We have 3 personal editions of FCS 1.5 stacked, giving us a limit of 150
concurrent connections and 3Mbps (megabits) bandwidth.

We want to stream a 320x240 live video to approximately 30-50 users and have
it decent quality and clarity.

So far we have calculated that 3Mbps / 40 connections = 9 830 kilobytes per
second and that is what we have our camera.setQuality parameter set to with a
minimum of 70 percent quality. We have the keyframe interval set at 15 fps.
All this calculates out to each viewer pulling down about 76 kilobits per
second.

However, when measuring the consumption using the connection light component,
we show each user pulling in anywhere from 50 kilobits per second to 100
kilobits per second.

I've been using Google Calculator for the calculations.. I just want to know,
are we going about this the right way, and do these numbers add up to any
experienced flashCom streamers out there?

Thanks,
FlashTastic




However, using the built in bandwi

The bandwidth property for camera.setQuality is in bytes (not bits), so Im
wondering about your numbers. In this comment:

So far we have calculated that 3Mbps / 40 connections = 9 830 kilobytes per
second and that is what we have our camera.setQuality parameter set to

I don't see a decimal point. Are you setting to 9.830kBps, or 9830kBps? If
it's set to 9830kBps, your stream will weigh in at about 76kBps... 8 times
heavier than you calcualted (8 bits in a byte)

I meant to say 9830 bytes per second, thanks.
The broadcast will be running live tomorrow so we'll just have to see how
everything goes, my fingers are crossed.

Here's an interesting question however:

FCS 1.5 calculates bandwidth consumption over 5 minute intervals, and if after
that interval, the average BW consumption exceeds the license limits, then it
stops accepting connections until the usage falls to acceptable levels. As far
as I know, it doesn't boot already accepted connections after usage is
exceeded? (not sure on this). So if that's true, is it theoretically possible
that you could get many users to connect and start consuming BW in the first 5
minutes of an app instance loading, thereby exceeding your license limits and
not having connections dropped??

Cheers,
FlashTastic

In theory, FCS should just stop accepting new connections and stop allowing new
streams until the bandwidth usage drops below the license limit... but I've had
varied results in different situations. On occasion, recorded streams would
stip playing and live streams would stop publishing.

In the case of shared FCS hosting (mediatemple in particular), I've found an
odd vHost problem. Let's say you have a vHost limited to 64kbps, and you
attempt to serve a 400kbps recorded video. On the first 5 second update, the
vHost simply crashes.

In my experience, I've found it best to manage resources on the application
level rather than on the server level. That way, there's never a question as to
what the server will do when limits are reached or exceeded.

The vHost problem sounds a little strange, default behaviour for exceeding your
vHost limit shouldn't be crashing.
Is it possibly related to something on mediatemple's side? I haven't had any
experience with CDN's, (although, I have a Speedera pen!), we have our own
server in house.