Version: Wowza Streaming Engine™ 4.8.27+5 build 20240402153452 released April 3, 2024.
Java support: Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.27 is built on Java 11 (OpenJDK Java SE JRE 11.0.2) but can be used with Java versions 11 - 12. For more information, see Manually install and troubleshoot Java on Wowza Streaming Engine.
New features and functionality in Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.27
Wowza Streaming Engine is a robust, customizable, and scalable media server software that powers reliable streaming of high-quality video and audio to any device, anywhere. Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.27 contains enhancements and fixes that improve the functionality of the media server software.
Improved Wowza Streaming Engine with Wowza Video features
We made various enhancements to offer a more complete experience to Wowza Streaming Engine with Wowza Video customers. As part of this work, we delivered several features to leverage our hybrid cloud platform solution for end-to-end streaming seamlessly. Changes include the following:
- Made security improvements to encrypt and obfuscate the Wowza Video API token used when creating Wowza Video stream targets. This enhancement helps our customers maintain SOC 2 compliance by ensuring access tokens are always stored securely.
- Streamlined the Test Playback modal in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager to improve playback URL generation. This enhancement builds on our previous solution, creating more accurate URLs that better respect protocols and ports.
- Improved the Wowza Video Transcoder stream target workflow by incorporating it into the existing Wowza Video CDN distribution steps. This simplifies the exchange to push stream targets from Wowza Streaming Manager to Wowza Video for transcoding. It also lets you start and stop Wowza Video transcoders from Wowza Streaming Engine Manager when creating adaptive bitrate (ABR) ladders for your streams. For more, see:
- Updated the Wowza Streaming Engine REST API to include Wowza Video stream target attributes for liveStreamId, playbackUrl, liveStreamPlayerUrl, and liveStreamEmbedCode. These parameters are added by Wowza Video when a stream target is initialized and fully provisioned using the wowza-video-transcoder profile. For more, see Wowza Video sample profile entries.
Improved SCTE-35 ad insertion for HLS live streams
We added documentation explaining how to use the Wowza Streaming Engine Java API to access and insert MPEG-TS SCTE-35 tags when streaming an HLS live stream. To accomplish this task, we recommend using the new ModuleAdMarker class over the legacy stream target API method. To work with this new module and to learn about its benefits, see Access MPEG-TS SCTE-35 tags for HLS streaming.
Improved AMD Xilinx accelerated transcoding
We made major improvements to stabilize the transcoding of WebRTC inputs with the AMD Xilinx Alveo U30 card. Therefore, support for transcoding WebRTC inputs is promoted from preview to production mode in Wowza Streaming Engine version 4.8.27. Improvements fixed issues with stream interruptions when the card is full, or when the stream has many resolution changes. For more, see:
- Configure an AMD Xilinx accelerated transcoding for Wowza Streaming Engine
- Limitations of AMD Xilinx acceleration with Wowza Streaming Engine transcoding
Improved SRT stream creation via the Wowza Streaming Engine REST API
With Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.27, we made changes to improve the creation of SRT stream files via the Wowza Streaming Engine REST API. The mpegTSFilters property was added to the Swagger model for the PUT endpoint that handles updates for advanced stream settings. For more information and details, see this SRT example.
Installation and update considerations for Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.27
If you're updating to Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.27 from a base installation of Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.17 or earlier, see Updating to Wowza Streaming Engine version 4.8.18 or later.
When using the Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.27 installer to install a new instance of Wowza Streaming Engine on Windows, you may need to install additional dependencies to ingest SRT MediaCaster streams or use the generic SRT stream targets destination to publish an SRT stream. For more information, see our Ingest and publish an SRT stream guide.
For step-by-step instructions on how to install or update Wowza Streaming Engine, see the following articles:
- Install – Install and configure Wowza Streaming Engine
- Update – Update your Wowza Streaming Engine installation
Breaking changes in Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.27
Wowza Video Transcoder connection code stream targets
If you're using Wowza Video Legacy and Wowza Video Transcoder connection code stream targets in Wowza Streaming Manager, upgrading to Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.27 introduces breaking changes. You need to update to the new Wowza Video experience to retain this functionality. Please contact support if you need help with your upgrade.
Java versions
Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.18 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.
Important notes about changing the Java version:
- Previous versions of Wowza Streaming Engine media server software were built on Java 9. If you're updating an earlier installation of Wowza Streaming Engine 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.
- If your Wowza Streaming Engine workflow uses custom modules or plugins, we recommend that you test them with Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.18 in a non-production environment prior to updating your media server software. The following Java modules are included:
- java.base
- java.datatransfer
- java.desktop
- java.instrument
- java.logging
- java.management
- java.management.rmi
- java.naming
- java.prefs
- java.rmi
- java.scripting
- java.scripting.jgss
- java.security.sasl
- java.sql
- java.transaction.xa
- java.xml
- jdk.crypto.cryptoki
- jdk.crypto.ec
- jdk.httpserver
- jdk.management
- jdk.management.agent
- jdk.naming.rmi
- jdk.unsupported
- jdk.xml.dom
- If you have other dependencies, you must install a Java 11 JRE or JDK that includes all your dependencies.
For more information, see Manually install and troubleshoot Java on Wowza Streaming Engine.
Detailed list of changes in Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.27
Changes since Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.26
- Added documentation explaining how to use the ModuleAdMarkers class and Java API to insert SCTE-35 tags for HLS live streams.
- Updated documentation to better define LL-HLS EXT-X-SERVER-CONTROL properties for Low-Latency HLS (LL-HLS) live streams.
- Updated our Facebook Graph API to version 19.0.
- Made security improvements to encrypt and obfuscate the Wowza Video API token used when creating Wowza Video stream targets.
- Streamlined the Test Playback modal in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager to improve playback URL generation.
- Improved the Wowza Video Transcoder stream target workflow so it can be managed entirely in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager.
- Updated the Wowza Streaming Engine REST API to include Wowza Video stream target attributes for liveStreamId, playbackUrl, liveStreamPlayerUrl, and liveStreamEmbedCode.
- Promoted the transcoding of WebRTC inputs with the AMD Xilinx Alveo U30 card from preview to production mode.
- Fixed an issue with low-latency CMAF HLS streams where the EXT-X-PRELOAD-HINT improperly preloaded segments when using the byDuration chunking scheme.
- Fixed an issue with AMD Xilinx transcoding preventing upscaling when input and higher-resolution streams are included as outputs.
- Fixed an issue with AMD Xilinx transcoding causing incorrect stream outputs when using frame rate reduction and omitting a lower-resolution stream.
- Fixed an issue preventing the mpegTSFilters property from being added when an SRT stream file is created with the Wowza Streaming Engine REST API.
- Fixed an issue causing the RESOLUTION attribute in HLS playlists to be missing for CMAF stream targets.
- Fixed an issue related to the Stream Publisher API causing sources with different audio and video durations to appear out of sync.
- Fixed an issue preventing the Stream Files link in the contents panel from being visible for Live HTTP Origin applications.
- Fixed an issue with custom stream target properties by moving the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Encryption configuration to the Advanced tab for Wowza Streaming Engine, Akamai, Limelight, and RTMP (generic) stream target destinations.
- Fixed an issue causing connections using chunklist.m3u8 in the playback URL to open more sessions than needed.
- Fixed an issue causing Wowza Video Transcoder stream targets with connection codes to start incorrectly in versions 4.8.24 to 4.8.26.
- Fixed an issue causing segments with out-of-sync timecodes in HLS manifests when using NVIDIA with CMAF and H.265.
Known issues with Wowza Streaming Engine 4.8.27
For a detailed list of currently known issues, see Known issues with Wowza Streaming Engine.
