Overview

After you first set up Azure Storage Provider using Setup Wizard, you can re-configure certain parameters such as your storage account or the container where you save content using VIDIZMO portal.


In order to learn how to automate the setup of your content provider and encoding service provider via VIDIZMO portal, see: Understanding Setup Wizard.


Before you start

  • Administrators and Managers are allowed to configure and edit Azure Storage Provider.
  • Before you configure Wowza CDN endpoint, make sure to have Azure blob storage provider configured as your storage provider in VIDIZMO portal. To learn more about how to run setup wizard to configure Azure Storage Provider, see: How to Configure Azure Storage with VIDIZMO On Premise Encoder using Setup Wizard.
  • Any mistakes while editing storage provider details can break the uploading/encoding process.
  • You will require a Wowza Streaming Engine account to configure Wowza CDN as Streaming Endpoint.
  • Make sure to enable Encoding Profile "SMIL_OnPremise_Transcoder - Video" and "SMIL_OnPremise_Transcoder_Audio - Audio" for processing of media files using Wowza CDNs and disable "IPhone Streaming_OnPremise_Transcoder - Video" to not confuse the system with multiple SMIL files. To learn more about how to enable/disable encoding profiles, see: How to Manage Encoding Profiles in VIDIZMO.


Wowza Configuration

You need to perform the following while configuring Wowza streaming endpoints:


Set up a Media Cache Source

Wowza VOD Edge Application needs to be configured to use the Network Share created in the previous step. Before you do that, it is necessary to configure a Media Cache Source for our application to use.


The Media Cache feature in Wowza Streaming Engine is a read-through caching mechanism for VOD streaming. Regular Cache only caches content upon complete download, which proves inefficient for very large VOD files. Wowza Media Cache only caches the content which was actually requested. If a user views a short portion of a video, only that portion is initially cached. When another user views the same content, they'll initially get the cached content and then, after they get to the end of the cached content, Media Cache automatically starts caching the new content. To learn more about it, see: Scale with Wowza Streaming Engine Media Cache.


1. Login to the Wowza streaming engine server. By default, Wowza Streaming Engine Manager can be accessed by using the following URL: https://[wowza-ip-address]:8088/enginemanager. VOD Edge application uses media cache to serve the content. We will configure the media cache with the help of the network share that we configured in the first part. Here is how you can do it:

i. Select the Server tab on the top bar to bring up the Server Setup screen. 

ii. Click on Media Cache.




2. On the Media Cache screen:

i. Select the Sources tab.

ii. Click on the +Add Media Cache Source to add a new Cache Source. 


There are two types of Media Caches, Store and Source. A Media Cache Store defines the path that is used by Wowza to cache the files, while the Media Cache Source defines the path which is used by Wowza to serve the files from.  Since Wowza will be used for serving the content, we will be using Media Cache Source.



3. There are 5 different types of Sources that can be used. HTTP, File, Amazon S3, Azure and Google Cloud Storage. Since we are using Azure Blob Storage in our VIDIZMO Account, therefore we will use the source type as Azure. To learn more about these types and what they mean, see: Media Cache Sources.

In Wowza, the ability to define different paths allows different applications to be configured on the Wowza streaming server with those applications using their own separate paths or sources to serve content. This is how you can set up a media cache source:

i.  Provide a Source Name.

ii. Details about your source name can be populated here in Description.

iii. Choose Azure as the Source Type.

iv. Let default "http/" remain your Prefix. Make sure to not change it.

v. Configure the following settings for re-streaming files from a Microsoft Azure Blob storage account. Learn more about it by reading Azure Portal Configuration.

  • Blob Storage Account Name: Enter the name of your Azure Blob storage account.
  • Blob Storage Container Name: Enter the name of a container in your Azure Blob storage. A Media Cache Source can point to only one container in Azure Blob storage.
  • Blob Storage Account Access Key: Enter either the primary or secondary access key for the account.

vi. Let Minimum Time to Live be set to its default configuration.

vii. Let Maximum Time to Live be set to its default configuration.

ix. Use to "+Add"  button to save the Media Cache Source.




Configure VOD Edge Application

1. Now, we need to create a VOD Edge Application on Wowza Server to use the Cache Source created above.

i.  Click on the Applications tab on the top bar.

ii. Under Video On Demand type, select VOD Edge.



iii. Enter a name for your application.

iv. Go to your application's Setup tab and check that the Media Cache you configured for your content is selected against your application. If not, select it by clicking on Edit.




2. You can test the player to verify the connectivity between Wowza and the Azure blob storage. Place a sample file in the Azure container. This will be used by the Test Player to verify blob storage connectivity with Wowza Server. 

i.  Click on the Test Players button.

ii.  Test Player loads with the Media details. Click on the Start button to play the file.

iii. If the Media playback is successful, Azure Blob Storage connectivity is verified.




Get Provider URL

Now, you need to get the Provider URL which will be used in VIDIZMO Portal to integrate with Wowza application for smooth video streaming.

To get the Provider URL, go to your VOD Edge application:

i. Click on Wowza Player.

ii. Under Playback URL, provide any sample value in the File Path such as "Content" to generate Result.

iii. Copy the Result until the instance name as shown below. This will be used later in VIDIZMO portal while running Setup Wizard.




VIDIZMO Configuration


Edit Azure Storage Provider

1. From the Portal's Homepage:

i. Click on the navigation menu on the top left of your screen.

ii. Expand Admin tab.

iii Click on Control Panel.




2. From the Manage Portal navigation pane in Control Panel:

i. Select Storage Providers tab.

ii. Hover over your respective Storage Provider to see the edit icon appear under Action and click on it.




3. From the alert generated:

i. Click Continue to be routed to the edit page.




Configure Wowza CDN

3. On the Edit Storage Provider page, you will also be able to view current settings, which you can update. Following are the fields you need to change to configure Wowza CDN for Azure blob storage:


i. For Playback Provider Name, choose Wowza as your provider. 

ii. Enter ProviderURL copied here as streaming endpoint hostname for your media service, which corresponds to the path URL where media will be cached and streamed from.

iii. Click on the Update button to save changes.


A notification will appear briefly stating: Storage Provider Updated Successfully.