Obtain the video content you want to stream. You can create the
content yourself, or purchase or license the content as necessary.
The recording should be high quality and in a format that is
convenient for encoding.
Prepare the content for streaming. If necessary, edit the video
to achieve the desired playing time, arrangement, and tone. Encode
the video and save it as a Windows Media file. Windows Media
Encoder includes several broadband encoding profiles that you can
use to achieve a specific result. For example, if you intend to
include interstitial advertisements in your content, consider
encoding the video as several sequential video files. Store the
content files either on the Windows Media server or in a location
on your network. For more information about encoding content, see
Windows Media Encoder Help.
Reference the video content in your on-demand publishing point:
In the console tree, click the on-demand publishing point from
which you want to stream content.
In the details pane, click the Source tab.
In the Content Source area, be sure the Location
path is the same as the location of the Windows Media file you want
to stream.
If it is not, click Change and type the path to the
content, or click Browse to locate the file.
Choose a method to generate revenue from your content. The
Windows Media Rights Manager Software Development Kit (SDK)
provides you with several commercial access options, such as
pay-per-view or subscription services, depending on your business
model. For more information about the methods for streaming
protected Windows Media-based content, see the Windows Media Rights
Manager SDK.
Protect your content from unauthorized access. Configure and
enable the authentication and authorization plug-ins that you want
to use to control access to your content. For more information
about authentication and authorization, see Understanding authentication
and Understanding
authorization.
You can configure and enable a logging plug-in to collect
client usage data and publishing point performance information.
Using data from the log files, you can create reports to verify
that your system is performing as expected. Additional logs can be
generated to record the performance of specific advertisements
within the broadcast. You can then give these specialized logs to
your advertisers. For more information about logging, see Understanding logging.
Use the Unicast Announcement Wizard to create an announcement
file that you can add to a Web page or provide to users as a
network share location.
In the console tree, select the publishing point that contains
the content you want to announce.
In the details pane, click the Announce tab.
Click RunUnicast Announcement Wizard, and then
follow the steps in the wizard.
Using the Unicast Announcement Wizard, you can also
create a basic Web page with an embedded link to your content.
After creating this page, you can then personalize it and add it to
your site.
