Uncategorized Archives - Media Control Panel

It’s Time to Upgrade Your Operating System

Reeve — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 23:25:56 +0000

For many of our customers it is time to upgrade their servers operating system. Debian 10 and CentOS 7 have recently hit EOL and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS will soon follow. And support for new releases with such as Debian 12, Ubuntu 24.04, CentOS Stream 9 is now available.

What is EOL?

End of Life (EOL) refers to the point when a specific version of a Linux distribution is no longer supported by its developers. This means that the version will no longer receive updates, including critical security patches, bug fixes, and new features.

Why Do I Need to Upgrade Regularly?

Linux distrobutions can only support a release for so long until they need to focus their attention tto newer releases. It is the same with any software, Media Control Panel can only support old versions of our software for so long. Most Linux distributions have a defined support period. Once a version reaches its EOL, it no longer receives updates, making it crucial to upgrade to a supported version to continue receiving updates.

Why Do I Need to Upgrade?

Here are some major reasons to move to a newer operating system:

Security Risks: Attackers target computer systems through vulnerabilities in outdated operating systems and applications. These vulnerabilities can leave computer systems open to a wide range of attacks, including malware infections, data theft, and other malicious activities.
Compatibility Issues: One of the biggest performance risks of using an outdated operating system is that it may not be compatible with new software and hardware. As technology advances and software updates are released, older operating systems are forgotten and may suddenly stop working leaving you stranded.
Performance: Outdated operating systems can see poorer performance as applications are optimized for newer systems, and backwards compatibility may need to be added.

MediaCP supports a variety of the latest operating systems, including CentOS 9, AlmaLinux 9, Debian 12, and Ubuntu 24.04.

How to Upgrade to a Newer Operating System?

We have written up dedicated guides for customers facing EOL or looking to move to the latest operating system release. Depending on the operating system, it may be possible to upgrade your existing server. However, our recommendation in most cases is to migrate to a new server running a fresh installation for the best experience.

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WiseCP Billing Integration now available

Matt — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 01:11:53 +0000

We are happy to announce a new billing integration module with WiseCP is now available.

WISECP is next generation hosting and digital solutions automation. It includes a client area, admin area and a website interface. Integration with MediaCP adds a billing and automation component for the primary purpose of selling audio and video streaming services.

With WISECP, hosting sales and management is very easy, simple and fast. Your customer purchases a hosting product from your website within minutes and starts using the hosting service instantly. The whole process from start to finish takes place automatically in a very short time. Sit back and watch what WISECP can do for you.

Features

Client Management
Product Management
Accounting and Billing
Client Support System
Smart Administration Panel
Security and Protection
Advanced Statistics and Reporting
GDPR Compatibility
Various Payment Methods

Installation

Installation and integration documentation

The post WiseCP Billing Integration now available appeared first on Media Control Panel.

Add Video Streaming to Your Business

Reeve — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 04:05:57 +0000

If you want to expand your audience and offer more value to your customers, you should consider adding video streaming to your audio streaming business. With MediaCP, you can easily manage both audio and video streaming from the same panel.

If you have an existing Audio License, we have a special offer so that you can try video streaming for free for a limited time. You will just need to contact our support team so we can enable video streaming on your license. Alternitively you can try out our panel with a free 7-Day trial license.

Once you have your license with video enabled, getting started can be as simple as installing a Video Server by following our installation guides.

MediaCP offers support for three different Video Streaming Servers:

What can I do with Video Streaming on MediaCP

MediaCP is a powerful panel that allows you to stream video content with multiple service types. You can choose from the following service types:

Live Streaming: Live Streaming services let you broadcast live video from your computer, mobile device, or encoder to your audience. Depending on your streaming server you may be able to record your live streams and publish them as on-demand videos later. Live streaming is ideal for events, webinars, sports, concerts, and more.
TV Station: TV Station Services allow you to create a 24/7 online broadcast including both scheduled video files and live input. TV Station services are designed to be “always on” and provide a stream 24/7. You can schedule your videos in advance and add live streams as well. You can also setup VAST and VMAP Advertising and overlays to monetize your channel. TV station is ideal for creating a TV-like experience for your viewers.
On-Demand Video Streaming: Depending on your Streaming Server you may have access to On-Demand services. Dynamic playlists allow your customers to configure their video playlists from the MediaCP and automatically update on their website in realtime– with no changes to code. This powerful feature means your customers only ever need to apply embed code to their websites only once.
Relay/IP Camera: Relay services are capable of rebroadcasting from another RTMP, RTSP or HLS source. Rebroadcasting allows you to push out a stream with higher bandwidth availability as well as use many of the MediaCP functions such as Transcoding, Stream Publishing (Facebook, YouTube, etc), reporting and much more.

Those services are just the start, you can also take advantage of DVR, Recording, Video Transcoding (Adaptive Bitrate Streaming), VAST/VMAP Advertising, GeoIP Country Locking and Simulcasting to a multitude of social media platforms and applications.

Will I need a new server?

This will depend on your current servers hardware and on your intended video load. We have our reccomended system requirements for video streaming outlined on our System Requirements page. If do need to upgrade and are running your panel on VPS (Virtual Private Server) you can likely upgrade your server easily if you contact your datacentre. You are also welcome to contact our support team for assistance.

Will I need any additional licenses?

This will depend on your chosen Video Streaming Server, Wowza Streaming Engine and Flussonic Media Server do require their own licenses from their respective companies. They do both offer free trials if you would like to try them out.

Nginx-Rtmp Video Server is a free alternative to those premium steaming servers, at the cost of some features and functionality Nginx-Rtmp can be a great starting offering for your business. You can compare the features available for these Video Servers on our Video Feature Comparision page.

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3 reasons to switch from on-premise to Cloud Video Hosting

Matt — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 22:00:18 +0000

1. It can reduce costs

Operating a server comes with a tonne of costs such as server fees, backup fees, software licenses, and even your own technical staffing requirements to manage all of this infrastructure.

With simplified operating costs, video in the cloud makes it really simple to plan your costs, customer packages and pricing margins. Your customers will also appreciate a simplified fee structure.

Our case study on how the cloud will reduce your costs shows that when streaming up to 3 TB of data per month, cloud video is the least expensive option. As your business grows with on-premise, so do requirements for additional software licenses, servers, redundancy, backups and especially staff. This can be mitigated with cloud video hosting as costs are simply linear with data usage; there are no surprise costs and your business overheads are simplified greatly.

2. Performance, Scalability & Redundancy

Performance in the cloud is reliable, fast and unmatched no matter how big you grow; from 10 viewers to 1 million or more, the result will be the same reliable and fast platform

With Akamai Adaptive Media Delivery CDN, your broadcasts are replicated across thousands of edges around the world which means it is always available at the lowest possible latency no matter where your viewers are located. On the contrary, a virtual or dedicated server is subject to regional network issues, increased latency when distance is involved and slow downs when the system becomes busier.

A video engine installed on-premise a server has limited Scalability, typically it involves growing the capacity of a single server holding hundreds of customers which becomes a huge data liability. Scaling horizontally with multiple servers is tricky, inefficient, and also expensive.

If you do manage to scale with multiple servers, how do you reliably ensure that your streaming services are accessible all the time and ensure redundacy? Having one server go down and another take over is one thing, but what happens if the network between continents is disrupted? Video in the cloud ensures reliable delivery throughout the entire globe.

3. Simplifying Support

Traditionally an on-premise solution would require support from the MediaCP, Wowza or Flussonic, and your Data Center. When a problem arises, which vendor do you contact? Are you sure you have contacted the right vendor to solve your problem?

Dealing with multiple vendors typically means finger pointing between vendors and drawn out resolutions to critical problems. Operating your Video Stream Hosting business in the cloud means dealing with 1 vendor for support instead of multiple.

The post 3 reasons to switch from on-premise to Cloud Video Hosting appeared first on Media Control Panel.

Wowza Live Stream Recording

Matthew Lear — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 06:26:28 +0000

[cs_content][cs_section parallax=”false” style=”margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;”][cs_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” style=”margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;”][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”1/1″ style=”padding: 0px;”][cs_text]It is now possible to record your live-streams and view the recorded stream instantly from and on demand service.

1. Create a new target service* for your Recorded files, this should just be a standard on-demand service.

* You can also select an existing on-demand service.

2. Create a new Livestream service, and enable “Recording Live Stream”

3. Set recording service as the target service created in step one, or an existing service.

4. Set your Output format as MP4/FLV

5. Select a versioning option, the default setting should work fine.

6. Live-stream to the service.

7.Once the stream has finished you will be able to access it from your On-demand service, in the file manager and Playlist Builder.

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Wowza nDVR

Matthew Lear — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 02:52:37 +0000

Version 2.1.9 will also introduce support for nDVR, which provides the ability to record a live stream with while simultaneously allowing users to play, pause, resume, and rewind the recorded stream. You can configure settings and properties to control the archive strategy and availability of the recorded streams.

This feature will need to be configured through Wowza Streaming Engine Manager before it can be enabled in the MediaCP, please refer to the link below for more information about configuring nDVR in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager.

http://www.wowza.com/forums/content.php?300-How-to-set-up-and-run-Wowza-nDVR-for-live-streaming

Please note: If you have any trouble configuring nDVR in Wowza streaming engine, please contact Wowza support for further assistance.

Once the NDVR has been configured in Wowza Streaming Engine you will be able to activate the feature in the control panel.
1. Create a new livestream service.

2. Enable the nDVR Add-on option in the panel

3. Start Click “Create Service”.

The feature can also be enabled for existing services from your service configuration:

Service Overview > Configure > Plugins > nDVR > Enable

IMPORTANT: In order for your new MediaCP services to appear in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager (WSEM), you will need to restart WSEM.

Please note that nDVR will need to be controlled from Wowza Streaming Engine Manager and that the links for the nDVR will also be available in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager and NOT the Media control panel. At the moment support for the nDVR is limited, this means that any changes made to the nDVR settings will not be lost in the control panel, however you will not actually be able to make changes or view the nDVR settings from within the MediaCP. Therefore any problems with nDVR will have to be addressed by Wowza support.

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Wowza Transcoder

Matthew Lear — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 00:00:24 +0000

Version 2.1.9 delivers support for the Wowza transcoder. This feature is a real-time transcoder which transforms incoming live streams from encoders, IP cameras, and other live sources to keyframe-aligned H.264 streams for adaptive bitrate delivery to any device, anywhere. Presently only ‘Live Stream’ services will work with the transcoder, On-demand, TVstation, Shoutcast/Icecast are NOT supported at this point.

Before enabling the feature in the control panel the transcoder will need to be configured in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, please refer to the guide below for instructions on configuring the transcoder.

http://www.wowza.com/forums/content.php?304-How-to-set-up-and-run-Wowza-Transcoder-for-live-streaming

Please note: If you have any trouble configuring the transcoder in Wowza streaming engine, please contact Wowza support for further assistance.

Once the transcoder has been configured in Wowza Streaming Engine you will be able to activate the feature in the control panel.

The feature can also be enabled for existing services from your service configuration:

Service Overview > Configure > Plugins > Transcoder > Enable

IMPORTANT: In order for your new MediaCP services to appear in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager (WSEM), you will need to restart WSEM.

Please note that the transcoder will need to be controlled from Wowza Streaming Engine Manager and that the links for the Transcoder will also be available in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager and NOT the Media control panel. At the moment support for the transcoder is limited, this means that any changes made to the transcoder will not be lost in the control panel, however you will not actually be able to make changes or view the transcoder settings from within the MediaCP. Therefore any problems with the transcoder will have to be addressed by Wowza support.

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