Hi!
I would like to add some live streaming to a website in flash. I would like to use a webcam that would be connected to the server, and then the video could be seen live on the website.
Does anybody know any software that would support this? I have searched on google alot, but I have found nothing usable... This should preferably be free. I hope anyone here has any expirience in this :)
Cheers!
Thanks! This is very useful, although I thought I could use some free softwear on my own server, but this will do too!
If you want to stream video on your own server, you'll need some form of flash server and the willingness to build your own application on it....Which will involve a fair bit of work.
Regarding server software, Adobe's flash media server is prohibitively expensive for a home user as it costs 1000's. But Adobe have got a free version of flash media server for developers, which is OK for building and testing your own streaming apps. But it's no good if you want to put it onto your website as it can only accept 10 simultaneous / concurrent connections.
But as with most things, there is a free, open-source alternative to Flash Media Server.
Red 5 is a fully featured, free, open-source, Apache based server for running your own flash media server.
Check out the red5 website: http://www.osflash.net/red5
The Red5 website has all the details on how to set up and start using your server.
There are even some simple example apps...I can't remember offhand, but I think there's a webcam/streaming video sample app.
Once you've got your server up and running, the next stage is to build a flash app which you can use to connect your website to the webcam stream via your server, so you'll need a .swf to go on your web-page to enable users to view the stream, but you'll also need to do some flash/javascript/Java stuff on the server side too. As mentioned, the red 5 examples contain a webcam sample (I think), so examine the sources in the example apps and then either modify them to meet your needs or start building your own.
It might be worth looking up 'red 5 video stream tutorials' or something if you need more help.
There may also be some people who've built some video streaming apps for red5, either free, or for sale. But again, you'll have to do some googling!
The only reason I know all this is because I've recently started looking to stream some video myself. But I'm actually planning on creating my own app, so I haven't googled for any complete apps.
So far I've managed to set a server up on one of my old machines, but I haven't had the time to look at the example apps in any detail yet! Been a bit busy with various other projects! :)
For the development of the streaming software, you'll need some kind of Java IDE (I'm using Netbeans) and some kind of flash creation software, preferably with AS3 (I'm using Flashdevelop and the free Flex3 SDK because I can't afford CS3/CS4!) Oh, and some ability to program in Java and Flash/Actionscript!! Heh heh! ;)
Anyways, hope this is in some way useful.
Cheers for now,
Jas.
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