Red5 is a free, open source Flash server that supports streaming and recording audio/video, live stream publishing and Flash remoting. Its Wowza and Adobe® Flash Media Server are the commercial equivalents. But while they are expensive, for example wowza costs nearly a thousand dollars for 1 server and the adobe version $4500, red5 is free.
Thousands of developers work on it on their spare time. Based on Java and some of the most powerful open source frameworks, Red5 stands as a solid solution for business of all sizes including the enterprise.
Red5 includes support for the latest multi-user API’s including NetConnection, NetStream and SharedObject’s while providing a powerful RTMP / Servlet implementation. In addition to support for the RTMP protocol, the application server has an embedded Tomcat Servlet container for JEE Web Applications. Application development draws additional benefits from the Spring Framework and Scope based event driven services.
Red5 still a long road to go but it an extensible platform that can be used in Video Conferences, live broadcasts, Multi-User Gaming and Enterprise Application Software.