Streaming Media A little Mobile and some Flash Streaming

1. Streaming MediaA little Mobile and some Flash Streaming Class 8 August 9, 2007

2. PC Client Content/Download Managers • Require consumers/users to download a management client on their computer • This application connects to a dedicated service – a wholesale intermediary • They can use ptp strategies to move the content to the consumer • They can act as the DRM police • Monitor and manage the user’s functions and actions on their computer • They can enforce DRM irrespective of an internet connection

3. A brief introduction to Mobile Media • 3G (3rd Generation) Mobile Networks • Capable of delivering vast quantities of data & multimedia • Target is handheld devices • Mobile networks are evolving from narrowband, circuit-switched networks • These were used primarily for voice and text

4. Brief cont. • New networks are broadband and utilize packet switching • Deliver broad range of internet-like media services • 3G is a real paradigm shift for the telecommunications industry • Once place to look is with the sales of camera phones v. digital still cameras

5. More mobile • Several 3G networks are up and running in Europe and Asia • Phones there can include: • Multiple cameras supporting real-time, person-to-person video calling • Video messaging • Playback of media content (news, sports, music videos, etc.)

6. A few technological challenges • No agreed to standards. Every company has a better mousetrap • It is the Wild West when it comes to competing technologies • As opposed to computing where you can assume either MS or Mac, with 3G it is a crap shoot what technology you will need to support, let alone screen size, color depth frame rate and screen direction (vertical or horizontal) • MPEG4 is the only video format supported by all phones

7. You can visit www.3Gpp.org to review what standards have been defined for Mobile

8. Hardware problems • Hardware variability also represents a significant challenge between mobile devices • Every few months a new crop of phones with new features • Not just screen display size and color quality changes

9. More Hardware problems • Operating systems • Processing power • Memory • Media format compatibility

10. Other technical challenges include: • Physical movement of a user from one network cell to another • Signal strength problems on the edge of a network • User’s proximity to a tower – will effect data flow • Number of devices operating simultaneously on the same cell • Physical speed that a device is traveling through the cell (e.g. car)

11. PC Client Content/Download Managers • Bit Torrent • Sony’s rootkit/CD copy protection debacle • Privacy Issues / Data mining • Digital Media permits intrusion & access on a massively efficient scale • International reach of technology subjects networks to multiple cultures and laws (and multiple risks)

12. PC Client Content/Download Managers • There is a push for Digital Licenses, separate from the media file and conforms to a standard format • Separating a universal license from the media has many advantages • It can accommodate many different licensing scenarios • You don’t need to prevent file copying • Because file is on a server the provider has complete control

13. Windows Media Rights Server • End-to-end DRM system for Windows Media • It supports a huge variety of security and business model options • It delivers WMA and WMV files • WMRM (Windows Media Rights Manager) includes server and client software development kits (SDK) so developers can write unique applications to encrypt files and issue licenses • It does not play well with other platforms and older software

14. RealSystem Media Commerce Suite • RealNetwork’s DRM solution • The Packager – encrypts the media • The License Server – issues content licenses • Media Commerce Upgrade for Real Server – tracks the business side • RealSystem Server plug-in – enables the service on a media server • Like WMRM it enables a variety of business and distribution models

15. Flash

16. Flash inside joke

17. Streaming refers to the normal flow of data as it travels to someone's desktop computer from a server through a network connection. • The speed at which data moves is limited by the network connection.

18. All data moving to a user's machine over a network connection is streamed. • What makes a Flash movie stream differently than text, GIF, or JPEG files, for example, is that the data in a Flash movie file is stored sequentially by frame.

19. Streaming and playback performance • A Flash Player movie plays smoothly if the Flash Player is able to receive data over the network connection is (at minimum) about the same rate that the movie is set to play in frames per second. • With progressive file delivery, unlike traditional download-and-play methods of video delivery, however, the file starts playing before it has completely downloaded when you use progressive download.

20. Progressive v. Streaming When comparing progressive download to streaming video, there's really only one benefit to progressive download: You don't need streaming server software to deliver the video. Progressive download video can be served from any normal web server. For example, it can be served off the same machine that is running Apache or IIS and serving your HTML pages.

21. Progressive limitations • Limited seek and navigation capabilities • User-accessible content • When to Use Progressive Download Progressive download is a perfect use for hobbyists or websites that have low traffic requirements and only need to deliver short videos.

22. To ensure that your Flash Player movie plays smoothly from start to finish: • Make sure the size of the data required to display each frame is as small as possible. • Make sure the size of the data required to display a series of frames takes no longer to download than it takes to play the series of frames. • Test the movie on computers of varying speeds, as Flash movie playback can vary with processor speed. • Test your Flash movies on all browsers and platforms that you anticipate visitors will use to view your site.

23. To play any frame, Flash requires all elements of the frame, such as event sounds, bitmaps, and vector shapes, to be downloaded in their entirety. If the movie reaches a frame that can't be rendered because the data requires more time to download than data in previous frames, playback of the movie stops until the data finishes downloading.

24. Adobe works with CDN to offer hosted services for delivering on-demand video for Flash Player • High-performance, reliable networks. • Built with Adobe Flash Media Server and integrated directly into the delivery, tracking, and reporting infrastructure of the CDN network, • Flash Video Streaming Service deliver Flash Video without the hassle of setting up and maintaining your own streaming server hardware and network. Adobe’s Flash Video Streaming Service

25. Flash Streaming Server Tight connection between the server and client, and the server's ability to precisely control and deliver any portion of stream at will, enables the developer to take advantage of a number of very advanced capabilities: • Determining the client bandwidth and serving up the correct bit rate stream • Measuring and tracking the quality of service of the stream and switching to a lower (or higher) bit rate stream if needed—for example if network congestion increases • Automatically generating thumbnails or playing short previews of video clips without having to create separate image or video clips • Automatically creating "chapters" (with appropriate thumbnails) that users can navigate to in one very long video without having to break up the video into shorter pieces • Switching midstream from one camera angle to another without missing a beat • Editing together a full video based on portions of other video clips—for example, playing the first 10 seconds of Clip 1 followed by the content between the 30 and 40 second marks of Clip 2, followed by the last 20 seconds of Clip 3 • Webcasting live or recorded events where everyone sees the same thing at the same time

26. Bandwidth Detection Detect the speed at which the client connects and serve up the appropriate bit rate video. • Custom Stream Delivery Flash Media Server captures connection stats about the end-user and enables publishers to deliver a video stream to the end-user based on this information. For example, publishing in Flash 8, but still want to support users using Flash 7 or lower, can serve Flash 8 video to one set of users while serving legacy Flash Player 6 or 7 Video to remaining audience. • Dynamic Buffering Programmatically set the buffer to the precise setting for the fastest start time based on the length and bitrate of the video and the client connection speed. • Quality of Service Monitoring Track the playback experience on the client and correct unforeseen playback problems due to network congestion in real-time. • Firewall and Proxy Traversal Quickly test multiple port and protocol combinations to bypass firewalls and proxies and choose the fastest connection.

27. Live Video Streaming & Recording Capture and stream live audio and video from any OS recognized camera and microphone source simply by plugging the camera into a USB or Firewire port. Camera APIs enable developers to specify video capture parameters dynamically. Captured video can be broadcast to others in real-time and/or can also be recorded to disc on the server. Demonstration

28. Multi-User Communications Applications could include media chat rooms, video blogging, video messaging, multi-user games, and more using multi-way, multi-user streaming and remote Shared Object technology for synchronizing data among multiple users.

29. Advanced Seek Enable viewers to immediately jump to any part of the video regardless of the length of the video or whether it has been downloaded yet.

30. Multiple Camera Angles Viewer choose from different points of view for deeply engaging, interactive experiences.

31. Security • No exposed URLs and media file locations • Control over information that is exposed • No client cache • Unique transfer protocol limits stream ripping • Content delivered via Flash Media Server is wrapped in Macromedia proprietary protocol (RTMP). This is a non-published proprietary format, stream ripping programs do not have the capability to rip media delivered via Flash Media Server (yet). This minimizes the ability for unauthorized programs to capture a digital media stream from Flash Media Server to the Flash Player.

32. Security 2/2 • Access Control • SSL Delivery • Secure Sockets Layer communication over TCP/IP • DRM/Security paper

33. Stream Event Capture • With detailed information about stream event immediately accessible, developers know exactly how and when streaming video is being accessed and by whom. • Traditional media delivery capabilities such as progressive download only tell you if a media file was “hit” or downloaded. Could not tell how much of a video was watched, or if user left the webpage before watching the entire clip. • The stream event logging in Flash Media Server enables publishers to see and capture exactly how much video was watched by the end-user.

34. Edge Servers • For large scale deployments, Edge – Origin deployment option for load balancing, failover, redundancy, and clustering. In the past content, configuration files and application logic needed to be replicated to all of the servers. Special server script needed to be created that synchronize the servers.

35. Deploy multiple Edge Servers to handle the actual traffic while keeping all of their content, server script app logic and reporting at one central Origin Server. The Edge Servers connect to the Origin Server and push and pull content and application logic as needed. This is shown in the illustration below. • Edge Server caching for on-demand streams • Live stream splitting • Data streaming and shared object handling • Route management • Multiple Processes

36. Flash Tutorials • Flash Developer Center • Flash Media Encoder • DRM Information • Understanding Streaming Flash • Streaming Service Information