Wowza Media Systems Releases Next-Generation Wowza Media Server 3

By | October 11, 2011

EVERGREEN, CO — October 11, 2011 — Wowza® Media Systems today announced a major milestone in the evolution of media streaming with the release of Wowza Media Server® 3, the next generation of its award-winning software platform that provides a single extensible foundation and value-added components for “Any Screen Done Right™” media delivery.

Wowza Media Server has long been hailed as the premier media server software delivering 99 percent overall customer satisfaction, and this next generation software offers the broadest any-screen coverage for Adobe® Flash®, Microsoft® Silverlight®, iPhone®, iPad®, Android™, other smartphones and tablets, smart TVs, and IPTV/OTT set-top boxes. The Wowza Media Server 3 platform advances media streaming to a new level of simplicity and cost-effectiveness with a variety of AddOn components that help organizations of any size to deliver live and on-demand content efficiently.

“Wowza Media Server 3 delivers the essential functionality and features that are must-haves for our business: module development flexibility, multidevice versatility, and on-the-fly security integrated with third-party studio-approved DRM platforms,” said Julien Marusi, vice president of technology at Vivendi Mobile Entertainment. Vivendi Mobile Entertainment uses Wowza Media Server software for streaming on its zaOza service, the first legal service for sharing and downloading of digital content in France.

Verismo Networks, a provider of end-to-end broadband entertainment services, also has high praise for Wowza Media Server. “Wowza is spot-on at addressing the needs of the market,” said Vijay Maheshwari, Verismo Networks CTO and co-founder. “Wowza Media Server software has already enabled us to launch Mela”, a global multiplatform consumer entertainment service with one of the largest aggregations of premium South Asian video content. The new Wowza Media Server 3 DRM integration opens up many new revenue opportunities for us for streaming premium content secured by studio-approved Verimatrix DRM. Wowza nDVR™ AddOn lets us deliver the viewing experience customers crave on whatever device they are using.”

New capabilities of the Wowza Media Server 3 platform include:

  • Integrated live adaptive bitrate (ABR) transcoding enabled by Wowza Transcoder™ AddOn eliminates the provisioning complexity typical of adaptive bitrate streaming, reduces needed access bandwidth by up to 80 percent, and enables better utilization of network resources such as routers and switches. Wowza Transcoder takes advantage of standard hardware to transform incoming live streams from encoders, IP cameras, IPTV headends, and other live sources into multiple stream sets for Flash RTMP and HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS), HLS, smooth streaming, and non-adaptive delivery for RTSP/RTP and MPEG-TS.
  • Any-screen time-shifted delivery of live streams with Wowza nDVR AddOn enables Wowza licensees to increase revenues and viewer engagement by delivering premium catch-up TV services. Wowza nDVR significantly reduces cost by minimizing network storage requirements and simplifying the delivery workflow for all screens.
  • Support for multiple studio-approved DRM platforms provides content owners and delivery networks with robust and truly secure streaming with on-the-fly encryption for both live and on-demand content to any screen — computers, mobile devices, and TVs — with a choice of industry-leading digital rights management platforms, including Verimatrix® VCAS™ and Microsoft PlayReady®.
  • Unconstrained per-server capacity with no CPU core limitations means media publishers can take full advantage of the highly-threaded multicore hardware for even higher streaming efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
  • Flexible and cost-effective licensing choices for any application and budget, including the risk-free monthly subscription license that requires no upfront investment and that provides free upgrades, automatic volume discounts, and the convenience of using any number of servers and AddOns with a single license key.

Pricing and availability

Wowza Media Server 3 Monthly Edition is offered at $55 per month for the first server, a 15 percent reduction from Wowza Media Server 2 subscription fees. A single-channel monthly fee for Wowza Transcoder is $30 per month. Wowza nDVR and Wowza DRM™ AddOns are offered at $20 and $55 per server/month, respectively. Discounts are automatically applied to monthly server and AddOn fees for volume use.

A newly introduced Wowza Media Server 3 Daily Edition enables streaming with all AddOn capabilities at low daily fees. The server fee is only $5 per day, plus $3 per day per each Wowza Transcoder channel, $2 per day for Wowza nDVR AddOn, and $5 per day for Wowza DRM AddOn.

The price of Wowza Media Server 3 Perpetual Edition licenses is unchanged at $995. Optional AddOn components for the Wowza Media Server 3 Perpetual Edition include the two-channel Wowza Transcoder AddOn license priced at $1495 (stackable for additional per-server transcoding capacity), Wowza nDVR AddOn single license at $495, and Wowza DRM AddOn at $995. Automatic discounts apply to multilicense purchases.

All licensing editions are available for purchase immediately at www.wowza.com/store. More information about licensing options and pricing is available at www.wowza.com/pricing.html.

 

About Wowza Media Systems

Wowza® Media Systems is the “Any Screen Done Right™” media server software company delivering an industrial-strength infrastructure for live video, video-on-demand, live recording, and video chat. Wowza has a singular focus on delivering high-performance media server software to service providers, media properties, enterprises, and other organizations serious about delivering video to any digital screen — computer, mobile phone, or home TV. More than 85,000 global licensees in entertainment, social media, advertising, enterprise, education, government, and Internet commerce have deployed Wowza’s media server software to date. Wowza Media Systems is privately held with headquarters in Evergreen, Colo. More information is available at www.wowza.com.

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Wowza and related marks are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Wowza Media Systems Inc. Third-party product names and related marks are either registered trademarks or trademarks of such third parties.