As of today (May 2012), I'm trying to figure out what the most practical way to stream video to multiple clients is. I need to take an input stream from one source, process it on the server, and then stream it back to multiple sources.
I've been experimenting with websockets, but I don't think this is going to work out. I have to Base64 encode all the data because there's apparently a lot of browsers that don't support binary transmission in websockets. This adds too much overhead, and there's no way (that I know of) to send UDP packets to browsers without a plugin, which would work much better for my set-up since I'm live streaming.
I don't want to use Flash, because I want to be able to stream to iPhones and iPads, and I also don't have the Adobe Flash software which means I would have to find some open-source way to produce .swf files.
So I'm kind of thinking I'll have to suck it up and use Flash anyway for web browers, and use something like Apple's live http streaming for platforms that don't support Flash. I'm sure someone knows something better, and I appreciate the help!
I don't want to use Flash, because I want to be able to stream to iPhones and iPads, and I also don't have the Adobe Flash software which means I would have to find some open-source way to produce .swf files.
the flex sdk is free and still out there , and you can use eclipse or flash develop to produce swf files. now i'm sure there are streaming services out there that would do all the job for you , and you would only have to care about deveopping clients in either html5 of flash. did you check ustream for instance ? dont know if they work with apple devices though.