# Question on Basic Plan

**URL:** <https://community.wowza.com/t/question-on-basic-plan/93713>\
**Category:** Wowza Streaming Engine\
**Created:** [August 18, 2021, 7:45am UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/question-on-basic-plan/93713 "2021-08-18T07:45:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Douglas\_Kuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dc4da7/32.png) [@Douglas\_Kuo](https://community.wowza.com/u/Douglas_Kuo)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 7:45am UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/question-on-basic-plan/93713/1 "2021-08-18T07:45:52Z")

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Hi all,

The Basic Plan says “Maximum 10 concurrent, transcoded channels per instance per month”. What does this really mean?

Say we have 2 VOD applications on 1 Wowza server, with Basic Plan, does it mean that

A- maximum of 10 concurrent connection per 1 Wowza server  
or  
B - maximum of 10 concurrent connection per 1 VOD application

and what does "per month’ mean?

appreciate the help!  
Douglas

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**Author:** ![Rose\_Power-Wowza\_Com](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.wowza.com/rose_power-wowza_com/32/431_2.png) [@Rose\_Power-Wowza\_Com](https://community.wowza.com/u/Rose_Power-Wowza_Com)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 8:23pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/question-on-basic-plan/93713/2 "2021-08-18T20:23:05Z")

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> [@Douglas\_Kuo](#):
>
> A- maximum of 10 concurrent connection per 1 Wowza server

It is that one. But that is 10 incoming streams at the same time that need to be transcoded. Not outgoing streams. Also, you can have as many streams as you want going to wowza if they don’t get transcoded.

**Instance** means one server.

If you need more than 10 transcoded incoming streams running at once, you can email [sales@wowza.com](mailto:sales@wowza.com) and talk to them about pricing for what you do need.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Douglas\_Kuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dc4da7/32.png) [@Douglas\_Kuo](https://community.wowza.com/u/Douglas_Kuo)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2021, 12:51am UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/question-on-basic-plan/93713/3 "2021-08-19T00:51:22Z")

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Could you explain what does ‘need to be transcoded’ mean?

If I have 10 concurrent incoming streams requesting digital content, does it mean these 10 are ‘need to be transcoded’?

Appreciate the help!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rose\_Power-Wowza\_Com](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.wowza.com/rose_power-wowza_com/32/431_2.png) [@Rose\_Power-Wowza\_Com](https://community.wowza.com/u/Rose_Power-Wowza_Com)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2021, 2:43am UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/question-on-basic-plan/93713/4 "2021-08-19T02:43:16Z")

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Sure, In streaming, transcoding is when you send us a stream and we repackage it for distribution to reach more viewers on more devices.

For example, you have an IP camera that sends a stream as RTSP and you need to be delivered out over the protocol HLS, which most devices support for playback. Wowza transcoder would convert it from RTSP to HLS.

The transcoder also creates different stream versions of bitrates for someone watching on a 4K tv or someone watching your stream on a mobile phone. They require different stream versions with different bitrates.

Transcoding can mean creating copies of your stream with different bitrates, resolution ,codecs and protocols.

If you send a webrtc stream and it goes to a viewer exactly as webrtc with no changes at all to anything at all, that would not use the transcoder.

Here is a blog to explain it for you:

> **[What Is Transcoding and Why Is It Critical for Streaming? (Update)](https://www.wowza.com/blog/what-is-transcoding-and-why-its-critical-for-streaming)**
>
> Learn what video transcoding is, what it's not, and how it helps streamers expand the reach of their live video and audio content.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Douglas\_Kuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dc4da7/32.png) [@Douglas\_Kuo](https://community.wowza.com/u/Douglas_Kuo)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2021, 8:57am UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/question-on-basic-plan/93713/5 "2021-08-19T08:57:32Z")

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Thanks you for the explanation.

In our situation, all the digital contents are mp4 and mp3 files stored in wowza server’s /content folder.  
Is it safe to say that there will be no ‘transcoding’? Thus, wowza server won’t have 10 concurrent transcode limitation?

Thanks,  
Douglas