Use wrappers to provide
advertising with your live broadcast
This quick start demonstrates how to append advertising to the
beginning and end of a live broadcast using wrappers.
Wrappers are a special type of playlist that can be used to
reference ads and other content that precede or follow
user-requested content, or both. Wrappers commonly include
introductory pages that generate custom playlists, site branding,
and sponsor identification. Wrappers are especially effective when
used with live streaming because they ensure that the audience will
view the advertising content no matter when they join the
broadcast. The source of advertising content can be either a
locally stored file or a link to a participating advertiser's
server.
You have the option of starting, stopping, and resuming the
broadcast stream based on one or more user connections, but the
user experience will be similar to tuning in to a radio or
television broadcast. Live content viewers do not have the ability
to pause, fast-forward, or rewind the content of a broadcast and
will join the broadcast in process.
In this quick start, it is assumed that you have another
computer running Windows Media Encoder that is broadcasting a live
stream and that you have prerecorded advertising content available.
This quick start uses the Create Wrapper Wizard to create a wrapper
that streams the prerecorded advertising content before and after
the live broadcast. It does not specifically address setting up a
live stream. For a detailed description of how to set up Windows
Media Encoder, see Windows Media Encoder Help.
Do the following to start the Create Wrapper Wizard:
In Windows Media Services, in the console tree, expand the
server from which you want to stream content, and then expand
Publishing Points.
Click the broadcast publishing point in which you want to
include a wrapper. In the details pane, click the
Advertising tab.
Click Wrapper Editor to open the Wrapper Playlist
Editor Options dialog box.
Click Create playlist file, and then select the Use
the Create Wrapper Wizard check box. The Create Wrapper Wizard
appears.
Use the following settings in the Create Wrapper Wizard to add
advertising content to your wrapper playlist:
On the welcome page, click Next.
On the Wrapper Playlist File page, click the Add
Advertisement button. The Add Advertisement dialog box
appears.
Type the location of the advertising content or click the
Browse button to locate the advertisements. Click
OK.
Repeat the previous steps as necessary to add all of the
desired wrapper advertisements.
Change the location of the wrapper ads before by clicking an
individual item and then clicking the Move Up or Move
Down buttons.
On the Save Wrapper Playlist File page, type a unique
file name and location for your wrapper playlist.
Select the Start publishing point when wizard finishes
check box to reset the publishing point, allowing all enabled
wrappers to play as scheduled.
Select the Enable wrapper playlist when wizard finishes
check box to use the new wrapper playlist immediately, and then
click Finish.
For more information about testing your streaming content, see
Testing a stream.
