PWI Adaptive bitrate VOD Addon module is indendent for VOD adaptive bitrate streaming with HLS protocol. Wowza is not only a server to deliver live media streams but also an ideal technology for VOD content (video files on demand) distribution. Usage of HTTP streaming methods for VOD has a lot of advantages against regular download and progressive download methods - allows to control bandwidth consumed by users and to better secure content. Also to get the maximum benefits of HTTP streaming and increase viewers comfort VOD content could be delivered as multibitrate stream (ABR). Viewer's player or device automatically selects a proper bitrate/resolution (rendition) to play accordingly with the current network conditions. HTTP ABR streaming with Wowza requires some setup a special file with metadata - so called SMIL file, to be created for each VOD asset and put on HDD along with each video file. The process of SMIL file preparation is described in the article: https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-do-adaptive-bitrate-streaming#vod-adaptive-bitrate-streaming.This is a manual process and can took rather much time. PWI Dynamic SMIL Addon module simplifies this workflow and allows not to create SMIL files at all. You just put your MP4s in Wowza's content directory and configure playback link in the player.
Each VOD multibitrate set of MP4 files should be put in the separate subdirectory like:
/usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine/content/sample/sample_360p.mp4 /usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine/content/sample/sample_720p.mp4 /usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine/content/sample/sample_1080p.mp4
Playback URL will be :
https://[wowza-server-IP]/vod/amlst:sample/playlist.m3u8The great tool to create multibitrate renditions of your VOD asset could be found here https://handbrake.fr