Chapter 10. Windows Media Services

   

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Microsoft Windows Media Services 9 Series is the server component of the Windows Media 9 Series platform, and it works in conjunction with Windows Media Encoder and Windows Media Player to deliver audio and video content to clients over the Internet or an intranet. These clients might be other computers or devices that play back the content using a player, such as Windows Media Player, or they might be other computers running Windows Media Services (called Windows Media servers ) that are providing proxy services, caching data, or redistributing content. Clients can also be custom applications that have been developed by using the Windows Media Software Development Kit (SDK).

Windows Media Services can deliver a live stream or preexisting content, such as a digital media file. If you are planning to stream live content, you'll configure a broadcast publishing point and then connect to encoding software, such as Windows Media Encoder, that is capable of compressing a live stream into a format supported by the server. You can also stream preexisting content that has been encoded by Windows Media Encoder, Microsoft Producer for PowerPoint 2002, Windows Movie Maker, Windows Media Player, or many other third-party encoding programs. You stream preexisting content from an on-demand publishing point. Sample broadcast and on-demand publishing points are provided by default.

This chapter introduces you to the features of Windows Media 9 Series in Windows Server 2003. In it, you learn about Fast Streaming, dynamic content delivery, and more.

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