In 2015, a user was spending around two hours per day on video-on-demand (VoD) not taking into account social media and online games. In a few years, users will spend even more time on it. According to Cisco, VoD traffic will double in the next three years and 70% of traffic will be spent on HD videos. In other words, video streaming market is booming! Take Facebook, can you imagine it without videos? I bet you can’t. Although initially it wasn’t created as a destination for videos, Facebook now hits 100 million hours of daily video watch time. So the world is changing and the rules of every market niche change with it.
Today video streaming is a rapidly growing and its adopters expect you to offer them the latest technologies and solutions. In this post, we will give you a detailed overview of technologies developed by Wowza and Flussonic, two global competitors in the video streaming world. Both servers provide a lot of similar tech solutions like TimeShifting, multi-language and adaptive streaming, Cloud service and a lot more. However, having a lot in common, they make emphasis on their different features.
Here we are going to cover the distinct and strong features of each server to help you to choose the most appropriate solution for your business.
Wowza…
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IP Cameras Streaming
Wowza makes it possible to broadcast a video stream from multiple IP cameras to websites or mobile applications without the need for a separate encoder. Also, RTSP protocol enables you to view the stream on any device. You can manage your offices, control and secure your private property and get feeds for 24×7 monitoring just sitting in front of your laptop at home.
Audio-only Streaming
It allows to capture and stream live audio from any encoders or servers. This function lets you share your live stream or store it if you decide to watch it later. Audio-only streaming is successfully implemented by Wowza in radio broadcasting as it solves challenging problems like scaling and transcoding. So if you are thinking about developing your business in this direction, this solution will greatly simplify your life.
Wowza Streaming Cloud
It’s used to set up video streaming from a camera and a video encoder. Wowza Streaming Cloud technology takes and transcodes a video stream in the cloud, so it can be delivered to the limitless amount of users and meet the requirements of numeral types of devices without significantly increasing the budget.
VR and 360 Streaming
Wowza also allows users to capture 360° live stream and virtual reality video content with up to 4K resolution. It is compatible with various video-stitching software and encoders.360 streaming can be used everywhere including concerts, sports broadcasts, gaming, and many other forms of entertainment. This technology will give you a limitless audience. With the help of Wowza Streaming Cloud service, Sony Music was able to deliver an engaging 360°concert live-stream from Lollapalooza Berlin 2015 to a global audience.
Flussonic…
Digital Video Recording (DVR)
Flussonic functionality enables you to store video streams in an archive, as well as manage and maintain the depth of the archive and the volume of HDD. It is a good match for Catchup services and for surveillance applications as it does not have any limitation on the archive size so you can store as much data as you need. DVR is a good option for remote surveillance and security systems.
Timeshift
Flussonic can rewind a live video stream and then broadcast it with a permanent delay for viewers who are located in different time zones. It’s worth noting that it is limited by the depth of an archive, unlike alternative solutions. This is a quite interesting technology which is used in many cases such as:
#1 broadcasting content for users who are in a different time zone;
#2 delivering an accurately edited message. Timeshift is a good solution if you always want to be on the safe side and eliminate any interruptions or bloopers before your users watch the stream.
Flussonic Watcher
It has been created to set up intelligent video surveillance. It is capable of supporting hundreds of cameras using just one very efficient server. In addition, you are provided with convenient and secure access to IP cameras and DVR where you can control playback speed, zoom and make screenshots.
Multi-language streaming
Flussonic can switch the language on the “fly” using HLS and HDS protocols. Also, a user can add extra language tracks to the mp4 files. In the same way, a user can add subtitles in the tx3g format to turn on the subtitles function. Subtitles for videos are quite a painful issue for those who are creating content for users speaking different languages. TED Talks is a great example of successful usage of on-demand streaming. The famous platform has subtitles virtually in every language, which helps them spread ideas to masses around the world very effectively.
Of course, this is not an extensive list of the functions and features each streaming media server can offer. Yet we hope this post gives some insight into the available video streaming solutions and the possibilities this niche opens to your business.
Always feel free to contact us, if none of the aforementioned solutions meet your business needs. Our experts in the field will help you to choose the most suitable technology or give more detailed information on the topic.
