Last week, we released an updated version of Windows Media Services (WMS) for Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate. Whether you are streaming content to Windows Media Player, Silverlight, or another Windows Media-compatible player, this latest release (WMS 2008 R2, for short) offers all of the great features you have come to expect in WMS, and more.
Here are some highlights of what WMS 2008 R2 provides:
-
More Options. Installs on all Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate (6.1.7100) editions, including the following:
- Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter
- Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
- Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard
- Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation – new option for WMS!
- Windows Web Server 2008 R2
- More Value. All unicast streaming features are now available on all versions of Windows Server 2008 R2 (see table, below).
- Higher Reliability. Already-proven on-demand and live streaming reliability further improves in Windows Server 2008 R2.
-
Easier Deployment. Fewer installation packages makes deploying WMS simpler:
- One package for all editions of Windows Server 2008 R2
- Two packages for the WMS Remote Server Administration Tool (for use on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 clients)
- Better Virtualization. Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008 R2 improves performance and manageability of streaming VMs.
- Reduced Power Consumption. Windows Server 2008 R2 can dynamically adjust power usage as streaming loads change.
- Multicast for Silverlight. With the new Silverlight Multicast Plug-in, WMS can now deliver multicast streams to Silverlight.
The easiest way to get started with WMS 2008 R2 is by running the Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta on your Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate server. This very useful tool will download and then silently install WMS using the default settings.
Table 1 - Windows Media Services 2008 R2 Release Candidate features by edition
|
Feature |
Windows Server 2008 R2
Standard and Foundation;
Windows Web Server 2008 R2 |
Windows Server 2008 R2
Enterprise
and Datacenter |
|
Absolute Playlist Time |
|
|
|
Advanced Fast Start |
|
|
|
Advanced FF/RW |
|
|
|
Advertising server support |
|
|
|
Broadcast Auto-Start |
|
|
|
Cache/Proxy Plug-in |
|
|
|
Custom plug-in support |
|
|
|
Event-based scripting support |
|
|
|
Fast Cache |
|
|
|
Fast Reconnect |
|
|
|
Fast Recovery |
|
|
|
Fast Start |
|
|
|
Fast Streaming |
|
|
|
Internet authentication method (Digest) |
|
|
|
Internet Group Management Protocol
version 3 (IGMPv3) support |
|
|
|
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) support |
|
|
|
Intranet authentication methods
(Negotiate authentication, Anonymous access) |
|
|
|
Live Streaming |
|
|
|
Multicast content delivery |
|
|
|
Multiple authorization methods (NTFS ACL, IP Address) |
|
|
|
Multiple control protocol support (HTTP, RTSP) |
|
|
|
Multiple media parser support (Windows Media, MP3, JPEG) |
|
|
|
Multiple playlist parser support (WSX, Directory) |
|
|
|
On-Demand Streaming |
|
|
|
Play While Archiving |
|
|
|
Robust event notification (WMI, SNMP) |
|
|
|
Server-based content repacketization |
|
|
|
Server Core installation option |
|
|
|
Unicast content delivery |
|
|
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