Publishing Points

A publishing point represents a directory structure on your server where streaming content is stored. By default, all content is stored in the \WMPub\WMRoot directory on your server. You might add a subdirectory to that path called Company Meetings and store all of your company meeting streams in that directory. Your publishing point might then be named Company Meetings and would point to the directory structure you created. For a unicast stream, clients either connect to the publishing point directly to request the stream, or request it using a link on a Web page. The Web page then redirects the client to the publishing point to receive the stream.

You receive a multicast stream by clicking an announcement file. The announcement file contains information about the stream, including the stream format and content location. The stream format is what enables the Player to decode and play the stream.

Windows Media Services 9 Series supports two kinds of publishing points: on demand and broadcast.

On-Demand Publishing Points

An on-demand publishing point is used to stream content from a file, directory, or playlist. The stream from an on-demand publishing point doesn’t start until the client connects to it. Once the stream is started, the end user can actively participate in the playback by pausing, rewinding, and fast forwarding it. An on-demand publishing point can also be used to stream content from an encoder or another server. An on-demand publishing point always delivers content as a unicast stream.

Broadcast Publishing Points

A broadcast publishing point is normally used to stream live content from a file, encoder, remote server, or other broadcast publishing point. Receiving a stream from a broadcast publishing point is similar to watching broadcast television in that the user can view the stream but has no control over when it starts or stops. Additionally, the user cannot fast forward, rewind, or pause the stream.

Although a broadcast publishing point can stream from a file or playlist, it will treat the content as a broadcast stream and will not allow users to pause, fast forward, or rewind. Broadcast publishing points can deliver content as a unicast or multicast stream.

During installation of Windows Media Services 9 Series, default on-demand and broadcast publishing points are created for you. These publishing points are pre-configured and point to sample content that you can stream. You will need to start the broadcast publishing point before you can stream the sample content, however, and set your publishing points to allow new connections. In addition to streaming sample content from these publishing points, you can use them to stream the content you create or copy their configuration and customize as appropriate.

There is no limit to the number of publishing points you can have, and you can easily create them using wizards that not only walk you through the creation of publishing points, but also assist with creating announcement files and playlists, should you choose to do so.

Note

The implementation of publishing points in Windows Media 9 Series is different from earlier versions. For a detailed description of the changes, see the paper Upgrading to Windows Media Services 9 Series on the CD provided with this book.