Features introduced in the earlier versions

The following sections have information on the changes introduced in the earlier versions of Adobe Media Server.

What’s new in Adobe Media Server 5

New content protection options for HLS streaming

There are new content protection and Digital Rights Management (DRM) workflows for streaming to both Flash using HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS) and native Apple IOS applications using HTTP Live Streaming (HLS). With this feature Adobe Media Server can dynamically segment, encrypt, and deliver standard MP4 assets using the HLS format with Adobe Access DRM policies on native Apple iOS applications (using the Adobe Access Objective-C library for iOS).

Adobe Media Server 5 supports content protection of HLS video streams using Adobe Access protection without requiring a separate license server.

Just in Time (JIT) content protection

Adobe Media Server 5 enables real time packaging and encryption of your media for HTTP delivery to both Adobe Flash and Apple HLS file formats. This means that your single live source publishing need not be duplicated to serve Adobe Flash and Apple HLS formats, which significantly reduces your storage and stream management requirements. Using dynamic and real time encryption, Adobe Media Server 5 can prepare and encrypt a single live source of F4F recording and deliver the encrypted segments over HTTP to both HDS (Flash) and HLS (Apple iOS).

HLS Offline Segmenter

A new HLS offline segmenter utility converts MP4 video files into HLS and M3U8 files for HTTP streaming to devices that support HLS such as the Apple iPad. When used with Adobe Access, the HLS packager can encrypt the HLS file for playback in native IOS applications using the Adobe Access iOS client SDK.

What’s new in Flash Media Server 4.5.2

HTTP Streaming failover

HTTP Streaming failover lets you control how AMS handles certain streaming problems. In particular, HTTP Streaming failover helps you address liveness and dropout:

  • Liveness - A packager advertises a stale bootstrap (that is, a stale view of a live stream).

  • Dropout - A packager has gaps in its bootstrap (that is, gaps in its fragment list).

For more information, see HTTP Streaming failover.

What’s new in Flash Media Server 4.5.1

24/7 Live streaming

In Flash Media Server 4.5.1, timestamps are converted to 64-bit values. Input timestamps are 32-bit values, but the server creates 64-bit timestamps to use internally. This feature allows the server to stream live video continuously while maintaining a 12 hour DVR window.

No server configuration or media player development is required to support 24/7 live streaming.

Protected RTMP

Use protected RTMP (pRTMP) to encrypt and deliver on-demand content to Flash Player and AIR. Protected RTMP replaces RTMPE with a higher level of content protection and is easy to deploy.

See Stream on-demand encrypted media (pRTMP).

Note:

Protected RTMP isn’t a protocol. It delivers encrypted content over the RTMP protocol.

Encryption key rotation

Flash Media Server 4.5.1 supports Key Rotation for protected HTTP Dynamic Streaming when used with Adobe Access. You can encrypt content packaged with FMS 4.5.1 using a set of keys. You can periodically change the encryption key and specify how often the content encryption key is to be changed. You can also specify the list of keys for encryption.

Output protection

Flash Media Server 4.5.1 includes four additional policy files, which support Output Protection. Those policies allow different level of playback restriction based on client hardware capabilities.

What’s new in Flash Media Server 4.5

Deliver content using Adobe HTTP Dynamic Streaming and Apple HTTP Live Streaming

Deliver adaptive bit rate on-demand and live content over HTTP to Flash Player, AIR, iOS, and Mac OS. The server packages live and on-demand content in real time when a client requests it. HTTP Dynamic Streaming and HTTP Live Streaming both support DVR.

Note:

Flash Media Server 4.0 supported HTTP Dynamic Streaming, but Flash Media Server 4.5 adds support for just-in-time packaging of on-demand content.

For more information, see the following:

Protected HTTP Dynamic Streaming and Protected HTTP Live Streaming

Deliver protected live and on-demand multi-bitrate video to Flash Player, AIR, iOS, and Mac OS without using a DRM License Server. Protected HTTP Dynamic Streaming also supports SWF verification.

For more information, see the following in Flash Media Server Developer’s Guide:

Publish an audio-only stream for HTTP streaming

Apple HTTP Live Streaming requires that one stream in a multi-bitrate set be audio-only to deliver the content over a cellular network.

See Publish an audio-only stream (HLS)

Set-level F4M/M3U8 files

Create manifest files that describe a set of content for multi-bitrate streaming. These files are called set-level manifest files. The HTTP packagers generate stream-level manifest files in real time when the content is requested.

Note:

For Adobe HTTP Dynamic Streaming, manifest files are F4M files. For Apple HTTP Live Streaming, the equivalent file is called a “variant playlist” and the filename extension is M3U8. The documentation uses the generic term “manifest file” to refer to both file types.

Set-level F4M/M3U8 files contain bit rate information about a set of content. Stream-level F4M/M3U8 files contain bootstrap information and DRM metadata. Flash Media Server 4.5 includes a Set-level File Generator tool that creates set-level F4M v2.0 files for HTTP Dynamic Streaming and set-level M3U8 variant playlists for HTTP Live Streaming.

See Set-level manifest files.

Use the File plug-in to manage content for live HTTP streaming

Use the File plug-in to manage content for live HTTP streaming, including asynchronous file IO operations. The live packager application (livepkgr) ingests a live stream and packages it into fragments (F4F files) and additional helper files. The server operations that record these files are routed through the File plug-in.

See Use the File plug-in to manage content for live HTTP streaming

Improved HTTP file system performance

The IO buffer improves the read and write performance of HTTP streaming (for HTTP Dynamic Streaming and HTTP Live Streaming). The IO buffer loads the disk file into an in-memory buffer. It reads and writes to the in-memory buffer instead of making system calls.

See Configure the size of the IO buffer

Disk management enables 24/7 live streaming

Configure the amount of live content the server stores on the disk. By default, the server stores three hours worth of content. This feature allows you to serve live streams 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without filling up a disk. It also allows you to use DVR for long live events.

See Disk management.

Distribute RTMFP peer introductions across servers

Flash Media Server introduces RTMFP clients to each other so the clients can connect to each other directly. This direct connection is called a peer-to-peer connection. Flash Media Server 4.0 can introduce clients to each other only if the clients are connected to a single server. Use Server-Side ActionScript APIs added in Flash Media Server 4.5 to introduces clients to each other even if the clients are connected to separate servers. Distributing introductions across servers allows you to scale peer-assisted networking applications.

See Distribute peer introductions across servers

Ingest a multicast stream

Use Server-Side ActionScript to ingest a multicast RTMFP stream. After the server ingests the multicast stream, write script to do the following:

  • Convert the multicast stream to a Stream object.

  • Connect to the livepkgr application and package the Stream for delivery using HTTP Dynamic Streaming and HTTP Live Streaming.

  • Record the Stream object.

  • Deliver the Stream object to clients over RTMP/T/S/E.

Administrator password stored securely

The administrator password for the Flash Media Administration Console is stored securely, not as plain text. See Delete administrator accounts and reset passwords.

Configuration file updates

Some configuration files have changed to incorporate new functionality and security enhancements. If you are upgrading from Flash Media Server 4.0 to 4.5, use the documentation to help you migrate from the older version.

[adoberuntime]Flash Media Server 4.0, Flash Player 10.1, AIR 2[/adoberuntime]
[adoberuntime]Flash Media Server 4.0, Flash Player 10.1, AIR 2[/adoberuntime]
[adoberuntime]Flash Media Server 4.0, Flash Player 10.1, AIR 2[/adoberuntime]
[adoberuntime]Flash Media Server 4.0[/adoberuntime]
[adoberuntime]Flash Media Server 4.0[/adoberuntime]
[adoberuntime]Flash Media Server 4.0, Flash Player 10.1, AIR 2[/adoberuntime]
[adoberuntime]Flash Media Server 4.0, Flash Player 10.1, AIR 2[/adoberuntime]
[adoberuntime]Flash Media Server 4.0[/adoberuntime]
[adoberuntime]Flash Media Server 4.0[/adoberuntime]
[adoberuntime]Flash Media Server 4.0[/adoberuntime]