Use Tomcat to stream media

Question

We have a Java web application (app #1) running under Tomcat.

Our requirement: We want to set up a separate server for streaming media. Our media files are already converted to flv's (the only format we support)... we just want to serve them.

Now the streaming server needs to be able to communicate with app #1 (via web service calls). So we're thinking of setting up the streaming server as a simple Java web app (#2) running under Tomcat. We will let the media requests be served by the Default Servlet since it can stream and accept range requests.

My question is - Is using Tomcat's default servlet for streaming media an appropriate solution given our requirement? Or would you recommend we go for a proper streaming server such as Red5?

Many thanks in advance for your responses!

Answer 1

If you simply want to serve pre-recorded flv video files, using Tomcat in this fashion is an acceptable solution. Use a streaming server if you need more control over the video playback. Here is a nice comparison article. http://www.webvideozone.com/public/171.cfm