live broadcast question

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ddd - 12 Jul 2004 17:59 GMT

HI,

I wanted to know what happens when the SMIL file served through a BROADCAST publishing point and it references an encoder and on deman wmv file in sequence. Does the on demand file also act like a broadcast?

Example:
<?wsx version="1.0"?>
<smil>
<seq>
<media id="m1" src="http://encoder:8080" begin="0" end="40" />
<media id="m2" src="clip2.wmv" begin="40" end="70" />
<media id="m1" src="http://encoder:8080" begin="70" end="140" />
</seq>
</smil>

I am trying to understand how I could insert an ad in a live broadcast, if the ad is an on demand file. I am worried for the case scenario the user access the stream the moment the ad is supposed to be playing. What is going to happen?

thanks

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David Chen [MS] - 13 Jul 2004 17:45 GMT

ddd:

Do not know what exactly "On-demand" file in your mail. If it is a file
ready for use for ad, it suppose to be fine in this case.

Please look the "providing General Ads", "Providing Personalized Ads Based
on General Information" and "Providing Personalized Ads Based on Customer
Information" scenarios in Windows Media Server SDK. The SDK can be
downloaded from
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/default.asp. They
showed the ad server configuration and some examples.

Hope this helps, Thanks for using Windows Media Services.

David Chen
Digital Media Division
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

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ddd - 14 Jul 2004 05:09 GMT

Hi David,

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post. I think I might have asked the wrong question. I haven't used the server since I participated in the beta program so I am a little rusty.

I think I am confused on how broadcast publishing points work and the server side SMIl, and also how events work. Lets say I am trying to have a live show, it last for an hour from 10AM to 11AM, and I am inserting an ad every 15 minutes, and the ad is 30 seconds long. I can see two ways of implementing this.

1. Utilizing a simple SMIL file with <seq> tags. What I am unclear on this case is how can I list the clips and their "begins". Are the begins based on server time? I assume you can't simply use 15min, 30min,45min (unless the timeline of a SMIL file broadcasted is relative to the broadcast and not the user request for the stream).

2. Utilizing what the SDK mentions on Replacing Ads in a Playlist. In this case I do not understand what happens if the user access the stream at 10:15:01, the event "Encoder_Event" has already been fired by the encoder. Will the server display the ad still? (I am alittle unclear on the how event are handled server side, are they execute indepenetly from the player stream requests?)

thanks

drit

> ddd:
>
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> Digital Media Division
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights*

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Ravi Raman - 14 Jul 2004 19:19 GMT

In a broadcast publishing point, if you are using <excl>
tag, the timeline is with reference to the time the <excl>
container is started - so if there is only one <excl>
container in playlist, then the time reference is with
respect to the time the publishing point was started. For
example, consider the following sample:
<smil>
<excl>
<priorityClass peers="pause">
<media src="http://encoder" id="Encoder" begin="0s"/>
<media src="c:\wmpub\wmroot\ad1.wmv" begin="30s" />
<media src="c:\wmpub\wmroot\ad2.wmv" begin="60s" />
</priorityClass>
</excl>
</smil>

Peers = pause ensures that when one element is done, we
return back to the last element that was playing. In the
above example, as soon BPP is started, http://encoder
plays. About 30s later, ad1.wmv plays. If ad1.wmv is about
15 seconds, then at the end of ad1.wmv (i.e, at 45s),
http://encoder will resume (note: the 15 seconds of
http://encoder broadcast - from 30 seconds to 45 seconds -
will be missing obviously). Then 15 seconds later (i.e, at
60s), ad2.wmv will play till the end and at the end once
again http://encoder will resume.

A client connecting 35 seconds into the start of the
publishing point will receive the last 10 seconds of
ad1.wmv (the ad is 15s long) and continue thereafter.

Hope this clarifies your question.

Ravi
--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

>-----Original Message-----
>Hi David,
>
>Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post. I think I might have asked the wrong question. I haven't used the

server since I participated in the beta program so I am a
little rusty.

>I think I am confused on how broadcast publishing points work and the server side SMIl, and also how events work.

Lets say I am trying to have a live show, it last for an
hour from 10AM to 11AM, and I am inserting an ad every 15
minutes, and the ad is 30 seconds long. I can see two ways
of implementing this.

>1. Utilizing a simple SMIL file with <seq> tags. What I am unclear on this case is how can I list the clips and

their "begins". Are the begins based on server time? I
assume you can't simply use 15min, 30min,45min (unless the
timeline of a SMIL file broadcasted is relative to the
broadcast and not the user request for the stream).

>2. Utilizing what the SDK mentions on Replacing Ads in a Playlist. In this case I do not understand what happens if

the user access the stream at 10:15:01, the
event "Encoder_Event" has already been fired by the
encoder. Will the server display the ad still? (I am
alittle unclear on the how event are handled server side,
are they execute indepenetly from the player stream
requests?)

>thanks
>
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>> Information" scenarios in Windows Media Server SDK. The SDK can be
>> downloaded from

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/defa
ult.asp. They

>> showed the ad server configuration and some examples.
>>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights*
>.

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ddd - 15 Jul 2004 04:39 GMT

Thanks Ravi! You definetly answered my question.

One last thing, how would the events case scenario works, since that makes more sense for some shows where you do not know in advance when to insert the ad? If on the 30seconds an event to show the ad is fired, but a user joins the stream on 35th second, would they still see the ad starting the 6th second?

thanks

> In a broadcast publishing point, if you are using <excl>
> tag, the timeline is with reference to the time the <excl>
[quoted text clipped - 96 lines]
> and confers no rights*
> >.

Reply to this Message

Ravi Raman - 16 Jul 2004 19:53 GMT

If your server side playlist is coded to respond to the
encoder events, then the logic still remains the same
(i.e, the event will trigger a playlist switch which will
cause the broadcast to go to the Ad). The client who joins
will see the ad from the 6th second like you mention.

One thing you need to remember is that the client and
server maintain buffers, so you cannot guarantee that it
will indeed play exactly 6s into it - but somewhere near
that mark.

Thx,
Ravi
--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

>-----Original Message-----
>Thanks Ravi! You definetly answered my question.
>
>One last thing, how would the events case scenario works, since that makes more sense for some shows where you do

not know in advance when to insert the ad? If on the
30seconds an event to show the ad is fired, but a user
joins the stream on 35th second, would they still see the
ad starting the 6th second?

>thanks
>
[quoted text clipped - 85 lines]
>> The SDK can be
>> >> downloaded from

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/defa

>> ult.asp. They
>> >> showed the ad server configuration and some examples.
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>>
>.

Reply to this Message