Azure Media Services Migration

[f196271a1fc84ac928d5]

I am new to wowza and wanted to explore options for migration from azure media services. Our main usage is video encoding and then using azure media player to stream videos. Currently we use an adaptive bitrate encoder.

1. Is there an integrated azure marketplace wowza product that can be a solution for streaming and be bought in our tenant?
2. Will my already encoded videos play automatically or will they need reencoding?
3. Can wowza enocde and use our existing store in azure storage containers?
4. Does wowza have captions generation ability?

Thanks.
Abhi

[Karel_Boek]

Hi Abhi,

1. You may be interested in the articles and video here: https://www.wowza.com/docs/microsoft, and WSE via the Azure Marketplace is found here: https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/en/marketplace/apps/wowza.wowzastreamingengine?tab=Overview

2. For WSE: If your current encoded videos will play as VOD depends on the audio and video formats (codecs and packaging), and also on the transport type (e.g. HLS or WebRTC). As a simple example: if you have MP4 videos encoded with H.264 video and AAC audio then you can stream them as VOD over HLS and MPEG-DASH directly. You’d then simply copy the MP4 files to the content folder. For WV, the files will be transcoded when you upload them (see https://www.wowza.com/docs/get-started-with-videos-in-wowza-video)

3. On WV, the transcoding will start as soon as you’ve uploaded the file. WSE does not provide en-/transcoding of existing videos; their transcoding services are only for Live streams. So for VOD on WSE you must transcode the file prior to copying them to your content folder. You can use transcoding software (e.g. ffmpeg or commercial software), or you can use transcoding services from companies like Bitmovin, Coconut, AWS MediaConvert, etc.

4. Both WSE and WV will relay CEA-608/708 captions that are embedded in the stream and they support WebVTT if the captions are available in a separate VTT file. There is no built-in solution to add captions, but there is a 3rd party plug-in for WSE that can help you with that, see https://shop.raskenlund.com/product/scribe/