Red5 Pro 13.0.0: Stream Manager 2.0 Delivers Dynamic Scaling and Enhanced Control

In this Red5 Pro 13.0.0 release, Stream Manager 2.0 and other improvements bring new capabilities to enhance your live streaming experience. Whether you’re looking for more control, enhanced video streaming security or integration capabilities, this release includes features designed to improve performance, scalability, and security. Let’s dive into what’s new, why it matters to you, and how it aligns with our mission to deliver ultra-low latency streaming solutions.

What’s New in Red5 Pro 13.0.0?

The latest release of Red5 Pro introduces a key new feature, enhances existing functionality, addresses technical issues and bugs, and includes deprecations. Take advantage of all these benefits today by upgrading your Red5 Pro server. If you have any questions about the installation process, please contact support.

Here is what you need to know about this update:

• Stream Manager 2.0: A fully re-engineered, microservice-based Stream Manager offers greater reliability and performance than its predecessor. It provides centralized control and dynamic scaling, making node management simpler and more efficient.
• WebRTC Data Channel Metadata Handling Improvements: Enhances the precision of metadata exchanges, ensuring smoother data flows for real-time applications.
• Server to Server Encryption: Optimizes secure communication within server clusters, ensuring safer and more efficient data transmission between nodes.
• Improved Logging of Exceptions: Provides deeper insights into server behavior, making it easier to troubleshoot and maintain a stable environment.
• Shared Object Support is Removed: Users currently utilizing Shared Object are encouraged to transition to the Data Channel for comparable functionality. For detailed guidance on making this switch, please read through to the end of this article.

Need a custom feature developed or want to prioritize a development request? We’re known for our flexibility in custom feature development – contact us to discuss your needs.

Stream Manager 2.0

The Stream Manager 2.0 is the second major update to our orchestration platform, designed to simplify and scale your streaming infrastructure. This tool serves as the command center for deploying, managing, and optimizing your streaming nodes across different regions and environments. Install Red5 Stream Manager 2.0 or migrate from Stream Manager 1.0 using our documentation.

Make sure to get familiar with key concepts required for Stream Manager 2.0 understanding include NodeGroups, NodeGroup Schedules, NodeGroup Schedule Overlays, SubGroups, and Node Images. Let’s break down how these features benefit you:

Features and Benefits

• Centralized Management: Simplifies the oversight of your entire streaming network by managing node configurations from one place. 
• Dynamic Scaling and Load Balancing: Automatically adjusts node capacity based on real-time demand, ensuring smooth streaming experiences during peak times and saving resources during low usage periods.
• Monitoring and Analytics: Provides real-time insights into bandwidth, latency, and node performance, enabling developers to fine-tune their deployments for optimal user experience.
• Integration and Flexibility: Works seamlessly with various protocols and supports multi-region deployments, allowing you to deliver low-latency content to audiences worldwide.
• Security and Reliability: Includes secure token authentication, encryption, and failover mechanisms to maintain high availability, protecting your content and ensuring continuous service.

Stream Manager 2.0’s microservice architecture makes it much easier to enhance and expand compared to the monolithic structure of 1.0. This upgrade enables us to introduce new features swiftly, keeping pace with evolving streaming needs and delivering at scale.

WebRTC Data Channel Metadata Handling Improvements

With enhanced handling of metadata in WebRTC data channels, Red5 Pro 13.0.0 ensures that data exchanges are more accurate and reliable. This improvement is particularly beneficial for developers working on real-time communication apps, such as interactive video chats and live streaming with metadata overlays, offering smoother interactions and better synchronization between media and data. These metadata improvements enhance the performance of metadata as it flows through the Red5 Pro server infrastructure ensuring reliable and synchronized delivery across a wide range of use cases.

It opens up possibilities like including real-time synchronized telemetry with the video. For example, it allows platforms like TorkHub to not only stream Formula Drift races but also display live data from the cars. Viewers can see detailed metrics such as vehicle angle, engine RPMs, and throttle pressure – all synchronized with the video for a richer experience. Similarly, in first-responder scenarios, drones monitoring an emergency can stream additional critical information like temperature readings, giving responders a comprehensive, real-time view of the situation.

Server to Server Encryption Improvements

We’ve refined the communication protocols to ensure more secure and reliable server-to-server connections. This update strengthens data integrity between nodes, making it easier for developers to build secure streaming workflows without compromising performance. 

Prior to this version, Red5 used RTMP for communication between servers. For example, in scenarios where cloud providers don’t offer private interconnects between regional data centers, streaming RTMP over the Internet means unencrypted transmissions. With this update, however, you can use general Internet connections for server-to-server streaming, keeping streams encrypted for enhanced security – even if you’re using providers, like yourself or others, that lack private interconnects.

Improved Logging of Exceptions in Certain Situations

Enhanced logging capabilities in Red5 Pro 13.0.0 provide more detailed information when exceptions occur, aiding in faster diagnosis and resolution. This upgrade also allows for efficient data import and more precise searching to find relevant information quickly.

Shared Object Support is Removed

Shared Object has been completely removed from Red5 Pro. Users currently relying on it need to move to Data Channel. If you have any questions regarding this process, contact us using the link below.  

Conclusion

Red5 Pro 13.0.0 and Stream Manager 2.0 bring powerful new tools to your streaming arsenal, making it easier to scale, secure, and optimize your streams.

Ready to experience the Red5 Pro difference? Start your 30-day trial today, check out Github examples or reach out to our team to discuss how we can help solve your streaming challenges.