Streaming low-latency HD video in browser

Wowza Streaming Engine
1

Hello.

We are looking for the best way to stream a live video in HD in a web browser and on iOS devices. Here is our target configuration:

  • HD video (1080x1920) in H264 coming from an Axis camera

  • lowest latency as possible in order to control the camera with a video delay as small as possible

  • stream the video on iOS devices and in a browser

We already had the stream to work in VLC and on iOS with an acceptable delay through a Wowza Streaming Engine (4.7.3 with a license key), but we struggle to make it work in a browser. We have found two possible solutions to play the video in a browser but each have their own issues:

  • either play the RTSP stream in a flash player; but it introduces more delay than with VLC or our player in iOS (about 2 more seconds)

  • or use the WebRTC add-on in preview (https://www.wowza.com/products/capabilities/webrtc-streaming-software); but the bitrate is limited to 400Kbps and we fear that it is not enough for our HD stream (that can easily reach a few Mbps)

What should we do? Try to optimise the RTSP stream and the flash player configuration to decrease the delay or stick with WebRTC and try to reduce the bitrate of our stream (it is not desirable to degrade the video quality in our use case).

Thank you for your help.

2

Hello

Low-latency options are evolving to replace RTMP. Wowza’s WebRTC implementation is a “preview” feature and does not currently support iOS device playback. More development on this is on the roadmap but currently not available. Playback in mobile devices with WebRTC may require a custom application.

Low-latency HLS is possible with Wowza Streaming Engine by reducing the chunk sizes in your packetization settings but the delay will still likely be around 6-10 seconds. If this is acceptable, it would probably be the most compatible stream type. More information on how to configure this can be found in this article.

Best regards,

Andrew

3

Hello,

Thank you for your quick answer.

Actually we already set up an RTSP stream to which iOS clients can connect and it works fine. But very few players can read RTSP in a browser.

We are ready to use two different applications for the same stream but for different client types. What we are looking for is the best application type/protocol combination for a very low latency stream in a browser (on any platform).

Do you have any advice for this specific use case?

Best regards