Wowza Video technical specifications

Updated on 11/21/2024 11:52 am PST

Wowza Video is a powerful and versatile streaming platform designed to cater to a wide spectrum of streaming needs. It enables businesses to stream high-quality video content seamlessly, whether for live events, on-demand viewing, or interactive video experiences. With a Wowza Video subscription, you can access live streaming and video management, the ability to configure multiple players for your business needs, a deep insight into analytics, and much more! Contact our sales team or visit our website to learn more about Wowza Video.  

Note: Wowza supports the technical specifications shown below.

Wowza Video

Below are the technical specifications required by the core Wowza Video product.

Inputs

Name Description
Cameras
 

Wowza Video supports devices compatible with RTMP, RTSP/RTP, SRT, UDP, and WebRTC protocols.

Examples:

  • Axis®
  • JVC® 
  • Panasonic
  • PTZOptics
  • Sony®  
Codecs Audio: AAC, AAC-LC, HE-AAC (accPlus) v1 & v2, MP3, Opus
Video: H.264, H.265 compatible for SRT only
Encoders
 

Wowza Video supports encoders compatible with standard protocols, such as H.264 encoders that use RTMP, RTSP/RTP, SRT, UDP, and WebRTC protocols.

Examples:

  • OBS Studio
  • Black Magic 
  • Epiphan Systems Pearl
  • Hauppauge StreamEez-Pro
  • LiveU
  • Matrox Monarch
  • NewTek TriCaster
  • Osprey (Talon hardware and Ceylon software encoders)
  • Telestream Wirecast
  • Teradek Cube
  • vMix live production software and vMix Go
  • xSplit 
Protocols RTMP 
RTSP/RTP
SRT
WebRTC

Outputs

Name Description
Codecs Audio: AAC, Opus 
Video: H.264 
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

Wowza CDN

Wowza supports other CDNs.
In the UI - Add a CDN as an external service on the Components tab for the live stream. See Live streams details page for more information.

In the API - Add a CDN as a custom stream target using the POST /stream_targets/custom endpoint. 

You'll need to have an account with the third-party CDN and be able to provide the primary URL and log in credentials to Wowza Video.
Devices  Desktop and laptop computers
Gaming consoles
iOS/iPadOS and Android devices
IPTV/OTT devices
Smart TVs
Tablets
HD support  Up to 4K/UHD (premium feature)
Up to 60FPS
Players 

Wowza Flowplayer - included with Wowza Video browser-based playback. 

Wowza Video also supports any player that can play the output protocols like:

  • iOS native player (HLS)
  • Android (with HLS-compatible players)
  • JW Player® (HLS)
  • QuickTime® Player (10.0 or later for OS X)
  • VLC Media Player
Protocols HLS
MPEG-DASH
RTMP
WebRTC

System requirements

You can sign in to Wowza Video using any modern web browser that supports HTML5 and Cascading Style Sheets level 3 (CSS 3). The Wowza Video web user interface has been most extensively tested on Google Chrome, however, so for best results we recommend that you use the latest version of Google Chrome.

Videos

The Videos section is our awesome new way to manage your video content.

Name Description
API access REST API: integrated into Wowza Video API
HLS streaming renditions

Wowza Video supports renditions up to 1080p, where the bitrate is based on the input video. 


Note: Wowza Video does not upscale videos. For example, if you input a 360p video, you will not receive an output video higher than 360p.
Input formats

Direct from Wowza Video live stream
Upload Format from UI or API

  • MP4 format only (audio + video, audio-only, and multi-audio videos)
  • 50 GB or less per file
  • H.264, AAC (mono, stereo, and 7.1 multi-channel audio support), and Opus (real-time streams) encoded content. We support all audio and video codecs supported by AWS. Uploads that consist of any unsupported codecs are rejected.
  • Only 8-bit color space sources are supported. Uploads consisting of 10-bit and 12-bit inputs are rejected.
Output format
  • MP4 for download and fallback for devices that don't support HLS.
  • HLS adaptive streaming (h264+AAC).
  • DRM is available (premium feature).
View control
  • Publishing date - makes the video viewable after specified date.
  • Unpublishing date - makes the video unavailable after specified date.
  • Geoblocking
VOD stats Incorporated into Analytics

Analytics

Name Description
Historic
(up to the last 12 months)
  • Total viewers
  • Popularity
  • Engagement
  • Viewers by renditions, countries, and devices
  • Top videos and live streams

Note: The data for Popularity and Engagement charts are returned from Wowza Flowplayer. If you're using a different player for your live stream, you'll need to change to Wowza Flowplayer to take advantage of this player-driven data. You’ll also need to be using the Wowza CDN to receive all other analytics data.
Current
(last hour)
  • Viewers
    • Right now
    • In the last hour
      • Live streams
      • Videos
      • Total
  • Viewers by renditions, countries, and devices
  • Top Videos and Live streams

Quality of Experience

Note: Quality of Experience metrics is a premium feature available exclusively to Wowza Video subscribers with an annual subscription. To access this feature for enhanced streaming insights, contact our sales team.
  • Plays by device
  • Total plays
  • Video start time
    • Median start time
    • Bottom 5%
  • Rebuffer time
    • Average rebuffer time
  • Rebuffer count
    • Average rebufer count

Video Players

Chrome is the preferred browser for Wowza Video playback and has been extensively tested. Any browser that supports HTML 5 should work, but playback on older browsers or browsers not listed here is not guaranteed.

Wowza Flowplayer 

Wowza Flowplayer is an easy-to-use, commercial-grade video player designed for builders and developers. It provides HTML5, HLS, and MPEG-DASH playback and plays streams on most browsers and devices. It is the default player for Wowza Video subscribers. Wowza Flowplayer is lightweight and customizable through reskinning, web components, and API requests. There are more than thirty plugins you can use to add only the functionality you need.

Name Description
Analytics Comscore, Google Analytics, Gemius
Digital Rights Management (DRM)

FairPlay
PlayReady
Widevine
Clearkey
Formats

Video Formats

  • HLS
  • HTML5
  • DASH
  • MP4 (MPEG-4 part 10)
  • WebM (VP8 / VP9)

Audio Formats

  • MP3
  • AAC in audio MP4 and HLS
Metadata HLS ID3
SDK support HTML5
Mobile
  • Android
  • iOS
Set Top Box (STB)
  • tvOS
Subtitles
  • CEA-608/708
  • webVTT text track files
  • webVTT in an HLS .m3u8 manifest
  • SCTE embedded captions
Customization Player API
Customizable plugins
Skinning with CSS
Cast to Airplay and Chromecast devices
Customize UI with Web Components
Extensible with custom plugins
Picture-in-picture
Social sharing
Subtitles
Thumbnail previews
Manual quality and speed selection
Accessibility Keyboard control
UI text is translatable
Screen-reader ready

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