API Access and Live Video Stream Considerations With Wowza Streaming Cloud

When building a live-streaming video app, you probably want to start off by getting your hands on some streaming tools and experimenting with what you want to build. For example, you can sign up for a free trial of the Wowza Streaming Cloud™ service, and create a sample app using a developer toolkit such as the Wowza GoCoder™ SDK.

After testing your sample app, you’re ready to push to production—but you’ll need to get access to the Wowza Streaming Cloud API for processing services. In this video tutorial, we’ll walk you through gaining API access, and cover some key considerations for building a livestream app, such as:

• How large of a viewer base do you expect to broadcast to?
• Will your app be broadcasting live video, receiving live video or both?
• What encoding software or hardware will you be using?

Watch the video below to get started:

Want to learn more? Visit our API documentation at https://sandbox.cloud.wowza.com/api/current/docs.

Full Video Transcription

Justin Miller: Hi, I’m Justin Miller here at Wowza Media Systems. Once you’re ready to develop your own live-streaming video apps with our Wowza GoCoder SDK, you’ll need API access to Wowza Streaming Cloud, which provides processing services. API access isn’t something currently offered through a trial account.

By going to our developer site and signing up for a paid account, you’ll be able to program the management and monitoring of every aspect of multiple live video streams through the apps your create. Keep in mind there are usage charges involved when streaming live video, beyond monthly fees. Those usage charges depend on how you apply live video as part of your application.

Is your app going to be used present a live stream to thousands of users across the planet? Or is this for users to stream live to their own audience? Will your app be for broadcasting live video, or for receiving live video? Remember, you can always use other encoders out there to broadcast, such as OBS or Teradek, and playback can always be done though other options beyond your app, like your own website, set-top boxes and even social media networks.

Once you’ve signed up for a full Wowza Streaming Cloud account, you can login from cloud.wowza.com.

In the top-right, under your name, you’ll see the option for API Access. Once you click on it, you’ll see information on using the API. We do have a sandbox area we recommend using. When accessing the API for testing, using the sandbox doesn’t incur costs against your account or any limits you may have. Anything you create there won’t be functioning, but will give proper responses. So this is perfect for testing.

To access the API, you’ll need two pieces of information. The first is your API key: This is an account-level key. All Access Keys inside the account will use this. You’ll also need to add a unique Access Key. Create a quick description, then click Add. Now you have your Access Key. You’ll be using both of these in the headers of your requests to fully access the API.

Last thing you’ll want to do is download an API testing tool, such as POSTMAN or PAW. We’ll be using PAW for future examples on the Mac, but please use whatever works best for you. Testing with cURL commands through a shell is always an option.

That’s it for now. Thanks for watching. And happy developing.