Introduction

IBM Aspera Streaming for Video uses Aspera FASPStream technology to send a unicast or multicast video stream over the internet using ascp4. Streams are reliably and bit-perfect replicated at the receiving endpoint with minimal and predictable latency, with rates from 10s of Mbps to multiple Gbps, and follow the standard Aspera FASP security framework. The most common example of an input stream is media, which is encoded as a 'transport stream' (often referred to as MPEG-TS).

Streaming for Video generally transfers a video stream from a stream provider, a system external to Streaming for Video that produces a video stream, and a stream consumer, a system external to Streaming for Video that receives a video stream.

License Requirements

Streaming for Video can run on either a standalone computer or as an embedded service on third-party devices (for example, a video encoder). To run a Streaming for Video session between two systems, both systems must have a Streaming for Video license. Three license types are currently offered: sender, receiver, and server. In a single point-to-point transfer, the sender is the system that initiates the transfer and sends a request to a receiver for a streaming session. In general, a sender may only produce a stream and a receiver may only consume a stream. Additionally, a server may act as both a sender and a receiver and is not limited to a number of concurrent streams up to the bandwidth limit purchased. Additional information about Streaming for Video licensing is in the product License Information document.