Recording, April 12, 2011, 3:30PM PST, Session: MED02, Speakers: Alex Zambelli

  • What Changed?
  • Players, bandwidth, standards, more demand, etc.
  • Second Generation of Microsoft Media
  • “Microsoft responded to changing streaming media landscape with Silverlight, IIS Media Services, PlayReady, Expression Encoder, IE9 and Windows Azure”
  • Introducing Microsoft Media Platform
  • “An umbrella brand for a group of Microsoft products and frameworks which together form Microsoft’s state-of-the-art media delivery solution”
  • Services
  • IIS Media Services and Windows Azure
  • Tools
  • Expression Encoder and PlayReady
  • Clients
  • Silverlight, HTML5 / IE9, Client Porting Kits
  • Frameworks
  • MMP Video Editor, MMP Content Manager, MMP Player Framework, MMP Audience Insight
  • Microsoft Exclusive Workflow Example
  • Phases: Encode, Protect, Deliver, Distribute, Watch
  • used all Microsoft products
  • Open MMP Workflow Example
  • same phases as above, but only used Windows Server for delivery while all other phases used non-MS products
  • Windows Azure CDN
  • Smooth Streaming VOD service coming to Azure CDN
  • CTP by May 2011
  • “Turnkey service for delivery of Smooth Streaming video on demand by the worldwide Windows Azure Content Delivery Network”
  • Pay-as-you-go –“Simply upload Smooth Streaming-encoded video file to your Azure Storage account in a public, CDN-enabled blob container that is marked for Smooth Streaming”
  • IIS Media Services
  • released 4.0 in DEC 2010
  • New features
  • dynamic repackaging of Live Smooth Streaming to Apple HTTP Live Streaming format
  • Low-latency Live Smooth Streaming
  • IIS Media Services: Transform Manager
  • released from Beta in April 2011
  • automated transcoding using Expression Encoder or 3rd party encoders
  • automated transmuxing VOD assets to Apple HTTP Live Streaming
  • PlayReady packaging of Smooth Streaming VOD content
  • Transmuxing from plain MP4 files to Smooth Streaming
  • Smooth Streaming Client Porting Kit
  • available for licensing, send inquiries to sspkinfo@microsoft.com
  • C/C++ SDK for enabling Smooth Streaming playback on non-Silverlight platforms (assumes H.264/AAC codeds and local decode hardware)
  • “Comcast adopted Smooth Streaming PK + PlayReady PK to deliver protected Smooth Streaming to their Xfinity TV App on the Apple iPad”. More details here.
  • Expression Encoder
  • latest version is v4.0 SP1, released in JAN 2011
  • features
  • CUDA-based hardware accelerated encoding
  • HE-AAC encoding for mobile devices
  • live screen capture
  • Silverlight 5
  • SL5 Beta is available
  • New features
  • hardware accelerated H.264 decoding
  • variable play speed (trick play)
  • DRM key rotation
  • remote control support (like a Media Center type of experience)
  • Internet Explorer
  • HTML5 support
  • IIS Media Services’ Bit Rate Throttling feature – great for HTML5 video/audio delivery
  • natively supports MP4 bit rate throttling
  • can be configured for WebM format too
  • HTML5 Video/Audio and Adaptive Streaming
  • Video/Audio tags lack specificity on codecs, file formats, transport protocols, live streaming, content protection
  • Spec doesn’t specify any HTTP adaptive streaming
  • Apple HLS is NOT part of the HTML5 spec, even though Safari/iOS supports it
  • MPED and 3GPP are currently standardizing HTTP-based adaptive streaming: MPEG-DASH and 3GPP-AHS
  • “Smooth Streaming likely to align with MPEG/3GPP standards when final”
  • Frameworks
  • Player Framework
  • Content Manager (announcement)
  • to be released in Q2 2011
  • light-weight CMS for managing live and on-demand Smooth Streaming events
  • based on SharePoint
  • integrated ad insertion and cloud-based video editing
  • See Introducing MMP Content Manager session from Steven Woodward
  • Video Editor
  • formerly Silverlight Rough Cut Editor
  • Video Editor 1.0 SP1 released in JAN 2011
  • several new features (perf, compression, setup, etc.)
  • See MMP Video Editor session from Jason Suess
  • Audience Insight