Elecard CodecWorks and Wowza Media Server

1. Install Elecard CodecWorks

2. Install WOWZA Media Server

3. Elecard CodecWorks initial setup

Run Elecard CodecWorks Manager
Open the context menu within the application window empty space and select the Local server → Settings command. Set the network interface IP address
Open the context menu again and select the Local server → Activate (service) option. Information on CodecWorks server and the list of consoles should appear within the manager window

4. Launch of encoding process in Elecard CodecWorks

For the selected console open the context menu and click the Change schema item
In the pop up window click the Create new button – the encoding schema configurator window will open. Build an encoding schema based on one of the available templates. If you need to perform multibitrate adaptive streaming, utilize the corresponding template
Select the saved schema in he list and click OK
Run the encoding process (Start item in the console context menu)

5. WOWZA Media Server setup
Setting up an application for live streaming and configuring Application.xml

Create an application folder [install-dir]/applications/live
Create a configuration folder [install-dir]/conf/live and copy [install-dir]/conf/Application.xml into the new folder
Edit the newly copied Application.xml file and make the following changes (some of these settings may already be present):

Code:

<Streams>
   <StreamType>live</StreamType>
   ...
   <LiveStreamPacketizers>cupertinostreamingpacketizer, smoothstreamingpacketizer, sanjosestreamingpacketizer</LiveStreamPacketizers>
   ...
</Streams>
...
<HTTPStreamers>cupertinostreaming,smoothstreaming,sanjosestreaming</HTTPStreamers>
<RTP>
   <Authentication>
   ...
   <PlayMethod>none</PlayMethod>
   ...
   </Authentication>
</RTP>

Download Application.xml

Using a text editor, edit the file [install-dir]/conf/admin.password and add a username and password that will be used to start and stop the stream publishing(below is an example of the file with the username myuser and password mypassword):

Code:

# Admin password file (format [username][space][password])
# username password
myuser mypassword

6. Publish your live stream to Wowza Server

Download the sdpgen utility following the link
Run the file sdpgen.exe – a list of *.sdp files with details on available sessions of streaming data will appear in the same folder
Select the file detailing the stream coming from Elecard CodecWorks Encoder. Give it the name myStream.sdp and copy it to the [install-dir]/content folder
Open a web browser and enter the url: http://[wowza-address]:8086/streammanager
Enter your admin username and password from above
Click the [start-receiving-stream] link just below the live application folder
Select the MediaCaster Type: rtp
Enter myStream.sdp into the Stream Name field
Click OK

7. Playback
Using Adobe Flash player (RTMP)
Open [install-dir]/examples/LiveVideoStreaming/client/live.html, enter the information below and click the Play button

Code:

Server: rtmp://[wowza-address]/live
Stream: myStream.sdp

Note: If your application only streams to Flash RTMP clients, see Flash RTMP Clients Only.

Using Adobe Flash player (Flash HTTP)
Open [install-dir]/examples/SimpleVideoStreaming/clientOSMF/bin-release/SimpleOSMFPlayer.html, enter the information below and click the Play button.

Code:

Stream: http://[wowza-ip-address]:1935/live/myStream.sdp/manifest.f4m

Note: The HTTP link above will not play directly in a browser. The stream can only be played in an OSMF based Flash player that is embedded in an HTML page. To play the stream from a remote system, copy the contents of the clientOSMF/bin-release folder to a web server.

Using Apple iOS device (Apple HTTP Live Streaming)
Enter the following URL into the Safari web browser:

Code:

http://[wowza-address]:1935/live/myStream.sdp/playlist.m3u8

Note: This stream can also be played using the Safari Browser or QuickTime 10.x on a computer running OSX version 10.6 or greater (Snow Leopard).
Note: The iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices require video encoded using AVC (H.264) format, Main profile (or lower), and AAC or MP3 stereo audio.

8. Adaptive Bitrate Streaming
To perform Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) live streaming you need to build a schema in Elecard CodecWorks which encodes the input stream into several key-frame aligned streams with various bitrates. Use the corresponding template to do this. Next you need to create a SMIL (synchronized multimedia integration language) file that links the streams together for playback.
For example, we have three live streams encoded at three different bitrates myStream_500.sdp (500kbps total bitrate), myStream_1000.sdp (1000kbps total bitrate) and myStream_1500.sdp (1500kbps total bitrate). Using a text editor create a SMIL file in the [install-dir]/content folder with the name myStream.smil with the following content:

Code:

You can see that there is a <video> entry in the <switch> container for each rendition of the stream. The system-bitrate value is set to the total bitrate in bits-per-second for that stream.

Play using Adobe Flash player (Flash HTTP)
Open [install-dir]/examples/SimpleVideoStreaming/clientOSMF/bin-release/SimpleOSMFPlayer.html, enter the information below and click the Play button.

Code:

Stream: http://[wowza-ip-address]:1935/live/smil:myStream.smil/manifest.f4m

Play using an Apple iOS device (Apple HTTP Live Streaming)
Enter the following URL into the Safari web browser on the device:

Code:

http://[wowza-address]:1935/live/smil:myStream.smil/playlist.m3u8

Play using Microsoft Silverlight (Smooth Streaming)
Open [install-dir]/examples/SimpleVideoStreaming/clientSilverlight/Default.html, enter the URL below and click the Play button.

Code:

http://[wowza-address]:1935/live/smil:myStream.smil/Manifest