Developer(s) | Softvelum [1] |
---|---|
Stable release | 4.0.0-1 [2] / March 9, 2022 |
Operating system | Linux, Windows, Raspbian |
Type | Enterprise and carrier class server software |
License | Proprietary |
Website | softvelum |
Nimble Streamer is a software media server developed by Softvelum.[ citation needed ] The server is used for streaming of live and on-demand video and audio to desktop computers, mobile devices, internet-connected TV sets, IPTV set-top boxes and other network-connected devices. [3] Its first stable version 1.0.0-1 was released on October, 21st, 2013, with a number of preliminary versions done before that. The release cycle is intensive and introduces a new version every week or less. [2] Nimble Streamer was the finalist in Streaming Media European Readers' Choice Awards for 2016 as the Best Streaming Innovation [4] and for 2021 as Hardware/software Server. [5]
Nimble Streamer is delivered as an application for Linux and Windows. [6] Its basic scenarios include streaming from live sources, streaming from VOD files and cache-aware HTTP re-streaming. For live streaming it takes RTMP, RTSP, MPEG-TS, SRT, UDT and Icecast as input and produces MPEG-DASH, [7] HLS, RTMP, RTSP, MPEG-TS, SRT, UDT, SLDP and Icecast. [8] VOD is available as MP4 transmuxing to HLS and MPEG-DASH for both H.265 and H.264. HEVC is also supported for various live streaming protocols output. [9] MPEG-DASH output is supported in live and VOD modes.
Low Latency HLS is supported in Nimble Streamer [10] starting from version 3.6.3-3. [2]
The developer company is a member of SRT Alliance [11] as a collaborator [12] and contributor of open-source implementation of SRT protocol.
NDI is supported as both input and output. [13]
RIST streaming protocol is supported for input and output. [14]
The program also covers progressive download for multiple formats, with seeking capabilities for HTML5 and Flash playback. [15] HTTP re-streaming covers HLS, MPEG-DASH, HDS and SmoothStreaming. It can be used as a source for peer-to-peer media streaming. [16]
Live Transcoder for Nimble Streamer supports decoding, filtering and encoding for H.264, HEVC, MPEG2, MPEG4, VP8, VP9 video and AAC, MP3, MP2, Speex, PCM G.711 audio. [17]
A premium add-on [18] provides server-side ads insertion with pre-rolls and mid-rolls for HLS, RTMP, SLDP and Icecast live streams, as well as DRM protection with Widevine, PlayReady and FairPlay.
The Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) is an application-level network protocol designed for multiplexing and packetizing multimedia transport streams over a suitable transport protocol. RTSP is used in entertainment and communications systems to control streaming media servers. The protocol is used for establishing and controlling media sessions between endpoints. Clients of media servers issue commands such as play, record and pause, to facilitate real-time control of the media streaming from the server to a client or from a client to the server.
FFmpeg is a free and open-source software project consisting of a suite of libraries and programs for handling video, audio, and other multimedia files and streams. At its core is the command-line ffmpeg
tool itself, designed for processing video and audio files. It is widely used for format transcoding, basic editing, video scaling, video post-production effects, and standards compliance.
Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver digital video content over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player version 6 and newer. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. There are two different Flash Video file formats: FLV and F4V. The audio and video data within FLV files are encoded in the same way as SWF files. The F4V file format is based on the ISO base media file format, starting with Flash Player 9 update 3. Both formats are supported in Adobe Flash Player and developed by Adobe Systems. FLV was originally developed by Macromedia. In the early 2000s, Flash Video was the de facto standard for web-based streaming video. Users include Hulu, VEVO, Yahoo! Video, metacafe, Reuters.com, and many other news providers.
Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) is a communication protocol for streaming audio, video, and data over the Internet. Originally developed as a proprietary protocol by Macromedia for streaming between Flash Player and the Flash Communication Server, Adobe has released an incomplete version of the specification of the protocol for public use.
GPAC Project on Advanced Content is an open-source multimedia framework focused on modularity and standards compliance. GPAC was created as an implementation of the MPEG-4 Systems standard written in ANSI C and later extended in Streaming Media. GPAC provides tools to process, inspect, package, stream, media playback and interact with media content. Such content can be any combination of audio, video, subtitles, metadata, encrypted media, rendering and ECMAScript.
The Secure Real-Time Media Flow Protocol (RTMFP) is a protocol suite developed by Adobe Systems for encrypted, efficient multimedia delivery through both client-server and peer-to-peer models over the Internet. The protocol was originally proprietary, but was later opened up and is now published as RFC 7016.
HTTP Live Streaming is an HTTP-based adaptive bitrate streaming communications protocol developed by Apple Inc. and released in 2009. Support for the protocol is widespread in media players, web browsers, mobile devices, and streaming media servers. As of 2022, an annual video industry survey has consistently found it to be the most popular streaming format.
The Helix Universal Media Server was a product developed by RealNetworks and originates from the first streaming media server originally developed by Progressive Networks in 1994. It supported a variety of streaming media delivery transports including MPEG-DASH RTMP (flash), RTSP (standard), HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), Microsoft Silverlight and HTTP Progressive Download enabling mobile phone OS and PC OS media client delivery.
Adaptive bitrate streaming is a technique used in streaming multimedia over computer networks.
Sirannon is a free, open-source, media server and client. The goal is to aid in video research and experimental streaming. Sirannon allows the programmer to create a wide variety of media-handling components such as streaming, reading, writing, packetizing. By organizing these components in a workflow the programmer can create many applications such as a media server, media proxy or video tool. Sirannon was introduced at the ACM multimedia conference in October 2009 under its former name xStreamer.
Wowza Streaming Engine is a unified streaming media server software developed by Wowza. The server is used for streaming of live and on-demand video, audio, and rich Internet applications over IP networks to desktop, laptop, and tablet computers, mobile devices, IPTV set-top boxes, internet-connected TV sets, game consoles, and other network-connected devices. The server is a Java application deployable on most operating systems.
Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH), also known as MPEG-DASH, is an adaptive bitrate streaming technique that enables high quality streaming of media content over the Internet delivered from conventional HTTP web servers. Similar to Apple's HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) solution, MPEG-DASH works by breaking the content into a sequence of small segments, which are served over HTTP. An early HTTP web server based streaming system called SProxy was developed and deployed in the Hewlett Packard Laboratories in 2006. It showed how to use HTTP range requests to break the content into small segments. SProxy shows the effectiveness of segment based streaming, gaining best Internet penetration due to the wide deployment of firewalls, and reducing the unnecessary traffic transmission if a user chooses to terminate the streaming session earlier before reaching the end. Each segment contains a short interval of playback time of content that is potentially many hours in duration, such as a movie or the live broadcast of a sport event. The content is made available at a variety of different bit rates, i.e., alternative segments encoded at different bit rates covering aligned short intervals of playback time. While the content is being played back by an MPEG-DASH client, the client uses a bit rate adaptation (ABR) algorithm to automatically select the segment with the highest bit rate possible that can be downloaded in time for playback without causing stalls or re-buffering events in the playback. The current MPEG-DASH reference client dash.js offers both buffer-based (BOLA) and hybrid (DYNAMIC) bit rate adaptation algorithms. Thus, an MPEG-DASH client can seamlessly adapt to changing network conditions and provide high quality playback with few stalls or re-buffering events.
Unreal Media Server is a streaming server software created by Unreal Streaming Technologies.
OBS Studio is a free and open-source, cross-platform screencasting and streaming app. It is available for Windows, macOS, Linux distributions, and BSD. The OBS Project raises funds on Open Collective and Patreon.
Media Source Extensions (MSE) is a W3C specification that allows JavaScript to send byte streams to media codecs within web browsers that support HTML video and audio. Among other possible uses, this allows the implementation of client-side prefetching and buffering code for streaming media entirely in JavaScript. It is compatible with, but should not be confused with, the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) specification, and neither requires the use of the other, although many EME implementations are only capable of decrypting media data provided via MSE.
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Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) is an open source video transport protocol that utilises the UDP transport protocol. The SRT Protocol specification is available as an Internet Draft from the IETF.
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