Windows Media Services 2008 R2 released

I am pleased to announce the release of Windows Media Services (WMS) for Windows Server 2008 R2. 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 traditional Windows Media streaming features you have come to expect in WMS, and more.

(If you are looking for intelligent progressive download features, or next-generation adaptive streaming technologies such as live and on-demand IIS Smooth Streaming, please see www.iis.net/media.) 

Here are some highlights of what WMS 2008 R2 provides:

• More Options. Installs on all Windows Server 2008 R2 (6.1.7600) editions, including the following:
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard
• 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 release of Silverlight 4, WMS can now deliver multicast streams natively 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 server. This very useful tool will download and then silently install and configure WMS using the default settings.

Table 1 - Windows Media Services 2008 R2 features by edition