Overview
This the Release Candidate (RC) release for Web Playlists feature. This release supercedes all previous releases (CTP1, CTP2, GoLive).
This release supports upgrade from the previous Go Live release.
Web Playlists let you deliver server-controlled media playlists from your Web server infrastructure rather than using a dedicated streaming server. They enable you to control whether clients can Seek or Skip for each media asset, which lends itself very well to monetizing your content with pre-roll and in-stream ads.
Web Playlists also obfuscate the location of media assets from the end user, and prevent the end user from skipping pre-roll or in-stream advertising.
Features
- Integration with IIS 7.0. The Web Playlists module is tightly integrated with this new administration interface and configuration store in IIS 7.0. In addition, IIS 7.0 has a new administration tool, and the new Web Playlists module plugs seamlessly into that paradigm.
- Support for all Digital Media Files Types. Any digital media file type that can be downloaded from a Web server can be added to a Web playlists by using this feature.
- Session Provider Settings. Allows you to add ASP.NET session persistence and provides an additional level of control for the content on a Web server by configuring multiple options that specify how long the content referenced by a playlist is available to users.
- Session Settings. Allows you to specify the maximum number of clients that can connect to the playlist and the amount of content that must be watched before allowing a user to skip to the next item in the playlist.
- Impersonation Settings. Allows for media items that are protected by user credentials to be added to playlists.
- Client-Side Playlist Import. Allows for quick conversion of client-side playlists (files with .asx file name extensions) for files stored on the Web server to Web playlists.
- Content protection. The tokenized URLs secure the content through obfuscation
- Extensibility - Web Playlists now exposes an interface that enables you to create custom providers for custom needs. You can create a .net based or COM provider that implements any custom logic that may be needed.
- Nested Playlists - this feature allows you to add playlists in a nested fashion. This helps you make use of existing playlists inside others and allows better structuring of content.
- httpd Entries - This feature enables adding entries as that refer to a web application (asp page, aspx page or php page). The application can return the actual entry path / URL to be played. This allows integration with existing applications in the environment and adds another way to add dynamic entries
- (New) Client-side caching control. Web Playlists now provides ability to allow/disallow client-side caching behavior through a configurable setting.
- (New) Playlist Format. With this release, the playlist is stored in an open standard SMIL-based playlist format.
- (New) Extensible Output Formats. This new feature provides the ability to control the playlist response format using XSLT.
Benefits
- Any downloadable media file can be added to a Web Playlist and delivered to clients
- Full server control over content access, playlist sequence, and client Seek/Skip options
- Provides content protection through dynamically-generated tokenized URLs in each playlist
- Client-Side Playlist Import allows for quick conversion of ASX client-side playlists to Web playlists
- Works with Silverlight, Flash Player, Windows Media Player, and other ASX-capable media players
- Works across server farms by leveraging ASP.Net session persistence
- Fully integrated into the IIS 7.0 administration and configuration models
Requirements
To install and use the IIS7 Media Pack Web Playlists module:
- You need Windows Server 2008 system
- You must have administrative privileges on the Server
- Internet Information Services 7.0 must be installed: