October, 2007

THANKS TO JIM THILL FOR THIS WRITE UP!

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Summary:

This document gives you a step-by-step tutorial for using the new Preview version of the Silverlight Streaming Plug-in for Expression Encoder. You can import a video, encode the video and publish it to the Silverlight Streaming Service. One it is on the service you can add your rich media Silverlight experience to your web site or blog and let Microsoft pay the hosting freight.

About Silverlight Streaming:

Web site: http://silverlight.live.com/

Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live offers a free streaming and application hosting solution for delivering high-quality, cross-platform, cross-browser, media-enabled rich interactive applications (RIAs). With the ability to author content in Microsoft Expression Encoder and other third-party editing environments, Web designers maintain complete control of the user experience.

While the product is in pre-release, storage and delivery is free up to 4 GB, with outbound streaming up to 700 Kbps. As we move out of Beta, developers/designers will have continued use of the service with up to 1 million minutes of free video streaming at 700 Kpbs per site per month. Unlimited streaming will also be available for free with advertising, or with payment of a nominal fee for the service for use without advertising.

NOTE: In the world of Internet media delivery, the word streaming has a very specific definition – the media being accessed is available upon request, you can access any portion of the file without waiting for a download to complete. To stream media over the web a Streaming Media Server like Windows Media Services is required.

The alternative method for delivering media is progressive download. In this example, you can serve the video file from any web server and when the file is accessed it begins playing as fast as it can. However if you were watching a sixty minute show downloading progressively you would have to wait for 30 minutes of content to download before you could jump to minute 30.

Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live servers the media via progressive download however some sticklers for detail will complain the word Streaming in the service name is technically incorrect. Given that the service is for rich media experiences and Silverlight applications the word streaming is the best fir for both scenarios.

Tutorial

The Silverlight Streaming (SLS) Plug-in for Expression Encoder is a preview for the Alpha version of the Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live service.

Expression Encoder now has a publishing plug-in API. Laurence Moroney had written an MSDN article documenting the API which should appear in print in the next issue or two. We will also have a sample FTP Publishing plug-in. This API will allow customers to write

Setup:

- Install - Expression Encoder RTW version

http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/download.aspx?key=encoder

- Install - Expression Encoder Silverlight Streaming Publishing Plug-in (If you have installed previously, please uninstall and install the most recent version.)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=382a3306-b212-4df3-af86-5d48be550b94&displaylang=en

- Sign up for a Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live Account

http://silverlight.live.com/

OPTIONAL:

- Install Live Writer

http://get.live.com/betas/home

· Configure to Publish to Live Spaces (or your own blog)

o Tools/Accounts

· Install Live Writer Plug-in: Insert a Silverlight Streaming Application

http://gallery.live.com/liveitemdetail.aspx?li=9f952b71-9883-4937-9f28-1e58002bb2ce&pl=8&bt=9

This plug-in was written by James Clarke on the Expression Encoder team. Trust him!

- Sign Up for a LIVE Spaces Page (if you don’t have one).

DEMO

NOTE: If you are unfamiliar with Expression Encoder, please watch the free training videos on using Expression Encoder. The Intro video is twelve minutes long and after watching it you can easily complete the following demo.

http://www.microsoft.com/expression/kc/resources.aspx?product=encoder&type=video

In Expression Encoder:

- File/Import a video (QuickTime, AVI…)

NOTE: To save time, import a WMV file and choose SOURCE as the encoding profile)

- If you are using WMV + Source Profile, you can add metadata and choose a Silverlight Player Template without having to re-encode and recompress your video. If you add a leading or trailing clip you will force a re-encode of the video.

- In the Output Tab/Job Output select a Silverlight Template (E.g., Console)

- Encode the file

In the Output Tab of Expression Encoder, below the Job Output section there is a new set of Options titled: PUBLISH (If you do not see this, the Silverlight Streaming Plug-in is not installed).

- Select Publish To: Silverlight Streaming

- You will see the following

- Enter Your SLS Account and KEY

- Check Automatic Name.

· If you choose your own names make sure the name has no spaces. Automatic Name is safest.

- If you have encoded a project during the current use of the xEncoder application, the Publish button will be active.

- Click PUBLISH

- Once it is done publishing, you will get additional UI that has the iframe code you can paste in to your web page.

- You can also see previously published apps as the Preview window is hosting the browser in its window. You can play the video from the Preview window.

- Additionally you can delete apps.

- Now your app is hosted on the Silverlight Streaming service. You can login to your Silverlight Streaming account and preview the app from a test page on your SLS account.

Publish to Live Spaces

- If you want to show a complete end to end Microsoft demo…

- Launch Live Writer

- Select INSERT\Insert Silverlight Streaming Application

- Enter your account info

- Update your app list

- Choose an App.

- Add some text to your blog entry

- PUBLISH to your “Space”/Blog.

- View your Silverlight application on the real live internet.

Caveats/Notes:

- The maximum file size of your upload to SLS is 22MB. The ZIP file which contains your SLS project is larger than 22MB you will get an error message.

- If you want to set up the player so that it does not play when your page loads:

· After you have encoded your file, but before you publish to Silverlight Streaming, in the Job Output pane, select Open Job

· You will now see all of the files that compose a Silverlight rich media experience.

· Open startplayer.js in Notepad

· Change autoPlay to false,

· Save

· Publish your media experience to Silverlight Streaming Service.

o In a few weeks we be releasing some new Silverlight Templates with autoPlay set to false.

Kevin (runs dev.live.com) added this image to the side of every page :) - Thanks Kevin!

This is for the Quick Apps

You can add it to your blog too:

<a href="http://dev.live.com/quickapps"><img src="http://dev.live.com/img/quickappsBanner.jpg" border="0"></a>

Not sure I mentioned this yet: I have added Adventure Works Resorts into the Beta release of the Quick Apps

Check out this new release in the SharePoint Community Kit for SharePoint.

The CKS:WLA is a membership provider that extends the SharePoint user base to include some of the 350+ million users around the world with active Windows Live IDs. It enables an administrator to add Windows Live ID users to a SharePoint site and provides a new “Authenticated Live Users” group that can be added to a SharePoint site via the People and Groups admin page.
This initial version of the CKS:WLA provider has the following features:

• Windows Live ID authentication supported directly in SharePoint.
• Ability to add and resolve a WLID user using an e-mail address
• "Authenticated Live Users" group, which works just like the built-in "NT_AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users" group that can be used for any SharePoint access control list.
• Ability to lock or blacklist a WLID user.
• “Windows Live Authentication Setting Sync” Feature at the site collection level, which upon being activated, will synchronize WLID user information to all site collections that have the feature activated, so the users will not have to register again for each new site collection they access.

Professional Windows Live Programming by Jon Arking

• Windows Live is the collective name for a group of Microsoft tools whose services and user data are available anywhere-without ever having to install an application
• Windows Live currently consists of: Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Safety Center, Windows Live Favorites, Windows Live OneCare, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Search, and Windows Live Local
• Certified Microsoft Software Developer Jon Arking shares his experience in developing for Windows Live, and teaches readers how to build applications that embrace the Windows Live platform
• Packed with examples, this hands-on guide offers an insightful look at the tools and technologies behind Windows Live, using the MSN Activities APIs, building mapping applications with Virtual Earth APIs, and developing Gadgets for both online and Windows Vista
• Also examines integrating MSN Search capabilities as well as Live services into existing sites with Live custom domains

Buy it from Wrox.com or Amazon.com

That's right, I'm in Africa's Kingdom of Pleasure (Sun City) TechEd South Africa 2007.

If you are in Sun City or Johannesburg please email me (alogan at microsoft com) and i'll hook up with you and we can talk about Windows Live Platform goodness.

It is true - you need to shut your balcony door to stop the monkeys from getting in.

To see where I'm at realtime see my tracking page (via SportsDo). - otherwise you can check out my trip to Sun City below.

Here is a panoramic stitch of 39 photos from my balcony (learn how to do this):

WAY COOL! - There is a new codeplex project for Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live.

A few comments about Windows Live Platform and Codeplex:

• anything my team builds, ANYTHING, we want to end up on codeplex, us building a demo which is used a few times doesn't let us get our great ideas out.
• We want the community to pick it up and run with it, we'll put the foundation out there and then it can be evolved
• alternatively you can just go and start your own codeplex projects like Victor has with Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live or Scott has with the Skydrive screenscraping Live Writer plugin
• right now the codeplex projects are ASP.NET, but we want other developers to take the code we have an port it to other languages or platforms (we may do this sometime)
• if you participate in the Windows Live Codeplex Projects such as Windows Live Quick Apps; SLS Library this is a great way to get your name out there.
• there is gold hidden in these projects - play with the Quick Apps and then rip out the code you want;
• any of the code in codeplex we use is under MS-PL license - which means you can use it elsewhere* (please read the license agreement)
• the community enhancements to the Windows Live Platform Quick Apps will
• work their way back into the hosted versions and will be demo'd globally.
• work their way into the hosted virtual machines we use for hands on labs.

We are going to the effort of shared sourcing our projects to benefit the community - that is you!

John O'Brien has written up a massive amount of content on Virtual Earth 6 Map Control (there are lots of articles on VE here)

What's new in Version 6

The version 6 update of the Virtual Earth API builds on the existing API adding new functionality, new interface options and support for the Safari web browser. This article explains the changes. more...

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Create a 3D tour on local.live.com

In this video we quickly look at how you can create a 3D tour or both an imported 3D model and a saved collectionon local.live.com more...

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Creating your first 3D model

In this video we take a first look at the new 3D modeling in Virtual Earth and walk you through building a house and publishing to local.live.com. more...

I'm really busy in Spain right now but i just wanted to blog this.

Since I left Australia I can't use my old stalking system (the Telco had a webservice which would triangulate me);

luckily now i've got one with GPS from SportsDo

There is a little iframe I dropped onto my blog which is an interactive VE map.

I carry a small bluetooth GPS logger and either use that logging and sync it with the desktop client; or i can realtime connect to the SportsDo Windows Mobile application (or the other platform mobile apps) it and do ambient tracking / point of presence distance / friends distance etc.

Lots of fun - i'll do a full write up later on.

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See what I'm doing: http://www.sportsdo.net/anguslogan/ActivityBlog.aspx

The praise from Ian Moulster isn't the cool part... the cool part is (the late) Danny Thorpe and I were in the same sentence as ScottGu.

You can see the full list of sessions and the recordings here in a way cool Silverlight player.

Dan Fernandez got up on stage at the O'Reilly Web 2.0 conference (fill write up).

The app demo'd was http://premium.quiksilverlive.com/, Silverlight and Popfly.

The Quiksilver app (in production) does some very cool stuff with User Generated content being stored in Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live; and also a Messenger Activity which allows you to invite your buddies to watch surfing videos and then you can synchronize the video on their screen.