Streaming Media Hosting at Rutgers-Camden
What is streaming media?
Streaming
media looks and sounds very much like any other kind of digital
media. What makes streaming media files different from ordinary
audio or video files is how the digital information is encoded inside
of them to enable optimal playback across a variety of network
connections.
Some common streaming media formats are RealPlayer (rm or ram), Windows
Media (wmv or wma), and Quicktime (mov). At Rutgers-Camden, we
have servers capable of natively supporting RealPlayer and Windows
Media streaming media files.
The encoding in a streaming media file allows our server to transmit
the file to a streaming client on your computer that begins playback as
the file is still being downloaded. A streaming media file is
buffered during the download, so that the entire file does not have to
be saved to your computer in order to play it back. If the media
file is encoded with multiple bitrates, then our servers can adjust the
size of the file being sent to prevent lag or lost frames during
playback.
Another important difference is that the server software used to transfer a
streaming file is different from the server software used for web pages.
Even though you can download a streaming file through a web server, that
process does not actually transfer the data from the server to your computer
the same way that streaming does.
How
do I create streaming media?
If you
have an updated and patched copy of Windows XP, then you may already be
able to create streaming Windows Media files using a program called
Windows Movie Maker. Many other applications, such as Adobe
Premiere, can also create streaming media files. If you have an
audio or video editing application that can save files in Windows Media
(wmv or wma) or RealPlayer (rm) format, then you can create streaming
media files that can be hosted by Camden Computing Services' media
servers. If you are unsure of how to create streaming media
files, please contact the Camden Computing Help Desk. You can
reach the Help Desk by email at help@camden.rutgers.edu, by phone (856)225-6274, or by stopping
in BSB 109 or the Campus Center Computer Lab (in the basement).
How
do I put streaming media on a server?
Camden
Computing Services offers hosting on servers compatible with RealPlayer
and Windows Media streaming media files. We recommend that you
create RealPlayer media files for maximum compatibility across multiple
computer platforms. All of the PCs, Suns, and Macintosh computers
in our public computer labs are capable of playing back RealPlayer
media files.
Any faculty or staff member may request an account on one of our two
streaming media servers. Students or
student organizations who wish to place streaming media on one of our
servers must have a faculty or staff adviser contact Camden Computing
Services on their behalf. Our RealPlayer
server is the same system as the main campus web server
(www.camden.rutgers.edu). If you already
have an account on that server, all you need to do is contact the Help
Desk and request a directory for your streaming media.
If you do not have an account on www.camden.rutgers.edu already,
then the Help Desk can also assist you in obtaining one.
We run a separate server for Windows Media files.
As with all other NetID/account issues, the Help Desk can assist
you in obtaining an account on our Windows
server (iis.camden.rutgers.edu).
They can also put you in contact with the IIS system administrator for
additional
help with Windows streaming media.
RealPlayer
RealPlayer media files are uploaded
to the server named www.camden.rutgers.edu
and are kept in a directory we create for you under /services/Streaming.
For example, if your NetID is jdoe
and you have an account on
this server, we will create a streaming media directory for you in
/services/Streaming/jdoe. You would then
upload your media file to that directory using a file transfer program
(sftp, webdrive, etc.). Like
web-accessible files, the permissions
for any media files you upload must be set readable for group and other.
Once
you have uploaded your RealPlayer file to www.camden.rutgers.edu, you
can play the file back through our RealMedia (Helix) Server using a URL that looks
similar to this:
http://www.camden.rutgers.edu:8080/ramgen/jdoe/mediafilename.rm
That
same type of URL would allow you to place a link to your streaming
RealPlayer media on a web page.
Windows
Media
The Windows Media Server iis.camden.rutgers.edu
natively supports Windows Media Player files (.wmv) using either MMS or HTTP.
It also can serve RealMedia (.rm) files using HTTP, although www.camden.rutgers.edu is the
preferred server for RealMedia. Refer to the page located at
http://iis.camden.rutgers.edu/mchugh/trips/near1.htm for examples of media served by the IIS system.
Since streaming's biggest advantage is adapting to network issues (like lag or
low bandwidth) you may want to optimize your .wmv files for playback using the
MMS protocol (instead of the HTTP protocol).
The optimized playback on the IIS server can only be used with .wmv files,
and those files must be uploaded and configured by the IIS administrator.
Please contact the Help Desk for additional information on uploading files to
iis.camden.rutgers.edu and setting up media files for streaming.
|
