Video uploading and live streaming

Question

My organization is a large organization and they are need to create a online channel with 24 hours live streaming support. They are not interested to use 3rd party video hosting sites such as Youtube and Vimeo.

I am the responsible to create a website and mobile application for the channel. But I don't have much idea about the requirements. So please guide me to right directions on the followings,

1. Server configuration (mobile support)
2. Software requirements
3. Best Hosting services
4. Website requirements
5. Mobile application requirements

Answer 1

Adobe Media Server is a good fit for your requirements. There are a few alternatives like wowza, but Adobe's Server offers lots of bells and whistles. The idea with Adobe is simple, you set a publishing point, and push your video/audio contents to it, and use the link of the stream in your HTML5 video tag.

An article about this (Older version of Media Server) is here for your reference. http://www.adobe.com/devnet/adobe-media-server/articles/beginner_live_fms3.html

Website requirements and mobile app requirements are not that complicated as long as you stick with HTML5, and HTML5 is almost 'mobile ready'. All you got to do is to use the streaming link from the Media Server, and you are good.

Well, the server hardware and network requirements depends on the amount of data you stream and simultaneous visitors viewing your stream. Its fine for you to run your own dedicated server at your premises if you have access to a high speed dedicated ISP.

CPU:Core 2 Quad(Quad Core Q6600) or i7(i7 920) are good rigs. RAM: 4-8 GB HDD: 1TB

Bandwidth: must be unmetered, dedicated, 1:1 (Start with 20Mbps then upgrade to 50Mbps, 100Mbps, etc when needed)

As for how much bandwidth you need, you just have to do simple math... one video played means (video bitrate + audio bitrate + 5% tolerance ) x number of people watching the video at the same time.

Example: 100 people watching a video at same time with the specs 160 kbps video and 48 kbps audio means you need at least (160 + 48) * 1.05 * 100 = 21840 kbps or 22 mbps.

If you cannot meet the above requirements, you can opt for hosted solutions, where they charge you per GB of bandwidth you stream.