Wowza Media Systems Among First to Support Apple Low-Latency HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) Protocol Extension
In accordance with Apple’s recent announcement of low-latency technology for HLS, the Wowza Streaming Engine software supports the new streaming protocol specification.
DENVER(06 Nov 2019)
Wowza Media Systems, the market leader in reliable streaming infrastructure that enables applications to deliver to any device, anywhere, at any scale, for any purpose, today announced the company’s continued focus on low latency through support of the brand-new extension of Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) protocol: Low-Latency HLS. Fresh off of Apple’s announcement of their revised HLS protocol, Wowza is an early adopter to launch support for this Low-Latency protocol through its Wowza Streaming Engine software.
As the most widely used protocol for media streaming today, traditional HLS was created to support Apple and iOS devices, but was quickly adopted across the streaming ecosystem. However, with the rise of interactive and social streaming applications like live sports, Esport, auctions and gaming, Apple recognized the need for a low-latency specification for HLS while still providing the quality and scale inherent in their protocol. Low-Latency HLS is an ideal spec for live and interactive streaming use cases and Wowza Streaming Engine customers can now begin to build out their Low-Latency HLS workflows as part of the software’s version 4.7.8 release.
“Reducing latency for live streaming is an industry-wide imperative that Wowza has been focused on,” said David Stubenvoll, CEO at Wowza Media Systems. “We’re excited to help support Apple’s goal of Low-Latency HLS at scale.”
The HLS protocol delivers live and on-demand content to audiences around the globe by sending audio and video over HTTP for playback on mobile and desktop devices. HLS historically favored stream reliability over latency, but Low-Latency HLS extends the protocol to enable low-latency video streaming while maintaining the same degree of scalability. Wowza is driving the industry forward through integration with CDNs and web players to support large-scale deployments of Low-Latency HLS.
“In this context, [latency] refers to the amount of time from when a camera records a frame of video, or it hits your production backend, and when your user sees that frame at home, watching on their iPads, Apple TVs,” said Roger Pantos, Apple’s media streaming engineer, during this year’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC). “Shortening that duration, keeping that small, is crucial to certain types of content... We did that without sacrificing anything, any of the features that make HLS so compelling”
“As part of our expanded investment in Wowza Streaming Engine, we’ve added support for Apple Low-Latency HLS and are working to extend this capability across our entire product portfolio,” said Stubenvoll. “Even better, we can make recommendations on implementing this technology to meet your unique needs with our Professional Services offering.”
Wowza, originally founded in 2005, is the leading provider of live video streaming. Wowza partners with Microsoft, Google and other Fortune 500 companies to deliver solutions built on the world’s best infrastructure. For more information on Wowza’s commitment to providing the expertise needed to successfully build, deploy and maximize your live-streaming solution, please visit www.wowza.com.
About Wowza Media Systems
Wowza is the market leader in providing reliable streaming infrastructure that enables applications to deliver to any device, anywhere, at any scale, for any purpose. Dedicated to fueling the explosion of live streaming by ensuring the best possible user experience, we apply our deep knowledge and years of experience to provide reliable streaming solutions to video platforms (broadcasters, CDNs, OVPs, EVPs) and product/app builders in retail, live commerce, auction, government, security, mobile, etc., as they use live streaming to engage their audiences and enhance their products. Through our battle-tested software, hardware, and services, we tailor infrastructure for any use case to handle the difficult process of streaming live video over the internet to an endless number of playback options. In the end, Wowza live streaming just works. For more information on rock-solid, reliable streaming, visit: www.wowza.com.