDK Java SE JRE 11.0.2) and supports Java versions 11 - 12. Earlier versions of Java aren't supported.

If you're updating to version 4.8.18 (or later), you must install OpenJDK Java SE JRE 11.0.2 before running the Wowza Streaming Engine updater. For your convenience, we've provided the OpenJDK Java SE JRE 11.0.2 files as a zip on the Downloads tab of your Wowza account. For more information, see Manually install and troubleshoot Java on Wowza Streaming Engine.

Notes: Previous versions of Wowza Streaming Engine media server software were built on Java 8 and Java 9. If you're updating an earlier installation of Wowza Streaming Engine to version 4.7.8 through 4.8.17, you must install OpenJDK Java SE JRE 9.0.4 before running the Wowza Streaming Engine updater. For your convenience, we've provided the OpenJDK Java SE JRE 9.0.4 files as a zip on the Downloads tab of your Wowza account. For more information, see Manually install and troubleshoot Java on Wowza Streaming Engine.
Browser support for Streaming Engine Manager

You can use Wowza Streaming Engine Manager with the latest versions of most modern web browsers that support HTML5 and Cascading Style Sheets level 3 (CSS 3). We recommend that you use the latest version of the Chrome browser for best results.

Note: Wowza Streaming Engine Manager was tested extensively using the Google Chrome web browser. Manager functionality and performance may vary on other web browsers. Browser updates that occur after this release of Wowza Streaming Engine may also impact functionality and performance and Wowza will work to address any new issues as quickly as possible.

Documentation

Complete Wowza Streaming Engine documentation is available at Wowza Streaming Engine.

Here are a few links to help you find information on specific areas of Wowza Streaming Engine:

Support

Support is available in the following ways: