Chris Knowlton's Blog : Silverlight

Webinar: How to Deliver True HD with Silverlight and IIS Smooth Streaming

chriskno — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:56:00 GMT

On Thursday, October 15th, we will be presenting a webinar entitled "How to Deliver True HD with Silverlight and Smooth Streaming." During the one-hour webinar, we'll cover the following topics...

What Smooth Streaming is and why it is the future of online video delivery
How Smooth Streaming delivers HDTV-quality experiences over HTTP
How it has been successfully implemented for major live events and on-demand content
The end-to-end steps for delivering your content with Smooth Streaming

IIS Smooth Streaming is part of the recently-released IIS Media Services 3.0, a set of extensions for Internet Information Services 7 (IIS) that provide an integrated HTTP-based media delivery platform. Part of that release was the beta of the Smooth Streaming Player Development Kit, which allows developers to easily create Smooth Streaming experiences using Silverlight.

I will be co-presenting with Jaime Miles from Level 3, with whom we worked on Smooth Streaming of many high-visibilty live events over the last five months. You can learn more about some of those events on our IIS Smooth Streaming Showcase.

To learn more and register for this free event, please visit the event information page on StreamingMedia.com. For those that cannon attend the live event, an on-demand version will be available from that page starting on Friday.

-Chris

Windows Media Services 2008 R2 Release Candidate

chriskno — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:30:00 GMT

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

Smooth Streaming – What, Why, When, Where, and How

chriskno — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:48:00 GMT

Since we announced our new IIS Smooth Streaming extension last October with Akamai, we've been spending a lot of time engaging with very-interested customers and partners. In the course of these discussions, we hear a lot of frequently asked questions about Smooth Streaming, usually along these lines:

What is Smooth Streaming?
Can I use my existing Windows Media content with Smooth Streaming?
How is Smooth Streaming different from MBR [multiple-bit-rate] streaming?
Will Smooth Streaming work with Silverlight?
Is Smooth Streaming based on traditional streaming, or progressive download?
Does Smooth Streaming use proprietary streaming protocols?
Why is Microsoft shifting towards standards-based media delivery?
How do I create Smooth Streaming content?
Do I need to set up Windows Media Services to use Smooth Streaming?
What kind of support will Smooth Streaming have for H.264 content?
How does Smooth Streaming work?
Is Smooth Streaming more scalable than traditional streaming?
Are there cost advantages to using Smooth Streaming?

If you are wondering about the answers to any or all of these questions, then I highly recommend you read a new four-part Smooth Streaming blog series by Alex Zambelli, Microsoft technical evangelist. Topics include (in order):

A Brief History of Multi-Bitrate Streaming
The Birth of Smooth Streaming
Smooth Streaming Architecture
Encoding for Smooth Streaming (coming soon!)

If you haven't already done so, please check out the proof-of-concept Smooth Streaming site at SmoothHD.com.

-Chris

Delivering audio and video media with Windows Web Server 2008

chriskno — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:28:00 GMT

Questions from customers on the floor of the NAB 2008 Show underscored again for me that many customers are interested in delivering digital media with Windows Web Server 2008. Why? Because for $469, you can get the power of IIS 7.0, the new IIS Media Pack, and Windows Media Services 2008 in a slimmed-down version of Windows Server 2008 to deliver media to the Internet. Whether you are a hoster building a Silverlight-enabled Web server farm, an enterprise administrator increasing your Web video capacity, or a small company putting up your first media server, Windows Web Server 2008 provides a great low-cost option for delivering your content.

-Chris

Microsoft at NAB

chriskno — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 05:07:00 GMT

A number of us from Microsoft will be meeting with customers and staffing the booth at the NAB Show again this year, including folks who work on Windows Media Services 2008, IIS 7.0 Media Pack, Silverlight 2, Expression Studio 2, Interactive Media Manager, Windows HPC Server 2008, Windows Media Center, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, and Microsoft Mediaroom, among others. We will also have many partners joining us to demonstrate their value-added solutions for Microsoft media technologies, including integrated support for Windows Media and the SMPTE standard VC-1 codec.

NAB2008 is the most comprehensive showcase of electronic media in the world, bringing together over 1,400 exhibiting companies and more than 105,000 attendees from 130 countries, making it "Electronic Media's Essential Destination."

Microsoft will have an even larger presence at NAB2008, with an expanded exhibit space in the South Hall. Our exhibit will highlight Microsoft’s broad range of offerings targeting the media & entertainment industry, and will illustrate how Microsoft is enabling organizations and individuals to create, manage and experience rich media content.

You can find us in booth SL5520 in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. For more information, see www.microsoft.com/media/nab2008, and check out these blog posts from some of my colleagues to find out which technologies and show events they recommend:

Ben Waggoner: http://on10.net/blogs/benwagg/21804/
Juanjo Carmena Ayuso: http://blogs.msdn.com/itmedios/archive/2008/04/10/la-presencia-de-microsoft-en-nab.aspx
Chris Carper: http://silverlightbiz.blogspot.com/2008/04/silverlight-and-nab-2008.html

Please stop by if you are going to be at NAB! I'll be at a station with Jim Thill to demonstrate Windows Server 2008 and Silverlight.

-Chris

Exciting media announcements at MIX08

chriskno — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:27:00 GMT

There were many very cool announcements and demos during Scott Guthrie's portion of the MIX08 Day 1 Keynote, and media technologies related to Silverlight were key among them. One 15-minute segment on media included talking points on Windows Media Services 2008 (WMS), the IIS7 Media Pack, Bit Rate Throttling screen shots and client experience, and Web Playlists in an advertising demo.

Here are links to information on some of the media technologies mentioned in the keynote:

Release of the Silverlight 2 Beta, bringing the ease and power of the .NET framework to a cross-platform cross-browser plug-in
Move Networks integration with Silverlight, a great example of a company making use of new Adaptive Streaming capabilities in Silverlight 2
Expression Encoder 2 Beta, which accelerates encoding, improves video quality, and includes new Silverlight templates
IIS 7.0 Media Pack Bit Rate Throttling, which allows you to save money and increase scalability when delivering media from your Web server
IIS 7.0 Media Pack Web Playlists, which allow you to control and monetize your content
Windows Media Services 2008, which provides over 2x the scalability of WMS 9.0 and now runs on the affordable Windows Web Server 2008

Media serving breakout session highlights for MIX08:

Wednesday afternoon, March 5th

IIS and WMS media serving were a key component in a session by Ben Waggoner on Encoding Video for Microsoft Silverlight Delivery Scenarios
Web Playlists were featured during an in-depth breakout session on Silverlight and the Advertising Opportunity that got into the details of the keynote advertising demo

Thursday morning, March 6th, Ed Maia showed a great demo of the IIS Media Pack during his session on Integrating Media in Silverlight Applications
Friday morning, March 7th, Charles Finkelstein will mention IIS and WMS media serving in the Overview of Expression Encoder 2 session with James Clarke

IIS-specific sessions at MIX08 include the following:

Wednesday afternoon, March 5th, Robert Cameron and Tito Leverette presented Bringing Hosters and Developers Together with IIS7 (including demos of Bit Rate Throttling and Web Playlists)
Thursday morning, March 6th, Drew Robbins presented Partying with PHP on Microsoft Internet Information Services 7
Thursday afternoon, March 6th, Mai-lan Tomsen Bukovec presented Everything You Need to Know about Diagnostics and Debugging on Microsoft Internet Information Services 7

-Chris

Comparing Web servers to streaming media servers

chriskno — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 07:13:00 GMT

I'm often asked by customers whether they should use Web servers or streaming media servers to deliver their content, especially now for new rich media sites rolling out Silverlight. The answer invariably depends on their business objectives. Each type of server offers pros and cons related to infrastructure, business model, administrative requirements, and end-user experience. This post will provide some information that might help when making this decision.

Two articles provide a good primer for such a discussion. The first is Web Server vs. Streaming Server, an older analysis that needs updating but provides great context. The second is the relatively more recent Streaming from a Web Server, which provides Web server how-to instructions and updates the comparison to streaming with Windows Media Services 9 Series.

Both articles basically make the case for using a streaming media server based on efficiency, quality, features, scalability, content protection, and protocol options. Many of the points made are still very valid, while others have diminished in relevance due to improvements in bandwidth and changes in technology. For instance, let's look specifically at IIS and Windows Media Services…

In many scenarios, HTTP streaming:
- Has proven to be very scalable in terms of concurrent connections on a Windows Media Services server
- Is increasingly effective for delivering high-quality end-user experiences as bandwidths to homes and branch offices increase
IIS 7 takes a giant step forward from IIS 6 and competing Web servers with the new IIS 7 Media Pack bandwidth throttling feature and Windows Server 2008 scalable networking capabilities, as it can:
- Make better use of resources on the server and delivers more concurrent data streams over HTTP when serving large files, such as video content
- Provide configurable functionality similar to Fast Start and Fast Cache in Windows Media Services
- Send media content at the encoded bit rate, or an administrator-defined rate, for popular formats such as Windows Media Audio, Windows Media Video, and MP3
- Throttle other data types at administrator-defined rates

Given these changes and many others for Windows Server 2008, we might change the high-level "Comparing server features" table from the Web Server vs. Streaming Server article to look as follows…

Windows Server 2008 Feature	Windows Media Services	IIS 7 + Media Pack
Stream through most firewalls	X	X
Stream content with Digital Rights Management	X	X
Fast Streaming	X	~
Fast Start	X	X
Fast Cache	X	X
Fast Reconnect	X
Fast Recovery	X
Advanced Fast Start	X
Stream without downloading	X
Broadcast (live)	X
Intelligent streaming	X
Optimized for delivering Windows Media content	X	X
Indexing	X
Rich Windows Media client logging	X
Built-in Windows Media Cache/Proxy plug-in	X
Supported on Server Core installations	X	X
Available for Windows Web Server 2008	X	X
Stream content to cross-platform Silverlight clients	X	X
Delegated Administration		X
Centralized Configuration		X
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) for on-demand streams		X
Ability to deliver a broad range of media formats		X

If you compare this to the original table, you'll notice that both IIS and Windows Media Services have some great new features that might affect your choice for delivering streaming media. Clearly, your decision will be based on your particular business requirements. Fortunately, with the new functionality provided by Windows Server 2008, your options for this decision have just increased.

After Windows Server 2008 launches, we'll provide updated versions of both Web Server vs. Streaming Server and Streaming from a Web Server. In the meantime, stay tuned to www.iis.net for more information on the delivery of streaming media, and let us know if you have any questions or topics that we can address.

-Chris