OvenMediaEngine

OvenMediaEngine is an open-source streaming server designed for high-definition live broadcasting with sub-second latency. It enables the delivery of live streams to large audiences using WebRTC and Low Latency HLS (LLHLS). The software operates as a server application that can be deployed on various Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, and Fedora, or via Docker containers for rapid deployment.

The server handles the ingestion of live streams through multiple protocols, including WebRTC, WHIP, SRT, RTMP, RTSP, and MPEG2-TS. Once ingested, the software can encode these streams into Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) formats using an embedded transcoder before distributing them to viewers. This makes it suitable for use cases requiring near real-time interaction and high-scale video delivery where traditional HLS latency is too high.

Key features

• Ingest support for WebRTC, WHIP, SRT, RTMP, and RTSP
• Sub-second latency delivery via WebRTC and LLHLS
• Embedded live transcoder for VP8, H.264, and H.265 video
• Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (ABR) for LLHLS and WebRTC
• Origin-Edge clustering architecture for large-scale distribution
• DVR capabilities for live rewind and VoD dumping
• Access control via admission webhooks and signed policies
• Integrated WebRTC signaling server and TURN server
• REST API for server management and monitoring

OvenMediaEngine is built for developers and broadcasters who need to manage the full pipeline from ingestion to playback. It supports a wide range of audio and video codecs, including Opus and AAC, and provides specialized features like Uneven Level Protection Forward Error Correction (ULPFEC) and NACK retransmission to maintain stream stability over unstable networks. The architecture supports an origin-edge structure, allowing the system to scale across multiple servers to handle hundreds of thousands of concurrent viewers while maintaining low latency.

Additional capabilities include the ability to create scheduled channels for pre-recorded live content and multiplex channels to duplicate streams or mux tracks. The system also supports DRM via Widevine and Fairplay, and provides WebVTT subtitle support for LLHLS streams. This ensures that the server can meet professional broadcasting standards while remaining flexible in its delivery methods.

This software serves as a backend infrastructure component for building low-latency media services and professional broadcasting platforms.