Ant Media Server is a media server software that provides real-time, live, and on-demand-based video streaming capabilities for any application that requires it.
What are the features in general Ant Media Server provides?
Ant Media Server provides Community and Enterprise Editions that come with different feature sets.
Licensing and Pricing of Ant Media Server
What are the price packages for Ant Media Server?
Ant Media Server Community Edition is free and comes with limited functions. Please check the comparison table.
Ant Media Server Enterprise Edition is a paid version and contains all advanced features. It has subscription-based packages and also provides a Perpetual License as well for the use of Ant Media Server.
Subscription-based packages are offered in a periodical time of renewal which is monthly and annually. A perpetual license is offered with unlimited use. Please check the pricing table.
In addition, Monthly Subscription of Enterprise Edition is also offered with that allow customers to scale their subscription up or down on an hourly basis.
With this new feature, you will have the ability to increase your subscription during high-traffic periods and decrease it during low-traffic periods, without having to commit to a long-term contract. This will allow you to pay only for the resources you need, and avoid over-paying for unused resources. Please look here for more details.
What is the difference between a Subscription-based License and a Perpetual License?
The subscription-based licenses come with auto-renewal capability and your license is automatically renewed for predefined periods such as monthly or annually to use Ant Media Server.
A Perpetual license is a one-time license and comes with an unlimited period of use. However, if you want to get the benefit of Software Upgrades and Support eventually, you should subscribe to the Software Upgrade package after 1 year and regularly if you prefer.
What is the Cluster License of Ant Media Server?
The cluster license of Ant Media Server allows more than one Enterprise Edition to work in a synchronized way based on the structure of the origin and edge servers. It also enables auto scalability of Ant Media Server.
Is there any price difference in the Cluster License?
No. There is no additional price added on top of license fees.
Scaling of Ant Media Server
Yes. You can easily scale Ant Media Server in horizontal or vertical mode. You can add more CPUs on the existing server or more instances of Enterprise Edition to reach a higher capacity.
Can Ant Media Server scale automatically?
Yes. You can easily set up and configure Ant Media in auto-scale mode.
If you are using on-premise servers, you can use Kubernetes to set up that easily.
If you are using Marketplace Servers such as AWS or Azure or Alibaba, you could easily set up an autoscale configuration to add a new node when any server is overloaded.
What does Ant Media Server License include and how it’s licensed?
The Ant Media Server Enterprise Edition is licensed on a per-server basis. This means that if you intend to utilize three servers, you will need to acquire three Enterprise Edition licenses.
The same licensing logic applies to Kubernetes installations as well. For each POD in your Kubernetes setup, a separate license is required to run Ant Media Server Enterprise Edition.
It’s important to note that the license itself does not impose any limitations on the number of viewers or broadcasters. This means you have the freedom to use any server configuration that aligns with your desired streaming capacity.
Moreover, when you purchase the license, you gain access to free mobile SDKs for various platforms, including Android, iOS, React Native, Flutter, and Unity. These SDKs offer seamless integration with Ant Media Server, enabling you to enhance your streaming capabilities on multiple mobile platforms.
By obtaining an Ant Media Server license, you unlock a comprehensive set of features and support that cater to your specific streaming requirements. It provides you with the flexibility to scale your streaming infrastructure and leverage powerful mobile SDKs to deliver exceptional streaming experiences across various platforms.
How can I decide which type of hardware should be used for Ant Media Server?
Ant Media Server comes with a benchmark table that you can always refer to find out what type of hardware you will need to handle your streaming needs.
According to benchmarking table of Ant Media Server, if you use a stream with 360p resolution video
- On 4 Core CPU Server, you can have either up to 50 broadcasts or 200 viewers
- On 8 Core CPU Server, you can have either up to 100 broadcasts or 400 viewers
- On 16 Core CPU Server, you can have either up to 200 broadcasts or 800 viewers
- On 32 Core CPU Server, you can have either up to 400 broadcasts or 2000 viewers
For the memory size starting with 8GB of memory should be fine. However, if you select 8 Core or above, you should consider having 16GB of memory available.
Do I need an Internet connection for Ant Media Server to run?
Yes. Ant Media Server interacts in periodical time periods with its License Manager distributed worldwide to ensure that the license is being used and active. In case you have no Internet access, the license key will not be validated and your server will not run.
What about offline mode of Ant Media Server? Is it possible?
Yes, it’s possible to use Ant Media Server in offline mode licenses attached to MAC Address of your server if you plan to use it in closed environment.
Is Ant Media Server provided as SaaS (Software as a Service) Platform?
No. Ant Media Server is not provided as SaaS platform. It’s a standalone software that you will need to install and start using in order to provide real-time and live video streaming sessions.
Can I build my own Online Video Platform?
Yes, definitely. Ant Media Server enables any user to build an Online Video Platform to provide SaaS-based video streaming services.
Can I build and provide hosted streaming solutions?
Yes, definitely. Ant Media Server enables any Enterprise company, ISP and/or Data Center to provide hosted video streaming solutions.
How can I build my own Video Application with Ant Media Server?
Ant Media Server provides robust Rest APIs and various SDKs to enable external applications to control and manage Ant Media Server remotely.
What are the latency figures supported?
Ant Media Server supports 0.5 secs. latency if you are using WebRTC protocol. However, if you use Low Latency DASH, you can have 3-5 secs. latency and if you use HLS, you have 10-12 secs. latency.
Which protocols are supported for ingesting?
Ant Media Server supports RTMP, RTSP, WebRTC, SRT, Zixi and WHIP for ingesting any video sources.
Which protocols are supported for egressing?
Ant Media Server supports WebRTC, Low Latency DASH(CMAF), and HLS protocols to deliver the streaming sessions. In addition, RTMP or RTSP output are also provided for restreaming purposes to any endpoint including Social Media.
Do all types of media formats with different resolutions get supported?
Ant Media Server currently supports H.264, H.265, and VP8 codes for the live streaming sessions. For VoD (Video On Demand), MP4 and HLS formats are also supported.
Can I record my video sessions?
Yes, you can record any video sessions on Ant Media Server. Recording formats are MP4, WebM, and HLS. It can be recorded in any local or remote storage or even AWS S3 with auto integration.
Does Ant Media Server offers DVR functionality?
Indeed. You can use Ant Media Server only for DVR functionality if its needed. Please refer to here for more information.
Check out a more detailed and technical FAQ on our documentation.
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