| There are times when a broadcast administrator wants to combine several media files but only has the ability to publish just one video stream. The individual media files are added to a playlist, and the playlist is then published so that a single publishing point will play back the entire playlist of files. The playlist concept is frequently used for audio files where a playlist of music files are combined, yet only a single stream is distributed. Or the playlist file may be constantly updated to include new media files that are needed for publishing and distribution. The benefit of creating a playlist and combining the content into a single broadcast is the ability to have just a single broadcast point that brings to users multiple files. Configuring a Server for Playlist Broadcasting of Multiple Files To configure a Windows Media Server for broadcasting multiple files into a single stream, a publishing point needs to be configured for playlist broadcasting. The configuration process is as follows: 1. | In the Windows Media Services MMC, right-click on Publishing Points in the navigation tree and select Add Publishing Point (Wizard).
| 2. | Click Next to move past the Welcome screen.
| 3. | Enter a publishing point name that describes the function. When playlist broadcasting of multiple files, you might choose something like Playlist of Conf Content. Click Next to continue.
Note The name of a publishing point should not have special characters such as <, >, \, ?, %, &, ', #, ", {, }, [, ], or *. These characters can interfere with the successful publishing of the broadcast over the Internet. | 4. | Select the Playlist (a Mix of Files and/or Live Streams That You Combine into a Continuous Stream) option and click Next.
| | | 5. | Choose either Broadcast Publishing Point or On-Demand Publishing Point. Refer to the "Broadcast Publishing Versus On-Demand Publishing" sidebar for decisions on publishing points. Click Next.
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At this point, whether you selected Broadcast Publishing Point or On-Demand Publishing Point in step 5 will determine what options are available in the remaining steps of the wizard. If you selected On-Demand Publishing Point in step 5, you will be prompted with a series of questions: 1. | You will be prompted whether you want to add a new publishing point (or playlist), which you will typically want to do. Select Add a New Publishing Point and click Next.
| 2. | You will be prompted to add the name of a playlist where the published files will be listed and stored. Enter the name of an existing playlist, or select the Create a New Playlist option. Click Next to continue.
| 3. | If you choose to create a new playlist, you will be prompted to add media and add advertisements into your playlist file, as shown in Figure 37.6. Click Next.
Figure 37.6. Choosing media to add to the playlist. 
| | | 4. | Enter a name of your playlist and then click Next.
| 5. | A choice to select content playback gives you the option to loop videos, shuffle videos, both, or none. For more information on these options, see the "Loop, Shuffle, Both, or None" sidebar earlier in this chapter. Click Next to continue.
| 6. | Select the Enable Logging option if you want to log media events and then click Next.
| 7. | The next screen shows a summary of the created publishing point. You can choose to start the publishing point when the wizard is finished, and if you want to capture and archive the live event, select the Start Archiving When Publishing Point Starts option. Click Next to continue.
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If you selected the Broadcast Publishing Point option earlier in this sequence, you will be prompted with several other options: 1. | Select Unicast or Multicast as the delivery option for the broadcasting publishing point and then click Next.
| 2. | If you choose to create a new playlist, you will be prompted to add media and add advertisements into your playlist file. Click Next.
| 3. | Enter a name of your playlist and then click Next.
| 4. | A choice to select content playback gives you the option to loop videos, shuffle videos, both, or none. For more information on these options, see the "Loop, Shuffle, Both, or None" sidebar earlier in this chapter. Click Next to continue.
| 5. | Select the Enable Logging option if you want to log media events and then click Next.
| 6. | The next screen shows a summary of the created publishing point. You can choose to start the publishing point when the wizard is finished, and if you want to capture and archive the live event, select the Start Archiving When Publishing Point Starts option. Click Next to continue.
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For either the broadcast or on-demand publishing options, before finishing the Publishing Wizard, you are prompted to choose between three file creation options: Create an Announcement File (.asx) or Web Page (.htm) An announcement file is similar to an invitation file that can be used to notify users of a pending live broadcast or the availability of an on-demand video playback session. Create a Wrapper Playlist (.wsx) A wrapper playlist is content that can be added to either the start or end of a broadcast. An example of wrapper content might be a welcome or closing message, advertisements, or broadcast identification. Create a Wrapper Playlist (.wsx) and Announcement File (.asx) or Web Page (.htm) Choosing this option launches both the Announcement File and Wrapper Playlist Wizards to create the invitation announcement, as well as the capability to add content at the start or end of a broadcast.
Choose one of these three options or deselect the After the Wizard Finishes box if you don't want to choose any of the options. Click Finished when complete. Starting a Playlist from Within the Playlist Publishing Point A playlist can be launched to initiate the playback of media contained within the playlist file. Depending on the option selected, a user simply enters the URL of the directory publishing point (such as mms://media.companyabc.com/Corp Playlist). The playlist of files will begin to publish the first of the media clips and will continue through the entire playlist until the list is complete. If the loop option was selected in the publishing point configuration settings, the playlist will continuously loop the media content of the playlist. If shuffle was selected, the files within the playlist will be played randomly. Any of the options selected from within the configuration setting can be modified at any time to change or reconfigure settings initially created in the wizard installation process. |
