General
What is Smooth Streaming?
Smooth Streaming leverages adaptive streaming (a.k.a. dynamic streamingAllows a media player to dynamically switch between bit rate streams of varying quality levels, in order to provide an optimal viewing experience based on a client’s bandwidth and CPU usage.) to stream live and on-demand content of varying quality to Silverlight-compatible players. Dynamic streaming allows a media player to determine at frequent intervals the bitrate quality that will produce the best viewing experience according to the client's bandwidth and CPU usage.
Learn more: http://www.iis.net/downloads/microsoft/smooth-streaming
Setup
Can I use Smooth Streaming with my own Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) server?
Yes. Media can be streamed through your own Microsoft IIS server or by taking advantage of our servers. If you plan on using your own IIS server, then you should perform the following steps:
- Create a customer origin configuration that points to your IIS server.
- Set up your Smooth Streaming configuration on your IIS server.
- Point your media player to your stream using a CDN or edge CNAME URL that points to the above customer origin configuration.
Should I reuse a publishing point for different live events?
No. It is highly recommended that you create a publishing point for each live event. Reusing an old publishing point may result in old content being served to clients.
DVR
Is DVR playback of live streams supported?
Yes. However, this feature needs to be enabled on each desired publishing point. Additionally, you will need to define the length of time (in minutes) for the DVR window. This DVR window can be set from 1 to 180 minutes.
What is a DVR window?
DVR playback allows a user to pause/resume, rewind, or fast forward your live event. The DVR window defines the length of the sliding window of time for which media will be available. For example, setting the DVR window to 30 minutes will prevent users from rewinding your live event more than 30 minutes.
Playback
Can I stream content to iOS devices?
Streaming to iOS devices through Smooth Streaming is only supported for live events. Learn more.
How can I find out the bit rate at which Smooth Streaming content is being played?
Use the sample Smooth Streaming player provided on the Smooth Streaming Player page. A graph will provide current and historical information on the bitrate used to stream content to the media player.
Is there a sample media player?
Yes. The Smooth Streaming Player page contains all of the following items:
- Sample Smooth Streaming media player
- Live Smooth Streaming implementation (web page)
- On-Demand Smooth Streaming implementation (web page)
More Information