Alternative to Flash Media Server – Red5
If you’re looking for an open source alternative to the official Adobe Flash Media Server you’ll be glad to know there are a number of options available.
One alternative is Red5, an open source Flash media server that’s written in Java. The project is continually updated and currently supports streaming Flash audio and video in the form of FLV, h264, AAC, and MP3. Recording of client streams is also available in FLV format.
Other Flash goodies include Shared Objects, Live Stream Publishing and Flash remoting in the form of AMF (Action Message Format).
Wowza Flash Media Server
If the features of regular Flash media server hosting just aren’t enough for you consider the Wowza Media Server.
As well as costing less the Adobe’s Flash Media Server – up to 75% in some cases – it’ll also add support for the iPhone / iPod Touch, Silverlight and Quicktime to your Flash media.
The Wowza Server Developer Edition is free and allows up to 10 concurrent connections for unlimited streaming to Flash (RTMP), RTSP/RTP and MPEG-TS clients, with a limited time duration streaming to HTTP clients.
Full Wowza server editions start from $65 a month and volume discounting is available for those really large Flash media server hosting needs.