Streaming of HLS Content from Windows Azure

Question

For the sake of argument, lets assume I have 5000 files that i've transcoded to HLS mp4s

I want to host them from Windows Azure, I don't think i can just put them in a CDN, do i need to host them through azure media services? What is the additional cost?

Any thoughts / HLS Education much appreciated

HC

Answer 1

Windows Azure Media Services uses a storage account of your subscription to store the media files you want to publish. So storing Videos in Windows Azure is as expensive as storing them as blobs (about 0,70c per GB at the moment). But you need to keep in mind that encoding videos for smooth streaming means to store them in multiple resolutions for any bandwidth. So it's getting more expensive the more streaming variants you offer.

Hosting the media files in a blob storage won't supply you with smooth streaming capabilities. You can only provide progressive downloadable files (.mp4 files) at a fix transfer rate. In order to provide smooth streaming you need to publish your assets via Windows Azure Media Services. They use an IIS feature for Smooth Streaming. There's no additional fee specified for publishing videos via WAMS, so I'd expect you to be billed the usual 12c/GB for outbound traffic.

There are special fees for Windows Azure Media Services, tough:

• Encoding 1GB of data costs 1.99$
• Having a server dedicated for your encoding jobs is 99$
• Having a server dedicated for your streaming is 199$

For more information you might want to have a look at the full pricing calculator of Windows Azure and the WAMS site.

HTH