Updating an External Wowza Media Server

Overview

These instructions only apply if you are using a Wowza Media Server in an 'external' configuration (not installed or configured by the ESS). The following scenarios are covered in this document:

• You are upgrading from a prior EchoSystem release to version 5.5 and already have an external Wowza Media Server instance configured for on-demand and live Echo content.
• You are upgrading an external Wowza 3.x installation to version 4.0.

Use the instructions below to properly upgrade and configure your external Wowza Media Server instance for full functionality with version 5.5 of the EchoSystem.

Please ensure that the Wowza service is shut down before proceeding with these steps.

Replacing the Echo360 Libraries

The first step in the upgrade process is to ensure that the latest Echo360 library files are installed. These files contain the code required for features such as collaboration, iOS live streaming and closed captioning.

1. Navigate to the /lib/ directory under your Wowza installation root and move all existing Echo360-specific JAR files to a safe location outside this directory. The files present will depend on the version you're currently using:

   Version 5.1 JAR Files

   echo360-live-app-monitor-5.1.0.jar
   echo360-text-chat-5.1.0.jar

   Version 5.2 JAR Files

   echo360-live-app-monitor-5.2.0.jar
   echo360-text-chat-5.2.0.jar
   echo360-mediacaster-5.2.0.jar

2. Download the latest External Wowza bundle, available from the Customer Support Portal.
3. Extract the contents of the downloaded ZIP file to a temporary location.

4. Copy the contents of the extracted /lib/ directory to the /lib/ directory under your Wowza installation root. The Wowza installation /lib/ directory should now contain the following files:

   echo360-live-app-monitor-5.4.1.jar
   echo360-text-chat-5.4.1.jar
   echo360-mediacaster-5.4.1.jar
   echo360-captioning-5.4.1.jar

5. Ensure that the ownership and permissions of these files match the rest of the files in the directory.

Enabling iOS Live Streaming Functionality

The next steps cover required modifications to enable Echo live streaming to iOS devices.

1. In the /conf/ folder under your Wowza installation root, open the Server.xml in a text editor and make the following changes:

   NOTE: If you have previously upgraded your Wowza installation to enable live streaming, then these attributes may already be present in the Server.xml file. We strongly recommend verifying these changes are still present to ensure proper functionality, as in some cases the Server.xml file can be overwritten when upgrading a Wowza instance. If these changes are not present, please add them to the file as directed.
    

2. Insert the following text between the <ServerListeners> and </ServerListeners> tags:

   <ServerListener>
   	<BaseClass>com.echo360.streaming.live.MediaCaster</BaseClass>
   </ServerListener>

3. Insert the following text after the final <Properties> tag and before the </Properties> tag:

   <Property>
       <!-- the directory that contains the streams.txt file -->
       <Name>StreamMonitorDir</Name>
       <Value> ${com.wowza.wms.context.VHostConfigHome}/monitor</Value>
   </Property>
   
   
   <Property>
       <!-- the wowza application that the streams will be activated on. Default is echolive -->
       <Name>EchoLiveApplication</Name>
       <Value>echolive</Value>
   </Property>
   
   
   <Property>
       <!-- time the thread waits between checks of the streams.txt file. Default is 5 seconds -->
       <Name>WaitInterval</Name>
       <Value>5000</Value>
   </Property>

   
   

4. Replace the ${com.wowza.wms.context.VHostConfigHome} string with the location of your Echo Flash folder.  If you are not certain what this location is, refer to the StorageDir attribute in Application.xml file located under /conf/echolive in your Wowza installation root.

Enabling Closed Captioning for Live Streams

To enable Live Closed Captioning functionality, the following changes need to be made: