Wowza Announces New Broadcaster Tools with ClearCaster Update

By | April 9, 2018

New Features for Redundancy, Simulcasting and Publishing to Drive Broadcast-Quality Engagements to Facebook Live and Beyond

LAS VEGAS – NAB SHOW – APRIL 9, 2018 – Wowza Media Systems™, the gold standard in streaming software, services and hardware, announced updates to the Wowza ClearCaster™ appliance, aimed at meeting demands for today’s professional broadcasters. ClearCaster now provides automated redundancy setup, ensuring unparalleled reliability on Facebook Live, as well as the ability to simulcast streams through the Wowza Streaming Cloud™ service.

“From redundancy to simulcasting and new publishing tools, these latest updates are designed for professional broadcasters to deliver the best possible experience on Facebook Live and elsewhere,” said Dave Stubenvoll, CEO and co-founder at Wowza. “ClearCaster provides the only way to deliver the highest-quality 1080 streams to Facebook Live, while also powering one-click simulcasting and bulletproof reliability.”

ClearCaster’s built-in redundancy capabilities allow broadcasters to run multiple devices, and failover or toggle between two or more paired machines. Broadcasters can also remotely manage ClearCaster through Wowza ClearCaster Manager (available at http://clearcaster.wowza.com): a user interface where users can start and stop streams, adjust settings, configure redundancy and many other features.

To help broadcasters deliver to audiences beyond Facebook Live, ClearCaster can now simulcast broadcast-quality streams through Wowza Streaming Cloud. Users simply pre-set a stream target in Wowza Streaming Cloud, then provide the connection code in ClearCaster Manager when setting up the stream to select their simulcast destination.

As part of this update, ClearCaster also offers several new native publishing features to increase audience reach and engagement. This includes the ability to restrict viewing audiences based on location, age or gender to aid with audience targeting and limit the viewership area for posts. Furthermore, ClearCaster supports embedded 608 captions, helping public broadcasters and news organizations satisfy FCC closed-captioning requirements for social audiences.

To increase the overall engagement of Facebook Live viewing on mobile devices, ClearCaster offers broadcast 1:1 aspect video options. Broadcasters simply select the Mobile Video Optimization checkbox in their ClearCaster settings, and the video is immediately cropped to fit, with the live preview of the cropped feed available on the Talent View display.

ClearCaster Now Available in 1080 and 4K Versions

Wowza has further updated the pricing and core functionality of the ClearCaster appliance, introducing a new version: ClearCaster 1080. Priced at $2,995, ClearCaster 1080 delivers crisp HD-quality video to Facebook, and allows for redundancy and simulcasting to multiple destinations. ClearCaster 4K, priced at $6,495, will support UHD ingest and deliver in 4K to Facebook Live when supported; it also comes with a free one-year subscription to Wowza Streaming Cloud, as well as advanced comment moderation features.

Wowza will be showcasing the updates to ClearCaster during the 2018 NAB Show and Expo at its booth (SU 11010). To schedule a time for a private demo and take advantage of the many promotions running during NAB, please visit: https://calendly.com/wowza/nab-2018.

For more information, or to purchase ClearCaster online, visit www.clearcaster.com.

About Wowza Media Systems

Wowza Media Systems™ is the recognized gold standard of streaming, with more than 22,000 customers in 170+ countries. By reducing the complexities of video and audio delivery to any device, Wowza™ enables organizations to expand their reach and more deeply engage their audiences, in industries ranging from education to broadcasting. Service providers, direct customers and partners worldwide trust Wowza products to provide robust, customizable and scalable streaming solutions—with powerful APIs and SDKs to meet organizations’ evolving streaming needs. Wowza was founded in 2005, is privately held, and is headquartered in Colorado. For more information, please visit www.wowza.com.

Contacts
Chris Michaels
Director of Communications
(805) 390-0819
chris.michaels@wowza.com