Note: for GravityLab Multimedia customers, this method only applies to our Live Broadcasting packages. Pseudo-streaming is available with all standard on-demand video hosting accounts, and does not require rtmp configuration.

1. Download the free JW Player from www.jeroenwijering.com and unzip the file somewhere on your computer
2. Open the newly created directory, you should see several files. Upload the following files to your web server, or to your GravityLab home directory.
   • readme.html
   • swfobject.js
   • player.swf
3. Open readme.html in your favorite HTML or text editor.
4. Find the code that begins with <div id=”container”> and ends with </script>. This is the section of code you’ll need to edit and then copy and paste into your own page.
 Read more... (214 words, estimated 51 secs reading time)

From the Microsoft Expression Encoder download site:

“Microsoft^® Expression^® Encoder, a feature of Expression Media, offers encoding, enhancement, and publishing of rich media experiences to Microsoft Silverlight. ”

Features Include:

Better Encoding

VC-1 advanced authoring SDK integration: by adopting the new VC-1 authoring SDK, Expression Encoder 2 is able to author better quality video faster. We’ve exposed a set of presets for tuning the encoder as well as detailed settings with comprehensive tooltips for the advanced compressionist.

New profiles, and video codecs for streaming media: Encoder 2 supports a number of new modes and codecs including Quality VBR, WMA Pro (stereo), WMA Lossless, 24 bit audio and audio/video encoding stream selection.  Read more... (451 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Darwin Streaming Server (DSS) is the open source version of Apple’s QuickTime Streaming Server technology that allows you to send streaming media to clients across the Internet using the industry standard RTP and RTSP protocols. Based on the same code base as QuickTime Streaming Server, Darwin Streaming Server provides a high level of customizability and runs on a variety of platforms allowing you to manipulate the code to fit your needs. Although Darwin Streaming Server does not offer as many professional features as QuickTime Streaming Server, it still retains its capacity to broadcast streaming video. Although there are other free alternatives, DSS was the first free RTP/RSTP server to arise, and it also integrates impressively well with everything Apple. As long as you have a quick internet connection, you will be able to deliver a completely professional real time stream to as many users as you want.  Read more... (318 words, estimated 1:16 mins reading time)

This article details the steps needed to create a looping collection of videos with WMS. With this feature, a viewer can “tap” into whatever video happens to be playing at any given moment. GravityLab Multimedia provides this capability for users with all video streaming accounts.

Steps to Set Up a Server-Side Play List

1. Create Windows Media content and place it in the ASFROOT folder on the Windows Media Services server.
2. Open the Windows Media Administrator.
3. From the left side of the Administrator, select Unicast Publishing Points.
4. In the Broadcast Unicast Publishing Points section, clear the use wizard option. Click Broadcast, and then choose New.
5. For alias name, type a descriptive name.
 Read more... (390 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

http: defines a port that normal web servers use to deliver content. Port 80, to be precise. Sometimes that content is .html, sometimes it is .jpg image files, sometimes it is mp3’s or video files. You want to know that your video is being served from a streaming server. At GravityLab, it is.

Your multimedia, when pushed through mms://, rstp:// or http://via the 554 port protocol, is being pushed through Windows Media Services 9, Helix Universal, or Quicktime Streaming Server respectively. What http:// can, considering video MIME types with apache, is port 80. So if you link to video through http: but you specify the 554 port (ie:http://helix.gravlab.com:554/youraccount/yourfile.mov) http: loses all meaning in terms of defining a standard Port, because it is using the Quicktime Streaming Server 554 port.

Yes, we have live video webcast plans. In addition to our archived on demand video hosting services, we have live video broadcasting with Windows Media. You can take a look at the live video plans here: http://www.gravlab.com/live.html

You’ll probably want to convert your AVI file to Windows Media. It’s a much better streaming video than AVI when delivered over the web. Windows Media Encoder is a free utility from Microsoft that you can download here – http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx
However, I don’t see any AVI file in your account. I don’t think you could have uploaded it last night while the account was locked. Remember, since you’re uploading video to our delivery network, it can take quite awhile for your file to finish uploading (it starts uploading when you drag it to the folder, but can take awhile). If you do use your AVI file on myspace, the link would look like this:

mms://media.gravlab.com/your-account-name/filename.avi

or

http://media.gravlab.com/your-account-name/filename.avi

The GravityLab Multimedia content delivery network is comprised of best-of-breed streaming media servers located directly on the fiber optic North American internet backbone. What that means, basically, is that your media content is delivered on demand very quickly to a global audience using the best Internet path directly into their homes.

You are able to deliver all the major streaming media formats from one account. You simply FTP your video to your account, and then link to your video or audio assets from your web site. We try to make it as easy as possible for you to deliver streaming media to your audience.  Read more... (139 words, estimated 33 secs reading time)

How to Start?
Most people who are evaluating the use of the GravityLab’s Media hosting for audio and video will reach a point where they have questions along the lines of the following:
“Which streaming media hosting plan should I choose?”, “should I use Windows Media, Quicktime, Flash or some combination?”, “how much storage allocation will I need?”
Calculating Simultaneous Users:

Most companies do not have accurate estimate of the number of simultaneous users on a particular portion of their web site. In general, web stat logging software typically does not provide this much granularity. In fact, if your client tells you that they expect a hundred thousand, a half of million, or even a million or more simultaneous users, it is probably time to raise a red flag.  Read more... (911 words, estimated 3:39 mins reading time)

Preparing Your Content

Windows Media Player renders audio and video content in the same way, whether a file is on a Windows Media server, a Web server, a network server, or a local hard disk. The server does not affect the quality of the media. What the server does affect is how the packets of data that contain the media are delivered to Windows Media Player.

A Windows Media server is designed to handle busy, congested networks and low-bandwidth connections to client computers that are running Windows Media Player. This section describes what you should consider before you encode content that will be hosted on a Web server, and then shows you how to configure Windows Media Encoder 9 Series.  Read more... (934 words, estimated 3:44 mins reading time)