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We are need of a infrastructure which facilitates video streaming for approximately 5000 to 10,000 users. Can we implement such streaming setup using Linux and related open source softwares?
If yes ..
# Is such solution reliable ?
# what is the learning curve involved to implement?
# Any expensive hardware to be purchased for that?
# Amount of bandwidth required if 1000 users are viewing the
streamed video content?
# Approximate cost to implement.
If not open source what is the alternative ?
We want a secured video streaming infrastructure, we can't use Youtube or Google Videos because the videos can be viewed only by people who subscribe to such content (payed service)
It's not entirely clear whether you would prefer having your own server(s) or whether you would rather rent space from a professional hosting company. Many starting businesses tend to opt for the latter. Their reasons are mostly both financial and technological. Acquiring and setting up one's own servers can be quite expensive - and quite tricky at a moment when a company does not have any precise prospects. At the same time, having the expertise of a well-established company at one's disposal will do much to reduce the learning curve (which obviously has its financial aspect as well).
Can it be done using open source software? Well, certainly but here again there aren't any absolutes and much depends on the nature of your subscribers. Will they be MS, Apple, Linux users? Linux now offers a reliable, decent solution in the form of MPEG4, which is a recent innovation, however, and may not have the kind of support that Quicktime of Windows Media enjoy. Then again, it is already well supported by such players as Mplayer and VLC, which could be offered as a download from your site. And of course, unlike the other options, it would be free. Or not completely as you would still need some decent hardware to do the encoding.
We prefer hosting our videos on our 3rd party Video streaming providers..but if that too expensive then we would like to setup our own servers.
Can you tellme what would be the cost for 3rd party hosting and the cost of setting up our own infrastructure to support streaming to around 5000 users with around 2000 simultaneous users accessing the video at the same time.
Most entry level professional packages are about $200/month and corporate packages start at about $500/month. The following link as an illustration: http://www.streamzilla.eu/shared.html This is a European host so the pricing may not necessarily be relevant but it will give a rough idea of what is available. Which package is best suited in your case depends on several factors including number of visitors, bandwith per video, frequency of visits, etc.
The price of setting up your own servers isn't easily stated in a general sense either. Decent entry level web servers are $2000-$4000. But that's just entry level and obviously it does not yet include any maintenance, repairs, bandwith, consulting or server software (can vary from a few hundred to at least $1000/month) . Certain hosts offer co-location, which means that the hardware is bought (and thus owned) by the client but that the host assumes responsibity for all the rest. In one case I looked at, the extra costs of buying a server was earned back after two years and was somewhat cheaper in the long run.
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