MIX11: MED02–Introduction to Microsoft Media Platform (MMP)
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”
- New Web Portal – www.microsoft.com/mediaplatform
- MMP Component
- 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
- native H.264/AAC/MP4 support
- worked with Google on WebM support (https://tools.google.com/dlpate/webmmf)
- 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
- formerly Silverlight Media Framework
- 2.5 now available
- Stereoscopic 3D Video support
- Advertising support (MAST, VAST, VPAID)
- See MMP Player Framework: Past, Present, Future session from Tim Greenfield (Vertigo)
- 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
- to be released in Q2
- https://audienceinsight.codeplex.com
- SaaS framework for scalable, cost-effective, real-time insight into digital media delivery
- Core engine built on top of SQL Server StreamInsight
- See Introducing MMP Audience Insight from Eric Schmidt