Gavin HastingsB00205504Streaming Media ExercisesLog bookThis logbook will discuss how to set up an IIS server for streaming media.After setting up IIS in the control panel and navigating to administrative tools/Internet Information Services Manager. The default web site is shown in the content view.

w.The web site content

The video below was added to the wwwroot folder. This made it display on the websites root directory at 127.0.0.1

Adding the big buck bunny vids.

Below is an extract of the code from the BigBuckBunny.ism file:

f48d286e-5f2e-44e2-91cf-be2044ab4553 False False True False True False False 9 00:09:56.4583334

Log Book Question: Describe in outline the head section of this SMIL file and explain the significance of the element?The head section contains meta data at the top to make the content more descriptive. It shows a number of options which can be true or false, these provide additional data about what the media contains, such as captions, audio, images, and whether it is protected or not.The switch statement is used to give the media player different options to choose from when streaming a particular file. If none of the options tested work, then the file will not play. This gives the player more choice should one of the files not play correctly.

Adding the updated smooth streaming player file.

Evidence of the video working on the smooth streaming player page.

Q: Describe the compromises which may be made to allow a reasonable display at lower bitrates?Change the screen settings before encoding the video. The frame rate and quality settings can be altered to lower the bitrate of the video whilst still maintaining reasonable quality. Experimentation is required to find the ideal settings.

Question: How does digital rights management operate in Silverlight?1. The end user attempts to play some DRM protected content in a Silverlight Application that is stored on a distribution server. The Silverlight client downloads the content (or some of the content in the case of streaming) and the header.2. Silverlight determines whether the end users computer has the appropriate DRM software installed. If not, a request is made for the component from the Microsoft Individualization Service.3. Once valid individualization component software exists on the client, it is ready to play DRM. Now, when a page with DRM content is visited, the Silverlight client will contact the PlayReady License Server to obtain a license. If the License Server approves the request, it issues a license which will be used by the client to decrypt the particular media file. After this, the content can be played.

A screen shot of the screen capture files.Video file formats supported by encoder:

.3g21.mov1

.3gp1.mp41

.asf.mpeg3

.avi.mpg3

.avs4.mts/.m2ts (AVCHD)

.dv1.ts2

.dvr-ms2.vob2

.ismv (Adaptive Streaming file format).wmv

.m2v.wtv (Windows Television)

.m4v1.xesc (Expression Encoder screen capture format)

.mod2

1 Requires Apple QuickTime.2 Requires MPEG-2 decoder.3 May require MPEG-2 decoder.4 Requires AviSynth.5 Supports only WPF Canvas XAML.

Encoder resize options. The settings in encoder allow you to choose either letterbox or stretch. Letterbox will resize the movie at the centre of the screen whilst keeping the dimensions in proportion. Stretch will fill the screen. This may alter the dimensions depending on the shape of the screen so is not a suitable choice unless the end users screen size is known.There are many different settings on the encoding page where options for high-speed broadband and different options for smooth streaming can be selected.

The Apollo video in encoder with the Metadata section filled out.

Week 12

Q1. Compare traditional streaming, progressive download, HTTP adaptive streaming and smooth streaming techniques. Traditional streaming is video delivered via a streaming server, which is a server thats sole job is to deliver streaming media. This is in contrast with a traditional web server that runs all websites, and delivers all forms of web content, including HTML text, JPEG and GIF images, PDF files, and more.Progressive download is video delivered by a regular HTTP web server rather than a streaming server. In most instances, video delivered using this technique is stored on the viewers hard drive as its received, and then its played from the hard drive. In contrast, streaming video is usually not cached locally, so if the viewer cant retrieve and play it in real time, he or she cant play it smoothly at all. When delivering via progressive download, you can encode at higher rates than you could when delivering via streaming, because even if the data rate exceeds the viewers connection bandwidth, ultimately, it will reside on the viewers hard drive, from which it will play smoothly.Adaptive streaming technologies encode multiple live or on-demand streams and switch them adaptively based upon changing line conditions and other variables. When the connection is good, the viewer gets a high-quality, high-data-rate stream, but if connection speed drops, the server will send a lower-data-rate file to ensure a continuous connection, albeit at lower quality. Adaptive streaming provides the best of all possible worlds: great quality-video for those with the connection speed to retrieve it (and the CPU required to play it back), and a passable-quality stream for those with Wi-Fi, mobile or other slow connections on lower-power devices.There are multiple adaptive streaming alternatives today, including Adobes Dynamic Streaming, Apples HTTP Live Streaming and Microsofts Smooth Streaming.Smooth Streaming is an extension for Internet Information Services (IIS). It dynamically detects local bandwidth and CPU conditions and seamlessly switches, in near real time, the video quality of a media file that a player receives. Consumers with high-bandwidth connections can experience high definition quality streaming while others with lower bandwidth speeds receive the appropriate stream for their connectivity.Q2. What is the purpose of the smooth streaming manifest file and what features does this support? The server manifest file (.ism) describes the relationships between media tracks, bitrates and files on disk. It is only used by the IIS Smooth Streaming server and not by the client.The client manifest file (.ismc) describes to the client the available streams, codecs used, bitrates encoded, video resolutions, markers, captions, etc. Its the first file delivered to the client. Both manifest file formats are based on XML. The server manifest file format is based specifically on the SMIL 2.0 XML format specification.Q3. How could encoders and servers be configured to allow a system to continue working despite the failure of an encoder or a server? In a typical setup, an encoder will use just one POST request for each streamID to save some bandwidth between the encoder and the server. Each POST request is a long running TCP connection that keeps transmitting data from the encoder to the server. If the TCP connection gets broken or the encoder fails unexpectedly, the server will keep the publishing point in the started state and wait for the new POST request to come in for the same streamID. Once the new connection is established for the same streamID, the server can filter out duplicated fragments if theres any and resume the live stream. During the time when the connection is broken and the server has no data for the live stream, the client can still request all the DVR contents that have been already archived. Its just that those live clients would have to wait and retry until after the encoder resumes the stream. This is one example of multiple POST requests happening sequentially for one streamID.Q4. What is a live smooth streaming publishing point? Live smooth streaming publishing points are used to translate client requests for content into a physical path on the server hosting the content. After a client successfully connects to a publishing point, the Windows Media server manages the connection and streams the content.Q5. What is the difference between push and pull publishing points? HTTP Push: The live streams are being posted to the publishing point from the live source.HTTP Pull: The publishing point is getting the live streams by requesting them from the live source.Q6. What features does this basic enabled publishing point support? What roles may be accessed by additional configuration under the advanced settings? Disable archive media, allow DVR, disallow server connections.Q7. What is the DVR feature? DVR is used for video archiving.

Adding a publishing point.

Adding credentials.

Changing the advanced publishing point settings to disable archive media, enable DVR for recent content of 5 minutes and to disallow server connections.

Managing the credentials

Log book Question Describe IIS Security features IIS 6.0 includes a variety of security features and technologies to ensure the integrity of Web and FTP site content. The main features are authentication, access control, encryption, certificates, and auditing.Basic authentication transmits user names and passwords across the network in an unencrypted form. The Web server's encryption features, in combination with Basic authentication, secure the user account information transmitted across the network. To use Basic authentication, each user is granted the right to log on locally. For easier administration, each user is added to a group that has access to the necessary files.You can control which users and computers are allowed to access your Web server and its resources. You can use both NTFS and Internet Information Services (IIS) security features, such as Web permissions and IP address restrictions, to specific access rights to Web sites, directories, and files.You can use encryption to help protect the private information that clients exchange with your Web server, such as credit card numbers or phone numbers. You can also encrypt data when running WMI-based remote administration scripts. In IIS, the foundation for encryption is the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol, which establishes an encrypted communication link with users.Certificates are a form of digital identification for the server, and for clients that are requesting information from the server. Their function is similar to that of a passport, or other official identity card, which identifies the person carrying it. Certificates are part of the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) features of Internet Information Services (IIS) that establish a secure connection over which sensitive information can be sent.You can use security auditing techniques to track the activities of users and to detect unauthorized attempts to access your NTFS file system directories and files. Activities that you can audit include the following: User attempts to log on, both successful and unsuccessful. User attempts to access restricted accounts. User attempts to execute restricted commands.

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