Cue is the live streaming engine we write ourselves and install on your dedicated server. Encoders publish over RTMP, SRT, WebRTC or RTSP; viewers play HLS, Low-Latency HLS, DASH, or WebRTC under a second behind live. Bitrate ladders on NVIDIA or Quick Sync, DVR, live captions, FairPlay, Widevine and PlayReady DRM, server-side ads and a full IPTV service are all in the one program.
Every input can feed every output: a stream published once over SRT plays as HLS, DASH, WebRTC, RTMP and RTSP at the same moment, and a multicast feed from a head-end comes out as HLS for browsers.
:1935publish; Adobe sign-in or a password in the stream key; RTMPS on the TLS port:9998/udppublish; the stream ID names application, stream, user and password; AES keyed by the publishing password/app/stream/whippublish with the publishing password as the bearer token; all media on 8189, UDP or TCP:554publish over TCP with Basic sign-in or ?password=rtsp://IP cameras, with the camera’s own loginsrt://Cue calls the sender; encrypted feeds tooudp:// · tshttp://unicast, multicast on a named interface (bare or RTP-wrapped), or over HTTPhls://re-serve another origin, CDN-fronted ones includedrtmp://mirror another server, with its sign-in/app/stream/playlist.m3u8MPEG-TS or fMP4/CMAF segments; Low-Latency HLS over HTTP/2manifest.mpd · index.mpdbuilt on the same CMAF segments as fMP4 HLS/app/stream/whepunder a second behind live; AAC sound is turned into Opus while WebRTC viewers watch:1935play, with a picture cache for a fast startm=requestany stream as MPEG-TS on the SRT port:554TCP interleaved; players that ask for UDP retry over TCP/app/stream/mpegtsover HTTP, or pushed to a UDP multicast groupthumbnail.jpgthe latest frame of every live stream, refreshed every 5 sOpen a group for the detail. Everything listed here is built and has passed its acceptance test; anything only partly built is left out rather than half-claimed.
/drm/playready and go on to your PlayReady licence server, which reads its keys from an authenticated CPIX 2.3 export encrypted to your certificate. All three pass the channel’s own access rules first.splice_insert or time_signal, become HLS ad markers whether they arrive over SRT or MPEG-TS or inside an RTMP feed (onCuePoint and the other data messages encoders use, base64 or hex): CUE-OUT/CUE-IN, EXT-X-DATERANGE, both, or off, per application, in the source and every rendition.playback.hls.splice_segments, on by default wherever ad markers are): a break starts on a fresh segment in MPEG-TS, fMP4 and Low-Latency HLS, and in the MPEG-TS renditions of the ladder.POST /api/v1/channels/<key>/cues with type out, in or cancel, a duration, auto_return and an event_id starts, ends or calls off a break from your scheduler.availabilityTimeOffset in the manifest and the open segment sent chunked as it grows.<id>~<N>p.mp4 are served as one adaptive master, lowest bandwidth first, each with BANDWIDTH, RESOLUTION, CODECS and FRAME-RATE.<id>.cc.<lang>.vtt join it as an EXT-X-MEDIA SUBTITLES group, each language under its own name.poster.jpg, a preview strip (sprite.jpg with sprite.vtt) and chapters.vtt are picked up for the player.<file>/download (with ?name= for the saved name), and plain progressive MP4 at <file>.mp4/progressive.mp4 with Range requests.player_api.php and panel_api.php calls IPTV player apps make, M3U and M3U_plus playlists, and XMLTV from your EPG.Twenty-eight capabilities are common ground: all three engines have them, so they sit lower down. The five rows above them are where the engines part ways, and only Cue answers yes to every one. The Wowza and Flussonic columns come from each vendor’s own documentation for Wowza Streaming Engine 4.11.3 and Flussonic Media Server 26.09, read in September and October 2026. A dash means the product doesn’t set out to do that.
| Capability | Wowza 4.11 | Flussonic 26.09 | Cue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where they part ways | |||
| Windows Server as well as Linux Flussonic: Linux packages, Windows only through Docker · Cue: Windows Server 2012 R2, 2019, 2022 and 2025 | Yes | — not built in | Yes |
| A full IPTV service: subscriber lines with expiry and device limits, bouquets, the player API that IPTV apps speak, M3U and XMLTV, catch-up, Enigma2 and the MAG portal Flussonic: users, packages and M3U playlists in its IPTV plugin; MAG boxes through separate middleware | — not built in | Basic | Yes |
| Server-side ad insertion from VAST and VMAP, every rendition and DASH Wowza: through ad partners · Cue: each creative conditioned per rendition, DASH ad periods, one beacon per viewer | Partners | Yes | Yes |
| One native program, with no Java runtime to size or tune | — runs on Java | Yes | Yes |
| A reseller panel for selling streaming accounts to your own customers Cue: the Cue Reseller Panel, licensed on its own | — not built in | — not built in | Yes |
| Getting video in | |||
| RTMP and RTMPS publishing, a password per application | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SRT publishing, encrypted, and SRT pull | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| WebRTC publishing (WHIP) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| RTSP publishing and IP-camera pull | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MPEG-TS over UDP, multicast included | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Relaying another server over HLS or RTMP | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Backup sources, switched automatically | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Getting video out | |||
| HLS in MPEG-TS, fMP4/CMAF and Low-Latency HLS | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| WebRTC playback (WHEP), under a second behind live | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MPEG-DASH | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| RTMP, SRT, RTSP and MPEG-TS playback | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Several audio languages, switched by the viewer | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| A viewer cap per application | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| On-demand files as an adaptive group, with WebVTT subtitles | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Working on the stream | |||
| Adaptive-bitrate ladder NVENC, Quick Sync or CPU | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| A logo on the picture | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Thumbnails of live streams | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| DVR rewind and time-shift | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MP4 clips and exports | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live captions, CEA-608 and teletext, as WebVTT subtitles | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SCTE-35 in, ad markers in HLS | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Access and events | |||
| FairPlay, Widevine and PlayReady DRM, one cbcs copy for all three Cue: on your own Apple, Google and PlayReady credentials; every licence request passes the channel’s access rules | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AES-128 and SAMPLE-AES encrypted HLS, rotating keys | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Signed playback links | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Asking your own backend who may watch or publish | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Address and site restrictions Cue: countries through the Cue Reseller Panel | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| HTTPS with a certificate for the server’s name Cue: a free Let’s Encrypt certificate, switched on in the interface | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Webhooks | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Cue is its own line on the invoice, beside the server and never folded into it. The figures come from the same catalogue the checkout bills from. It is billed at its monthly price on every cycle: a longer term lowers the server’s lines, not Cue’s.
| Cue Media Server, per month | $195 |
|---|---|
| Setup, once | $29.99 |
| Licensed to | One machine, bound when it first activates |
| On a 3, 6 or 12-month term | $195 × the months: software takes no term discount |
| The line it was built on | HPE ProLiant m710x, from $62.58/mo as Intel Xeon E3-1585L v5 Quad Core 3.00 Ghz · 32 GB DDR4 · 1 × NVMe-SSD 240 GB · 1 Gbps |
| Together, from | $257.58/mo before tax |
| Cities | New York, Bucharest, San Francisco, Amsterdam and Miami |
The button opens the m710x configurator with Cue Media Server already under Software. The other lines that sell it are listed below; on any of them it sits under Software → Streaming solutions once a system it installs on is chosen: Ubuntu 20.04 or later, Debian 11 or later, AlmaLinux 8 or later and Rocky Linux 9 or later, or Windows Server 2012 R2, 2019, 2022 or 2025 at the same price. Cue has no ARM build, so our ARM machines do not offer it.
Once the operating system is on — for a ready server, at handover — Cue goes on with a license key issued for that machine. On Linux we run Cue’s signed installer; on Windows Server the server fetches and installs it by itself the first time Windows starts, FFmpeg included. The key binds to the machine the first time it activates.
The interface answers on port 8443 of your server, and the server’s page in your dashboard shows the license and its state. The machine is yours — root on Linux, administrator on Windows — so cue admin reset-password <name> sets a new interface password whenever you need one.
Cue does not have to run on our machines. The licence is sold on its own for a box at any host: you run the installer as root, and the key binds to that machine the first time Cue activates. There is no setup fee, because the install is yours.
Pick the engine, the panel or both, and a billing cycle. The key appears on the account’s dashboard page once the payment clears.
On Linux, as root: curl -fsSL -o install.sh https://releases.servcast.net/cue/install.sh, then CUE_LICENSE=<key> sh install.sh — Ubuntu 18.04 or later, Debian 11 or later, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux or RHEL 8 or later, CentOS 7 or 8. On Windows Server 2012 R2, 2019, 2022 or 2025, in an elevated PowerShell: [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = 'Tls12'; irm https://releases.servcast.net/cue/install.ps1 -OutFile install.ps1, then .\install.ps1 -License <key> -FetchFFmpeg (on 2012 R2, install Windows update KB2999226 first: FFmpeg needs it). Either one verifies our signed release first. x86-64 only.
The installer prints the interface’s first sign-in once. The dashboard shows the key and whether the machine has activated it.
A control panel for selling streaming, built into Cue, where your own customers sign in to their live, on-demand, TV and radio services. It is licensed per machine, like the engine.
| Cue Reseller Panel, per month | $49 |
|---|---|
| With Cue Media Server | $244/mo ($195 + $49), $29.99 setup once for the two |
| On its own | $49/mo, $29.99 setup once |
On the core of a streaming engine the three are level: RTMP, SRT, WebRTC and RTSP in; HLS, DASH and WebRTC out; ladders, DVR, DRM, captions, signed links and webhooks. Beyond that, Cue runs on Windows Server, which Flussonic does not; inserts ads without an ad partner and needs no Java runtime, which Wowza cannot say; and carries a full IPTV service and a reseller panel, which neither has. The comparison table above has every row.
Linux: Ubuntu 18.04 or later, Debian 11 or later, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux and RHEL 8 or later, and CentOS 7 and 8. Windows: Windows Server 2012 R2, 2019, 2022 and 2025, installed with one PowerShell command. The installer verifies our signed release on every one of them, older systems included. Adaptive bitrate needs FFmpeg: on Windows the installer can fetch the build we test with (on 2012 R2 it needs Windows update KB2999226), and on Ubuntu 18.04 and CentOS 7 and 8, whose own FFmpeg is too old or missing, a newer one is installed beside it; everything else works the same everywhere.
The key binds to the machine it first activates on; a reinstall of that machine keeps it. Cue then holds a signed license valid for seven days and renews it every twelve hours, so an outage on our side never stops your streams early. Without a valid license — the account closed, or the key copied to another machine — Cue stops publishing and playing, and the interface stays up to take a key.
No. Software on our servers is billed at its monthly price times the months on every cycle; the longer-term discount applies to the server’s own lines.
Every release is signed with our release key, and the server checks each file against that signature before it runs the release’s installer. The interface tells you when a new version is out and installs it when you press Install; a release altered after signing is refused.