Windows Azure Live Smooth Streaming

New Post: upstream and downstream server?

devendrasipl — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:16:00 GMT

Hello,

Can you please tell us how to create the upstream and downstream server?
Are they Azure Virtual Machines? You are creating publish point over there, so how it will do IIS smooth streaming?

Please reply on this thread.

Awaiting response.

Thanks
Dev

New Post: how to configure upstream and downstream server?

user123456789 — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 06:30:25 GMT

I am new to azure..I am able to configure and run the code locally.....But I am not sure what the http://upstream.cloudapp.net and http://downstream.cloudapp.net should contain? what should be the implementation of these server?

FYI: I generally know how to create a hosted service.

New Post: win rt and windows phone 8 solution?

slown1 — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 23:47:13 GMT

Hello,

 Can anyone propose a solution for win rt and windows phone 8 solution? A free encoder ? My problems appear in extracting the content and encoding it.

New Comment on "Documentation"

meemee — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 12:40:45 GMT

Thanks for a good post. When will Azure Media encoder provide encoding to LIVE smooth streaming?

New Post: Publishing point does not allow access in Azure

mpriha — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:31:44 GMT

Hi,

I have been very pleased with this project and finally after learning a lot about IIS Media Servers and publishing points all was set for the actual event.

I deployed the server with the intended name to Azure but then I was hit by this problem also perceived by others in different threads.

When I click Start, the workstation will encode about 55 frames of video and then a dialog box pops up saying "A network error has occurred causing the encode to stop".

Even the publishing point of the previously working installation under the same Azure subscription stopped working in the same way.

There is nothing in the event log and IIS access log shows:

HTTP status 200 for POST /push.isml - 80 so this is OK
HTTP status 404 0 for GET /push.isml manifest 80
HTTP status 400 0 for GET /push.isml settings 80

I saw thread http://social.expression.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/encoder/thread/44137f10-b4fb-4300-9b1e-56cc353dcdcb and have done the following without any luck (publishing point remains in Starting state and never goes to Started state):

deleted cloud service and storage account and redeployed the service with the same name
before and after deleted publishing point and created a new one with the same settings
manually tried to start the publishing point before starting encoding
in EE client started from scratch and not from an existing job

Is something corrupted in my subscription? Could it be related to the fact that we tested a huge (16 hours) live stream to the working installation?

I would appreciate any help if anybody knows this symptom how to solve it and avoid it.

Source code checked in, #16372

Project Collection Service Accounts — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:46:10 GMT

Upgrade: New Version of LabDefaultTemplate.xaml. To upgrade your build definitions, please visit the following link: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=254563

Source code checked in, #16371

Project Collection Service Accounts — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:44:34 GMT

Checked in by server upgrade

New Post: Using standard Windows Media format not Smooth Streaming?

MikeDymond — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 14:47:17 GMT

Is it possible to configure this project to allow standard Windows Media encoding rather than Smooth Streaming?

Cheers Mike

New Post: Who should use this project?

Kamilla — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:32:44 GMT

New Post: Who should use this project?

bidarang — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:01:40 GMT

You didn't mentioned; For what kind of projects you recommend using this project? (How many users)

New Post: Serious problems

bidarang — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:59:30 GMT

Thanks @Pierlag, it was a useful article :)

@DmitriMartynov, Thanks for reply, yes separated roles for pull and push is the thing that you implemented with a nice Idea in this project, but unfortunately we still have some problems with it.

About EventId you were right, I installed the SP2 version and this field appeared, and now the second problem is gone! but we still have another problem:
At the First time that we publish stream this solution works pretty fine! but I cannot see any output when I publish it for second time.
When I've checked the pull.isml status through Remote Desktop, I noticed its status is sets stopped when I stop the stream and it never changes again!

Any Ideas?

Thanks,
Saeed!

New Post: Serious problems

DmitriMartynov — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:33:40 GMT

Good to hear you use this project!

Regarding 1: Sometimes we also experience long delay. Don't have exact answer on that. With RDP/Terminal you can check when stream appear in Media Services using IIS Management Console

Regarding 2 couple things:

- When start new encoding session - always change Event ID field in Expression Encoder

- Publishing point can be restarted over RDP/Terminal connection using IIS Management Console

Thanks

New Post: Serious problems

pierlag — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:43:58 GMT

For 3 use this : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/expressionencoder/archive/2011/02/02/10124054.aspx

New Post: Serious problems

bidarang — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 08:42:55 GMT

Hi Guys,

Great job, but we have a few serious problems with this project:

There is a long delay on streams, Something about 40 seconds!!! How could we reduce this delay?
Sometimes we get errors on Ms Expression Encoder, and then we have to restart the UpStream Azure Instance, is there any easier way to restart the stream? even introducing an API could be enough for restarting the project through the website!
When the Streaming is finishes the stream remains on the web, how is it possible to clear the cached data?!

FYI: We are using Windows Azure Tools 1.5 for packaging the project.

Thanks,
Saeed!

Updated Wiki: Home

DmitriMartynov — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:32:59 GMT

Project Description
Windows Azure Live Smooth Streaming Project is self-contained package for quickly deploying Live Smooth Streaming solution to Windows Azure. Project contains:
- VS 2010 solution ready to be published
- Web portal with Silverlight player
- Auto-configuration for Media Services

UPDATED!
Release 0.2.2 updated with minor fixes - read release notes
Download Deployment Guide or read online documentation

Important!
Release prior 0.2.2 fixed bug when no Media Service is installed during deployment procedure.
Please use latest release.

Web portal for easy configuration included:

New Comment on "Documentation"

Gorzsi — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:20:56 GMT

Nice work! I measured 1 minute latency. Is it normal? Can be reduced?

Updated Wiki: Documentation

DmitriMartynov — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:53:38 GMT

Overview

Windows Azure Live Streaming solution allows quickly deploy scalable service to perform live video broadcasting through Windows Azure Web Roles.

Solution source code is available for download from http://azlivestreaming.codeplex.com/

High level architecture presented in the following diagram:

Upstream Server (upstream.cloudapp.net)

Single instance Web role with Push publishing point (aka “ingest” server). URL of this publishing point used by Encoder to push video stream during Live event.

Important: to achieve redundancy for Push point it’s possible to deploy additional single Web role at different DNS. Azure staging deployment will work as well.

Upstream Server could be used as streaming server in small scale deployments. In this case player URL would be http://upstream.cloudapp.net/push.isml/manifest.

Downstream Server (downstream.cloudapp.net)

Multiple instances Web role with Pull publishing point. URL for this publishing point (e.g. http://downstream.cloudapp.net/pull.isml/manifest).

IIS Media Services 4

IIS Media Services 4 is automatically installed and configured via Web role startup tasks and Web Administration API.

Publishing Points

Solution contains two predefined publishing points:

· Push.isml – to receive video stream from encoder

· Pull.isml – to pull video stream from Upstream Server

Each isml file deployed as part of normal Windows Azure deployment procedure either via management portal or from Visual Studio IDE.

Important: Push/Pull points configuration can be performed by simply editing isml (XML) files in Visual Studio or any other text editor.

Silverlight Player

Solution makes use of sample Silverlight player from iis.net/media site http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/620/getting-started-with-iis-live-smooth-streaming/

Below we provide detailed deployment steps.

Pre-deployment steps

Install Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1

Solution uses newest ASP.NET MVC3 and Razor technology so SP1 is recommended.

Install Windows Azure Visual Studio Tools

Windows Azure SDK must be installed on local PC to enable creating deployment packages. We recommend installing Visual Studio Tools as well to support direct publishing and debugging from Visual Studio IDE.

Download link: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/sdk/

Important: Check Windows Azure SDK system requirements http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg680300.aspx if you won’t use Web Platform installer

Install Expression Encoder 4 Pro SP1

Expression Encoder 4 Pro SP1 required to deliver Live Smooth Streaming broadcasts. Encoder must be installed on PC with video source connected. (e.g. video capture device, USB camera, etc).

Encoder link: http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/EncoderPro_Overview.aspx

Important: Pro version required for Live Smooth Streaming and Apple devices support

Download solution source code

Download Visual Studio 2010 solution source code from http://azlivestreaming.codeplex.com/

Deployment Walkthrough

Load Visual Studio solution

1. Extract downloaded zip file to some location

2. Start Visual Studio in elevated mode (Ctrl+Shift+Click)

3. Open MediaServices.sln from save location

4. Cancel prompt to connect to source control server and then press OK to go offline

5. In next dialog answer No to question to remap Web project URL

6. If project can’t be opened and appears as grey in VS and you plan to run project locally against local IIS with Media Services installed then you must map MediaPortal folder to http://localhost:8080 in IIS Manager

7. If project can’t be opened and appears as grey in VS and you won’t plan to use local IIS Media Services or will change a local IIS url then do the following:

a. Right-Click MediaPortal in Solution Explorer and choose Edit MediaPortal.csproj

b. Find <UseIIS> and change to <UseIIS>False</UseIIS>

c. Find <IISUrl> and change to <IISUrl></IISUrl>

d. Right-Click MediaPortal in Solution Explorer and Reload

8. You should have the following solution loaded in Visual Studio:

Test run project locally

The following steps are optional – it’s just to make sure the solution can run on your PC:

1. Make sure MediaPortal is a startup project (Right-Click and choose Set as Startup Project)

2. Open MediaPortal properties page (Double-Click Properties under MediaPortal name)

3. Choose Web from left-side tabs

4. Use IIS Express as shown below:

5. Create Virtual Directory if asked so (change port number if necessary)

6. Hit F5 – default browser should open with portal loaded similar to below:

Configure Publishing Points

Solution contains two predefined publishing points as shown below:

Push.isml file doesn’t contain any external references and can be left as is.

Pull.isml must be edited to include reference to Upstream Server. Double-click to pull.isml and edit smil/body/switch/ref element as shown below:

Attribute src must contain URL of Push publishing point at Upstream Server such as http://upstream.cloudapp.net/push.isml

Optional Downstream Server configuration

Project web.config file has optional application configuration setting:

</appSettings>

This setting is optional and used in Web portal to identify downstream server. It only defines which URL is shown as a Player URL when user connects to Upstream server Web portal.

Windows Azure Project configuration

Number of Web role instances

Number of instances configured via UI (Double-Click to WindowsAzureProject1-Roles-MediaPortal) or in ServiceConfiguration.cscfg file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

</ConfigurationSettings>

</Role>

</ServiceConfiguration>

Important: Configure only 1 instance of Upstream server. Configure more than 1 instance of Downstream server.

ServiceDefinition.csdef

Make sure Web role runs in elevated security context (required to properly configure IIS Media Services):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<Sites>

</Bindings>

</Site>

</Sites>

</Endpoints>

</Imports>

</WebRole>

</ServiceDefinition>

Creating Hosted Services

Go to https://windows.azure.com management portal and create two separate deployments. It’s important to have separate DNS for Upstream and Downstream servers. Deployments could be in the same hosted service but be staging and production. Read more about Windows Azure deployments: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg433108.aspx

For example one could create the following deployments:

· http://upstream.cloudapp.net – for Upstream server

· http://downstream.cloudapp.net – for Downstream servers

Important: make sure to put hosted services in the same datacenter to avoid unnecessary traffic between Upstream and Downstream servers.

Publishing Solution to Windows Azure

Normal procedure is used to publish solution to Windows Azure. As already mentioned Upstream server must have only 1 Web role instance so change number of instances to 1 for Upstream deployment. After deploying Upstream server change number of instances to >1 and deploy the same solution as downstream server.

Important: Upstream and Downstream solutions are the same. The only difference is number of instances and which publishing point used.

Encoding Live Stream

After solution was successfully published to Windows Azure one can set Encoder to push Live video stream to publishing point. The following is a basic steps required to start encoding session. For more information refer to complete guide at http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/620/getting-started-with-iis-live-smooth-streaming/

1. Start Expression Encoder 4 Pro SP1 and choose Live Broadcasting Project

2. Add Live Source, choose one of the IIS Smooth Streaming Presets, check “Publishing Point” for output and use http://upstream.cloudapp.net/push.isml as configured before.

3. Hit Start and start encoding session

Watching Live Stream

Web portal in the solution includes Live Smooth Streaming player which uses the following <object> tag:

</a>

</object><iframe id="_sl_historyFrame" style="visibility:hidden;height:0px;width:0px;border:0px"></iframe>

InitParams must have mediaurl part pointing to either push point at Upstream server (single server deployment) or pull point at Downstream server.

· For Upstream: http://upstream.cloudapp.net/push.isml/manifest

· For Downstream: http://downstream.cloudapp.net/push.isml/manifest

This HTML snippet above could be inserted inside <iframe> at any Web site.

Watch Live Stream from portal

Open one of the deployments (e.g. http://downstream.cloudapp.net) in browser and:

· If you at Upstream server as defined by Pull.isml point configuration (that is Upstream server referred in Pull.isml) click on one of the URL under right pointing arrow

· If you at Downstream server (that is server you’re accessing isn’t referred in Pull.isml) click on one of the URL under left pointing arrow

Portal currently provided readonly configuration experience.

Updated Release: Azure MediaServices v.0.2.2 (июл 16, 2011)

DmitriMartynov — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:47:46 GMT

2011 July 15

VS project will now use ASP.NET development server by default to avoid issue when no local IIS Web Site mapped to MediaPortal root folder
Removed unneccesary Remote Desktop (RDP) settings from cscfg
Removed codeplex source control TFS bindings

Original Release

Media Services isn't installed during deployment

Released: Azure MediaServices v.0.2.2 (Jul 16, 2011)

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:47:46 GMT

2011 July 15

VS project will now use ASP.NET development server by default to avoid issue when no local IIS Web Site mapped to MediaPortal root folder
Removed unneccesary Remote Desktop (RDP) settings from cscfg
Removed codeplex source control TFS bindings

Original Release

Media Services isn't installed during deployment

Updated Release: Azure MediaServices v.0.2.2 (июл 16, 2011)

DmitriMartynov — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:47:27 GMT

2011 July 15

VS project will now use ASP.NET development server by default to avoid issue when no local IIS Web Site mapped to MediaPortal root folder
Removed unneccesary Remote Desktop (RDP) settings from cscfg
Removed codeplex source control TFS bindings

Original Release

Media Services isn't installed during deployment