Wowza Media Server Hosting

• Hosting plans don't include VideoWhisper software license - this must be ordered separately to run software in full mode. Explicitly labelled combo plans that include license rental and hosting are available.
• Please allow a couple of working days for setup because setup is human based and involves multiple steps for setting up managed rtmp hosting services.
• Subscriptions are billed automatically until cancelled. Subscriptions can be cancelled anytime from the billing processor. If you want to terminate your plan make sure you cancel subscription before billing date because contracted and allocated server resources are not returnable due to their nature.
• You can change your subscription anytime by ordering the new one you want and then cancelling old one. Switching between close plans usually does not require transfer to a different server type.
  We recommend starting with monthly subscription for a few months to fully evaluate and then contracting for longer depending on business plan.

There are multiple budget providers that advertise unlimited space and bandwidth for a few dollars.

The secret behind budget host offers is hosting hundreds of sites on a server and hidden terms and practices. In example:

• forbid installation of demanding services like a rtmp server
• processing limitations that kill demanding processes like rtmp or plain video conversion for bigger files
• space limitations that apply for video / file sharing sites as exception to “unlimited space”, in hidden terms
• restrictive resource limitations that slows your site as soon as it begins to have some traffic
• shared bandwidth on 10 or 100 Mbps shared connection for hundreds of sites where you will not be able to use much of the “unlimited” bandwidth
• blacklisting in search engines and mail servers, because often you find your site on same IP address with a spammer or other site engaged in malicious activities
• sharing physical server resources like connection, disk and cpu between many sites or vps is offten incompatible with live streaming: usually results in big latency, recording issues, massive frame loss

Our main business is live video streaming software and we provide realistic hosting plans where our client sites can fully work and perform. All our plans are premium, with advanced functionality, on powerful servers and networks that host a limited number of premium sites.

We do not provide reseller/budget hosting. If you need to host multiple account / domains you can use our Dedicated Streaming Servers.

• Red5 Media Server hosting:
  • For most affordable streaming bandwidth required for community, free site services.
  • For web based live streaming and video chat.
  • Not recommended for recording or distribution to other types of devices, transcoding.
• Wowza Streaming Engine / Media Server hosting:
  • For production sites where performance and realibility is essential.
  • For sites that demand advanced features including recording, archiving, transcoding and publishing to mobiles.
  • For development phase as Wowza includes multiple functionalities that may come handy for implementing project features.

After ordering any of these plans send us the domain name you plan to use with it. You can point your domain's name servers to the ones we'll provide or you can access it using the dedicated ip (without hosting a domain).

Because these plans are managed, each account setup is done manually by our staff and it can take a couple of days to be ready. Activity is reduced on weekends so setups for orders placed during or right before weekend are usually done on Monday. Delays also occur for other non working days.

• Transcoding is only required for converting videos and broadcasting from web flash application to iOS iPhone / iPad because Apple devices require special format (codecs) and don't support video as broadcast from web flash application. Wowza is required to distribute this formatted stream to iOS/Safari as HLS (HTTP Live Streaming). Most mobile systems other that iOS, including latest Android, can use Flash for playback and don't need transcoded streams.
• Transcoding means decoding the live stream and recording it to another format. This requires server processing power. Listed channels are estimates based on some tests.
• Our transcoding solution does not use the Wowza Transcoder Addon so it does not require the extra channel licensing fee previously needed for that. The Wowza Transcoder solution is available only on dedicated servers with client's Wowza licensing, due to high processing required. The addon is usually not availble on shared plans.
• Server capacity may vary at runtime depending on various factors and settings including stream size, quality settings, encoding profile.
• On dedicated servers you can start as many transcoding threads as you wish but at some point server gets overloaded and performance issues occur.
  On shared plans our straff monitors this type of usage to prevent server disruptions and service quality for other clients on same server.
• Due to processing required, transcoding can be implemented as premium feature or on request feature only when there are clients on iPhone / iPad. An alternate is to broadcast with special software (not from web flash) like a desktop encoder application that can publish for iOS.
• Compared to RTMP streaming, HLS streaming involves bigger latency depending on various settings (up to 15s). While this can be an issue on live video chat and interactions, for 1 way live streaming latency is not an issue, on most situations.
• Transcoding is a server process that must be started after starting broadcast to server. Broadcaster must enable alwaysRTMP so stream is available on server even if there are no subscribers in regular interface. HLS viewers are not monitored with regular web interfaces/players and status scripts.
• Transcoding process connects to rtmp server, inputs the stream (must be exist), broadcasts it as a new stream in a new format to rtmp server. Transcoding process can be closed on request and also closes automatically when input stream closes. Transcoding process does not start if input stream is not available.
• Transcoding is usually started on request by broadcaster, by clicking on a link/button to start transcoding. Can also be implemented to be started by viewer when accessing with iOS device but there's a delay of seconds before HLS becomes available.
• Video conversions: FFMPEG video conversion requires 1 CPU thread when limited to 1 thread. That means a server with 8 cpu threads will be able to handle around 8 symultaneous transcodings with good performance. On shared plans conversions should be queued.

The hosting limits are for the total streaming bandwidth, not for the number of connections.

Regular dedicated servers have 10Mbps or 100Mbps shared connections. At 50kb/s per stream (50kb/s=400kbps as 1 byte = 8bits), a dedicated 10Mbps connection can serve maximum 25 video streams, 100Mbps hundreds and 1000Mbps thousands. We recommend 1000Mbps plans for high traffic sites or sites that plan to host events with many simultaneous users. Because connections are shared, available connection will usually average around 1/3 of maximum possible.

Sustained connection refers to average connection use required to consume all monthly bandwidth. In example to transfer 2000 Gb of data in a month, a sustained 6Mbps connection usage would be required 24/7 for 30 days. When estimating requirements that should be used for calculations. In example for a site that averages 30 simultaneous viewers watching 500kbps streams, 15Mbs would be required.

Event connection is the maximum bitrate usage recommended for limited time events (few hours per day) for each plan. In example a for a 500kbps broadcast to 300 users, 150Mbps connection would be required. A 360p 1Mbps stream would require 200Mbps for delivery to 200 viewers. This is a recommendation based on server load balancing, not a limitation.

Total bandwidth required depends on software streaming settings, number of simultaneous users and usage logic. For a 2 way video chat each user will upload a stream and download a stream, meaning 4 streams are used for 2 users. For a video conference where each users watches other 3 users that user will upload 1 video and download 3 so a total of 4 streams per user will be consumed. For live streaming or consultation where 1 broadcasts and everybody else watches about 1 stream per user will be required (for watching).

Most applications require multiple streams per user depending on communication logic.

All Stream Wowza Media Server plans are hosted on servers with 1000Mbps connection.

VideoWhisper staff monitors total traffic for each account (standard cpanel traffic + rtmp traffic) and suggests upgrade options if more resources are needed.

There is a limit for spikes in bandwidth usage: no more than 10% of total monthly bandwidth can be used in a single day or 5% per day in 3 days or more. This prevents slowdown of service due to traffic spikes.
That means on a 1000Gb plan (for about 33Gb/day average use): if usage exceeds 100Gb in a singled day or 50Gb in 3 different days account should be moved to a more powerful plan. Compared to estimated daily use that's no more than 300% in a day or 150% in 3 different days.
Also using more transcoding threads than channels per plan or using any server resources in a way that can cause important server performance decrease is not allowed.

Customers that expect spikes should get appropriate plans (get hosted on servers that can handle that without performance loss) or a dedicated server.

This keeps all accounts at good performance levels.

All servers are located physically in Unites States (Dallas, Texas).

Streaming plans at 1000Mbps plans in SoftLayer™ networks (connected trough Level 3, SAVVIS, Verio and Global Crossing). All provide incredible transfer speeds and connectivity.

Wowza Media Server application installation is a serviced managed by our team.
If you're not using one of our application and need to install your own, our hosting team will also require Java source code for the server side rtmp library. This is required for review due to security policy.

There is a limit for number of applications our team can manage for each plan (1-10 depending on plan). Unlimited installations can use same application address if room names are different.

Each account is designed to accomodate 1 main domain/website. More domains can redirect to same site as parked domains (some CMS like WordPress multi site allow different parked domains for subsites). Additional domains can be hosted as different sites under same account on higher plans (not StreamDeveloper) as addon domains. All sites/subsites on an account share same resources (including rtmp addresses). Exact number for parked and addon domains depends on plan (contact us with your projected number of sites for suggestions). To host unlimited domains see our dedicated servers that permit unlimited CPanel accounts.

For high traffic sites with hundreds of simultaneous users online we recommend dedicated Wowza Servers.
If you want Wowza for your own dedicated server you will need a Wowza license.