I recently launched a video site (yes, yet another video site in the world) that required a flash media server to record video from webcams.  The concept is simple:  Record 6 second interviews/answers to questions asked by people around the world.

I had two awesome experiences during this web dev experience .. Learning Flex, and working with Wowza Media Server.  Both of which are a breath of fresh air in terms of code/deployment

Wowza offers its media server in two flavors .. Self hosted or licensed through Amazon EC2.  I'm already a gigantic fan of Amazon's S3 (I'm practically a tech evangelist for S3!), so naturally EC2 should be awesome, right?

Well ... IT IS AWESOME!  EC2 awesomeness is a whole other post, though ...

Getting started with Wowza Media Server Pro on EC2 is simple.  First you sign up with their Amazon link.  Then you launch an instance of the Wowza Media Server machine image in the EC2 panel.  Done.  The server is up and running!

Granted, you need to setup the proper application on the Media Server to be able to record vid, but that's a simple xml document.  On top of that, if you suddenly need another media server ... you just LAUNCH iT!  EC2 is beyond awesome.

The site I used the Wowza Media Server on is: GrokFlok - Check it out and let me know what you think

Teft