Release Notes
v1.4.10 - April 22, 2024
Streamwell 1.4.10 brings an innovative new feature - remote playback! Now within the Restreaming panel you can enable Remote Playback on a channel and allow external viewers to pull the SRT stream. This means you can punch a link into a low-cost media player, send it anywhere on earth, and it will play back the stream with no special network config required 🎉
Other improvements:
Now shows recording indicators on the Home Screen and next to the stream title
Now gracefully reloads TLS certificates when renewing, so streams are not interrupted
Now supported: native (Dockerless) installs on Ubuntu 22.04
Improved the look and fit of the user interface on smaller screens
Improved the strength of client data encryption. Users migrating from 1.4.9 or earlier will need to re-enter their SSO endpoint details.
Added warning for Firefox users attempting to playback H265 (it is not supported in Firefox)
Removed channel creation time from the Home Screen view as it takes up space and isn't very useful. You can still hover over a channel name to see the creation time.
Fixed HLS viewer counter to reflect the number of viewers watching in the Streamwell interface instead of the number of times HLS playback has been started
Fixed issue with QR code generation
Fixed issue with playback of recordings continuing in the background if not closed with the X button
Security improvements to protect against XSS and unwanted stream ingress
Other bug fixes and UI improvements
v1.4.9 - March 26, 2024
New Statistics panel in the admin section displays total streams, viewers, data in and out and when the engine was last restarted (rather than the server itself)
Added an indicator to tell which streams are live when thumbnails are turned off, even if no viewers
v1.4.8 - March 19, 2024
Added support for Legacy HLS streaming using TS fragments instead of FMP4 (Roku, Android)
Removed playback session counter from 1.4.6
Changed base image to Ubuntu 22.04
Fixed a few visual bugs
Updated OvenMediaEngine to 0.16.5
v1.4.7 - March 12, 2024
Added the ability to import and export themes
Added license and support docs to System Info section
Added support for use of external instances of OvenMediaEngine
Moved stream key reset to within the 'show' menu to avoid accidental resets
Player background now goes black on fullscreen
Fixed issues with modal dialogs not cleanly dismissing
Fixed issue with use of public links for already logged-in users
Fixed issue with ABR (proxy) playback
v1.4.6 - January 30, 2024
Streamwell v1.4.6 brings a new method of counting viewers when playing back HLS/H265/HDR. It now counts the number of active playback sessions in the Streamwell interface instead of the number of times playback has been started overall, since an HLS viewer may initiate playback multiple times during a session leading to a much higher number of views reported versus reality.
This now means that external traffic is only measured by the 'Data Out' statistic. If you wish to see the old "raw" playback count, use cheat codes showRawConnectionCountEnabled or showRawConnectionCountDisabled
Other bits:
Fixed an issue with Control Room (in-browser streaming) initialization
Security updates
v1.4.5 - January 17, 2024
Engine API security improvements
Fixed issue with special characters in channel names and notes
Fixed issue where clicking the title instead of the thumbnail might cause an error
Fixed issues with SSO users and channel/group permissions
Fixed login issue with @ character in non-SSO users
Allow use of environment variables to set worker thread counts at install (e.g. STREAM_WORKER_COUNT)
Updated OvenMediaEngine to 0.16.4
Updated HLS.js to 1.5.1
NOTE: Streamwell v1.4.5 includes important security updates and is FREE for all users regardless of your support status - please contact support for assistance with updates/licensing.
v1.4.4 - January 3, 2024
Optimized system config to serve up to 2000 viewers out of the box - if your server can handle 2000 viewers, that is 😉
Improved look and feel for Client account logins that puts the brand logo front and center on the Home Screen.
Improved reliability of HLS playback
Improved playback in lossy environments like mobile
Improved reliability of database restores
Improved back-end security & user role enforcement
Fixed a permissions problem on rotated log files
Restored fullscreen button in iOS 17 due to Apple magically fixing it 🎉
Added WS_PROXY="false" and HLS_PROXY="false" environment variable options to disable use of the built-in proxy for WebSocket and HLS traffic.
v1.4.3 - December 19, 2023
Single-Use Public Links 🔗 These ultra-secure links can be accessed one time ONLY and expire after 48 hours. You can create as many as you need on the fly.
Stream Overlays 📊 Paste in a URL from any live overlay service like Singular.live or your own web content, and it will automatically display on top of the stream.
Better Compatibility with Restricted Networks 🛜 Ports 3333/3334 (WebRTC), 8000/8001 (HLS) are no longer required as the traffic is now routed over port 80/443. Note that an open WSS port (default 3334) is still required to use WebRTC stream inputs (WHIP and Control Room)
Other Improvements 🔨
Added the ability to disable RTMP
Added auto log-rotation (nightly rotation, logs kept for 2 weeks)
Added start_unmuted and webrtc_source_only arguments to embed.php
Added the ability to set any existing theme as the system theme
Improved session validation when signing stream keys
Fixed some style issues on mobile devices
Updated OvenMediaEngine to 0.16.3 (restores legacy HLS support)
Removed fullscreen button in iOS 17 due to Apple's inability to stop innovating
v1.4.2 - November 27, 2023
Added option to disable Ultra-Low Latency playback (WebRTC) for more compatible legacy HLS playback
Fixed an issue with managing multiple SRT Push restreams
Fixed some visual glitches and improved performance in the Admin section
Fixed issue where player controls did not work with certain watermark settings
Fixed issue with M/F/T hotkeys if player was engaged
Fixed issue with TLS certificate renewals
Fixed issue with group permissions on channels
Reduced network usage when browser window/tab is hidden
REC button will not appear if the incoming codecs can't be recorded (H264 + AAC)
Updated OvenMediaEngine to 0.16.2
Updated OvenPlayer to 0.10.32
Security updates and fixes
v1.4.1 - September 5, 2023
Streamwell 1.4.1 contains no outward-facing changes, but some important bug fixes and performance improvements (very exciting, we know).
Fixed issue where Safari on macOS did not enjoy going fullscreen
Fixed database updates if your starting database was from Streamwell v1.3.6
Fixed unable to create destinations if all were deleted
Fixed expiring stream key for WHIP (WebRTC) stream inputs
Fixed crash related to SRT push connection failure
Fixed issue where welcome message might be displayed twice
Improved connection reliability of Control Room (in-browser streaming)
Improved scrolling of long lists on mobile devices
Updated database to MariaDB 10.5.2
Updated OvenMediaEngine to 0.15.16
v1.4.0 - August 1, 2023
Introducing our all-new Enterprise license option!
Set up a connection to an app on Azure AD in seconds - no engineering work or "secret sauce" required 🍔
Assign custom User IDs. This way you can create and pre-assign permissions to users before they ever even log in.
Choose to sync and remove any users which no longer exist in the directory - no manual cleanup required 🧹
New features for everybody!
Added H265 streaming including 10-bit (P010) and HDR (Rec. 2100) 🌈
Added User Groups 👪
Added SRT Push for direct playback to SRT listener devices like Magewell ProConvert 📡
Improvements and fixes
You can now 'Allow all Clients' and 'Allow all Creators' on a channel
Improved performance, look and feel of administration page
Fixed issue where individual stream links couldn't be saved as icons to the iOS home screen
Fixed issue where only ~ 20 users could be added to a channel (you can go well into the hundreds now)
Security enhancements for live thumbnails and stream playback
v1.3.6 - June 1, 2023
Watermark Mode Choose to add your theme logo, the logged in username and public IP address when available as a watermark over the stream.
Surround Sound Support Now you can stream up to 8-channel audio 🔊
See viewer counts on the home screen Now each stream will show the number of live viewers in real-time, right on the home screen.
Custom Favicon Support You can now customize the favicon which appears in the web browser tab / url bar, iOS home screen etc.
Other improvements and fixes
Added License removal feature. Can be used in correspondence with support to perform offline updates.
Added support for TZ environment variable to set the time zone.
Improved speed (and look) of recording processing.
Fixed an issue where the player background would disappear when playback stopped
Fixed an issue where the recording thumbnails would continuously refresh
v1.3.5 - May 3, 2023
Public link password protection Creators can now easily set a temporary password on the public link. Public viewers will be met with a simplified login page (password only) reflecting the theme of the stream they are attempting to join.
Proxy Streaming (ABR) Your server can encode a lower-quality proxy stream that viewers can flip to manually or automatically if they don’t have a super solid connection to view your full-quality stream.
SRT encryption You can now set the SRT passphrase and 50+ other SRT options in the engine config.
Other improvements and fixes
Added the ability to duplicate existing themes.
Fixed issue where web server might require a manual restart when renewing TLS certificate.
Fixed false message that theme had not been updated if you only updated the logo or background.
v1.3.4 - April 13, 2023
Added preferences option to set the default sort order shown on the home screen.
Added support for editing Restreaming destinations.
Added mute toggle - press 'M' to mute or unmute the player.
Preferences related to the look and feel of Streamwell now live in their own 'Preferences' menu, along with nice new toggle switches and buttons.
Improved 'reveal' of stream keys - now you can click to copy them when they are visible.
Fixed issue where the restreaming panel would show 'Stopped' when it should have shown 'Awaiting Stream'.
Improved page load and recording processing speed 🚀
Reduced the size of the engine log file
v1.3.3 - March 30, 2023
Added experimental support for WebRTC (WHIP) stream input. Enable this under the 'Features' panel in the Administration section.
Added "Simplified Client View" by default for new installs - clients do not see chat, file sharing or other modules unless this is disabled.
Improvements to Split View UI and page performance.
Better support for running the web interface on non-standard (80/443) ports.
v1.3.2 - March 23, 2023
Added support for custom CSS in the Administration section
Added responsive split view
Added "Theatre Modes": press 'T' to toggle a focused, minimal player. Or press 'F' to toggle fullscreen on or off.
Fixed issue from 1.3.1 where the recordings panel might not initialize
Improvements to HTTPS certificate renewal
v1.3.1 - March 18, 2023
Added input stream statistics (codec, stream type, resolution, bitrate, framerate etc…)
Added support for ATEM Mini Pro. Go to Admin -> System Info to download an XML config file for your server.
Fixed an issue where the Home Screen logo might disappear
Security, Engine and Player updates
Deprecated the rarely-used video chat feature (enter videoChatEnabled as a custom Site Title to magically bring it back).
v1.3.0 - March 8, 2023
Streamwell 1.3 is a big update! Please note there have been some changes to the default ports used by Streamwell so users upgrading from a prior version may need to adjust their port forwarding settings. Please see the updated documentation for specifics.
New Features:
Introducing... themes! You can now create as many themes as you would like, and assign them on a per-channel basis.
Added RTMPS support for encrypted inbound streams.
Added QR Code generator for easier public link sharing.
Streamwell now runs natively on ARM processors like Apple M1/M2 🎉
Improvements:
Rebuilt Docker image from scratch with improved performance, security and compatibility.
Startup time improved more than 10x
Improved HLS stream reliability and compatibility (now offers 2-3s latency under LLHLS players like iOS devices, 12-15s under classic HLS players like VLC)
Improved reliability of Control Room (browser-based streaming) and Video Chat.
Improved web client performance at the expense of dropping support for some very old browsers.
Added support for GIF and WEBP images in the file sharing tab.
Streamwell now supports simultaneous LAN and WAN access. This means you can still fully utilize the server at a local address like 192.168.0.100 even if you have enabled TLS via a domain like mystreamwellserver.com. This is a much-requested feature for groups who are on a restricted network where the server cannot 'see itself' at the domain name.
v1.2.5 - January 2, 2023
Fixed issue preventing use of Control Room and Video Chat
Added "reveal" button to Stream Keys so you can view them without copying the whole URL
Security updates for core components
Update Engine to 0.14.18
v1.2.4 - November 14, 2022
Security improvements (including OpenSSL update)
Update Engine to version 0.14.15 for better playback performance and more stability with LLHLS
Implement more secure licensing format. Any permanent license keys from previous versions will need to be re-issued - please contact support for assistance with this.
v1.2.3 - October 25, 2022
Many small UX/UI improvements
Public links now use a center-justified player that takes up more of the available screen space
Fixed issue where player might not automatically reload if a live stream is stopped, then started again
Fixed issue where deleting a restream while it was streaming could cause trouble.
Update engine to 0.14.13
v1.2.2 - August 17, 2022
Screen Sharing added as an option in Control Room (note: this is less preferable than streaming in your screen as it uses the browser for encoding, and takes 30 seconds to ramp up the quality)
Fixed issue where certain users could not reset the public link
Fixed issue where data connection would remain open after bouncing a public viewer
Updated engine to latest version with better LL-HLS support
v1.2.1 - July 21, 2022
Fixed issue where homepage did not sort correctly
Fixed issue where user/channel could not be edited after toggling delete mode on and off
Fixed issue where recordings might stop immediately after starting
Added support for "UPLOAD_MB_LIMIT" environment variable to override the default upload file size limit of 256 MB. (e.g. -e UPLOAD_MB_LIMIT=500)
Updated player and engine to latest versions
Security updates for other 3rd party components
v1.2.0 - July 14, 2022
New Feature: Low-Latency HLS! Now you can view / AirPlay a native HLS stream with latency approaching 1 second. If your device does not support LL-HLS it will automatically fallback to regular HLS (with ~20 seconds latency).
Fixed issue where users could not be assigned to a channel while it was being created
Fixed display issue where player could appear pillar boxed in Chrome
Improved recording processing time
Updated Media Engine to 0.14.0
Updated LAMP stack with latest security updates for PHP, MySQL, Apache
v1.1.9 - May 7, 2022
Hotfix: Customizations to the engine config might be lost on container reboot depending on HTTPS config. Now config changes will be preserved!
v1.1.8 - April 22, 2022
Allow custom port selection by setting environment variables at launch (See 'Installing with Docker')
Video chat now shows along the top of the player
Fixed some visual glitches
Fixed issue where a very large log file would be unviewable in the browser. Now log files will show 2500 lines maximum when viewing (but can be downloaded in their entirety).
v1.1.7 - March 25, 2022
Streamwell v1.1.7 introduces an exciting new feature: Restreaming! Now you can push your streams to one or more custom-defined RTMP destinations. It also includes these slightly less exciting improvements:
Resetting a public link now gives any public viewers or embedded streams a smooth 'goodbye' after 10 seconds.
Further improvements to file sharing
Update OvenMediaEngine to 0.13.2
Session security improvements
Enable JitterBuffer in OME by default, to fix ongoing sync issues in Safari
v1.1.6 - March 14, 2022
When deleting a channel, the files, recordings and chat history associated with that channel are now all deleted as well. Bye bye cruft!
Fixed a longstanding issue where a file might appear in your uploaded list before it has finished uploading.
Added support for entering a license key as part of the docker run command, so the server is licensed on startup (use environment variables STREAMWELL_LICENSE_KEY and STREAMWELL_LICENSE_NAME)
A note on these rapid updates: Streamwell is in a very intense period of development. Updating the app is easy (and being made easier whenever possible), but don't feel any pressure to apply the latest and greatest unless you need a particular improvement.
v1.1.5 - March 9, 2022
User interface improvements
Log files now auto-rotate beautifully at 11:59pm each night
Add support for passing in environment variables at runtime, to automatically configure and use HTTPS
v1.1.4 - March 2, 2022
Improved video chat performance in Safari, but added warning that it really works better in Chrome/Edge/Firefox
Allow dismissing of any modal dialog with the Esc key
Player no longer flashes every 10 seconds when offline
Fixed issue where embed code would sometimes not copy
When promoting a chat stream to the main player, the 'demoted' player now shows an outline to help differentiate it
Channel admin now bolds selected usernames to help differentiate in case of more subtle accent colors
Centered the main UI to keep it manageable on larger screens
Security improvements
Chat performance improvements and notifications
Improved the stacked panel UI a bit. More to come here.
v1.1.3 - February 28, 2022
New Features:
Added the ability to embed a stream in an external site (click ‘embed’ under the public link to generate HTML which can be copy-pasted into another site
Improvements:
Feature panels now open from a bar of tabs instead of a stack.
Log files are now more verbose where it matters and less verbose where it doesn’t.
Video chat reliability and UI improvements. Uses less bandwidth, too.
Firefox is now an equal citizen to Chrome and Edge, and should work with all features.
Fixes:
HLS ‘open’ button broke in 1.1.0, and is now fixed.
Fixed security issue where a bad actor could falsify logs from the login screen.
Fixed issue where text chat would get sluggish and sketchy on very slow connections.
Update OvenMediaEngine to v0.13.1 - resolves SIGABRT issue on HTTP error.
Note: The somewhat obscure video chat screen sharing option has been removed, because sharing your screen at low quality through a web browser defeats the purpose of Streamwell and it never worked well in the first place.
v1.1.2 - February 23, 2022
New features:
Add ability to view server and engine logs instead of just downloading them
Add ability to manage stream keys and public links on the channel page (added to statistics module)
Creators will now need to confirm before resetting stream keys or public links, to prevent accidental resets
Improvements:
HTTPS activation and renewal improvements
Long lists of users or channels are now scrollable
Shared link previews (e.g. iMessage) now show a thumbnail from the stream if it is live
Update OvenMediaEngine to v0.13.0
Log files now auto-rotate to prevent buildup
Performance and security enhancements, application architecture updates
Better error reporting and logging
Small bug and performance fixes
Fixes:
Fix issue where viewer stats show reverse values for peak / current viewers
v1.0.12 - February 11, 2022
Fix issue if no environment variables provided
Fix issue with sorting channels
Fix issue where player might disappear if somebody departs the video chat
Check HTTPS expiry and warn Admin within 2 weeks when accessing the administration section
Added Control Room (BETA) for streaming directly from your web browser
Small UX tweaks and bug fixes
v1.0.11 - November 25, 2021
Fixes:
Fix UI issues when stream is offline
Fix chat disconnect issues
Other small bug fixes
Improvements:
Update Streaming Engine to 0.12.8
Reinstate support for Microsoft Edge
Refactored some code for faster performance
Consolidate use of ports (no new ports required, uses less ports than before)
v1.0.10 - November 3, 2021
Improvements to video chat
Expand free license features
Fixed issues with iOS 15 / 15.1
v1.0.9 - October 19, 2021
Fixes:
Fix audio sync issues in Safari
Fix issues with engine config reset
Fix issues with recording status not updating
Fix issue where only one SRT stream could be received at a time
Fix issue where thumbnails were not deleted when their main file was
Fix issue where some backend operations slowed down the UI
Fix BeamBOX toggle not showing when editing existing creator
Other bug and visual fixes
Improvements:
Stream playback starts faster (Specify ICE Candidate)
Added free license tier for personal use
Redesigned video chat with better performance and UI
Added support for Screen Sharing and HD webcam resolution on Chrome
Replaced Emoji placeholders with actual icons
File uploads now show progress
File list now automatically refreshes
Improved page loading performance
Added some fun Easter eggs (Hints: the boat of a chocolate maker; a cheat from Shadows of the Empire)
Security Improvements:
Allow use of a SYSTEM_KEY environment variable at the docker level, to allow persistent keys between updates. If not present, a random system key will be issued but your old public links will have expired.
Limit BeamBOX to certain registered users only as it is an obscure and somewhat insecure feature.
Known Issues with Video Chat:
Video chat is not yet supported in Firefox or Edge due to poor WebRTC reliability. Additionally, Safari on iOS 15.1 introduces breaking changes to WebRTC and the application will crash if you attempt to transmit video. This in mind, it is recommended to participate in video chat from Chrome or Safari on Desktop only. As the WebRTC standard is more uniformly adopted across browsers, this will improve. When in doubt, use Chrome.
v1.0.8 - September 30, 2021
Fixes:
Fixed issue where pressing enter to submit a form might cause the page to reload
Fixed issue where certain characters in user / channel names could prevent changes from saving
Fixed logo image caching so new logo shows without browser cache reset
Fixed issue where login panel gets too narrow when the logo image is narrow
Fixed issue where Safari on iOS 15 destroyed the entire universe
Fixed disappearing player when promoting live chat stream but no stream was live
Improvements:
User and Admin experience improvements
Reduced network activity when chat, recording, stats modules are not visible
Users will now be shown a ‘live stream offline’ warning instead of an empty player, if there is no live stream
Main player is now vertically responsive and will always fit on the page regardless of vertical height limitations
Uploaded files now receive itty bitty thumbnails where possible
Stream and chat connections now more reliable (TCP relay)
Media tags like <img> <video> etc are no longer allowed in custom welcome messages, as they presented a cross-site scripting vulnerability
Closed a loophole where the test stream URL could be used to execute a malicious command
Known Issues:
There is an issue with SRT streams where only one stream is processed at a time. WORKAROUND: Use the <WorkerCount> flag in the SRT port binding settings to increase the worker count to the number of incoming SRT streams needed, up to the number of CPU cores available. This will be fixed in the next release.
v1.0.7 - September 22, 2021
Add HLS streaming for universal playback compatibility
Add drag-drop file upload support
Bug fixes and performance improvements
Note to iOS users: iOS 15.0 includes breaking changes to web sockets in Safari, which prevents Streamwell from functioning. We are exploring ways to get around these new changes but as Apple does from time to time, the change is significantly limiting and they have not provided any alternatives yet. For now, Streamwell (and a number of other web apps which use secure sockets) will only work up to iOS 14.8.
v1.0.6 - September 17, 2021
Video chat is somewhat less experimental!
In-browser streaming now supported via video chat
Added ability to dynamically swap videos in and out of the main player without reloading them
Added ability to view most uploaded image / mp4 / mov files in the browser
Bug fixes and performance improvements
Improved application security (better input validation)
Improved database restores
Improvements to text chat (e.g. URL highlighting)
Optimize default network / server configurations
Update Engine to 0.12.5 and Player to 0.10.3
v1.0.5 - Jun 4, 2021
Add File Sharing module
Add Chat module
Add ‘classic mode’ HLS stream option
Add engine config editor to Admin panel
Improvements and additions to video conferencing (still experimental)
Fix engine config issue on reboot
Improve custom color scheme
Fixes for other minor bugs and UI issues
v1.0.4 - May 17, 2021
Many UI/UX improvements
Auto-rotate log files on admin login
Fix crackling audio on recordings
Auto-recover failed recordings
Add Autoplay on/off option
Add secure SRT input
Add TCP/UDP toggle to player ('Safe Mode')
Expand custom color scheme
Fix users and channels showing in random order
Add experimental video chat feature
v1.0.3 - April 21, 2021
Expand licensing
Implement database updates
Implement test stream
Implement live stream statistics
Bug fixes and architecture improvements
v1.0.2 - April 15, 2021
Many small UI/UX fixes
Add automatic HTTPS certificate in Administration
Auto-rotate log files
Fix player background not updating due to caching issue
Application security keys are now randomized on deployment
Allow reset of public links and stream keys
Improved session & password reset security
Recordings now require a minimum of 12GB disk space to start
Changed default application name to 'live' instead of 'streamwell'
Add PHPShadow code protection for production environment
v1.0.1 - April 6, 2021
Update OvenMediaEngine (0.11.2.x) and OvenPlayer components for improved performance
Add Engine Restart / System Log controls in the Admin Panel
Now fully containerized and ready for automated deployment with Build Script + Dockerfile
v1.0.0 - March 26, 2021 (Initial Release)
Streamwell Studio is a decentralized, self-hosted streaming server that puts creators back in control. With this application running on a local server or in a cloud of your choosing, you can:
Create private and secure live streaming channels, viewable from any modern web browser
Control visibility of channels to approved clients and creators only
Stream with sub-second latency for live collaboration and 'in the moment' experiences
Fully brand the experience with your organization's logo and identity
Share convenient one-touch public links for absolute ease of use
Record, playback and download streams for future use
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