Minnesota House webcasting platform
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Minnesota House of Representatives
Streaming Media in the Microsoft Windows Environment
The following is a breakdown on how streaming video and audio is done for the Minnesota House of Representatives.
Software Specifications.
Microsoft Window Server 2003. Other version are possible for streaming but it's best to use current technology. Windows Server 2003 product specification can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/default.mspx
The House employs three separate standalone servers. Check hardware below for specifics.
Windows Media Encoder 9. The software is bundled with Microsoft Windows Server 2003. Many benefits including no additional software purchases. Encoder 9 allows for multichannel sound and high definition video quality. More info at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5691ba02-e496-465a-bba9-b2f1182cdf24&DisplayLang=en
Windows Media Service 9 This provides for streaming your content both as a unicast and multicast broadcast over the internet and local area networks. The software is part of Microsoft Windows Server 2003. For more information about this software please see http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/server.aspx
Hardware Specifications.
The following are not minimums but only a list of the current hardware used by the House to provide streaming live content over the internet and multicast of the local network.
We have three machines with the following;
Dual Intel® Xeon™ Processor 3.00GHz, 1gb of memory, Hard disks are 2x 36gb SCSI drives. Audio is both integrated sound and Sound Blaster Audigy™ 2 (D), w/Dolby Digital 5.1. Video capture card is the Osprey Video Capture Card 100. More information on the video capture card can be found at http://www.viewcast.com/products/osprey/osprey100.html
We employ highend workstations with fast xeon processors so that the delay from encoding to delivery is minimum (depending on the encoding rate it can be anywhere from a few seconds to nearly 20 seconds). In regards to our Multicast machine we do both the encoding and serving from the same machine. It is not recommended that the system be configured this way. Can cause performance issues.
Most streaming environments will use multiple encoding machines and a single Media Server for distribution. Our unicast or internet streams are done on one machine and then served to our streaming server provider (Implex.net) over an ISDN line.