1. Media Server and Player.

After you have downloaded and run the installation program for Unreal Media Server, the service named UMediaServer should be running and listening on TCP port 5119. 

The installation program sets up a sample video clip by creating a virtual folder called MediaRoot, mapping this folder to the program installation folder ("Program Files\Unreal Streaming\MediaRoot" by default) and placing file "test.avi" in this folder.

Streaming Media Player or its ActiveX control/plugin hosted on a web page needs to be installed to play streaming media.
Start the player and enter IP address or machine name of the Media Server computer. Choose TCP or HTTP or RTP(UDP) as a transport protocol and make sure there are no firewalls between client and server machines that block port 5119. If this particular port is blocked, use Media Server Configuration tool, which is a part of Media Server installation, to change this port number. If only HTTP traffic is allowed between Media Server and player, choose HTTP protocol. Once the client computer can reach the server computer, you should be able to stream the test file.

You can also play live and recorded content using Flash player and Windows Media player. If you have created a live broadcast with Alias "radio" (described below), then an RTMP link for Flash player looks like (assuming the server IP address is 192.168.0.100): rtmp://192.168.0.100:5119/live/radio. RTMP link for playing mp4 file is: rtmp://192.168.0.100:5119/vod/mediaroot/somefile.mp4.
With Windows Media Player, you can play this "radio" broadcast, entering the following into "Open URL" line: mms://192.168.0.100:5119/radio. Clip test.avi can be played with mms://192.168.0.100:5119/mediaroot/test.avi.

Using Media Server Configuration tool, you can create virtual folders and map them to the different physical locations on the server machine.
Alternatively, the physical location can be anywhere in the server machine's LAN. To make this work, several steps should be done.

• Win 2000: You will need to map network drive, such that the remote folder will be treated as a local folder.
  Win XP/Vista/7: Browse to network folder.
• The security should be setup such that the account, under which UMediaServer runs, has access to this network drive. By default, UMediaServer runs under local system account. You will need to have an account that can access this network drive, and make UMediaServer service run under this account. Use "control panel - services - UMediaServer properties" to change the account.

Once virtual folder is accessible by MediaServer, the files in this folder can be streamed to the clients. Users will need to specify this folder in Streaming Media Player. Virtual folder can be configured to require internal or session-based authentication. Refer to the architecture page to learn more.

Virtual folder can be configured to allow or prohibit playlist behavior. If playlist behavior is allowed, clients will be able to play all the files within virtual folder in a non-stop mode. Configuration program allows to broadcast a particular file via MPEG2-TS protocol, for delivery to Set-Top box. Configuration program also allows to multicast the content of virtual folder. Players then can receive media in RTP Multicast mode. Refer to the architecture page to learn about multicast.

Configuration program also allows creating so called "Live Broadcasts" that refer to live audio-video sources, typically live encoders or some existing live broadcasts. If you have an RTSP IP camera or MPEG2-TS encoding device, you can create a live broadcast of type "Rebroadcast live RTMP/RTSP/MPEG2-TS/MS-WMSP stream" to connect this device to Unreal Media Server. Create the same type of live broadcast to connect various software encoders to Unreal Media Server, such as FMLE, WME, VLC. Select rtmp://, rtsp://, mpts:// or mms:// as a streaming protocol for your encoder and specify the address of your encoder.
Static and Dynamic live broadcasts refer to live sources configured with our own live encoder named Unreal Live Server. For static broadcasts the Media Server initiates connection to the Live Server on TCP port 5120; for dynamic ones the Live Server initiates connection to Media Server on configurable TCP port (5130 by default). The choice between static and dynamic live broadcasts depends on your network infrastructure. For example, if Live Server runs behind NAT firewall, on the computer with periodically changing IP address, then outside Media Server may not always be able to initiate a connection to Live Server. Use dynamic live broadcast in this case.

2. Live Server

Unreal Live Server should be installed on the computer that has live media sources attached to it. Live media sources include: digital cameras, microphones, analog video sources (analog camera or TV) connected to Video card or to Video Capture card that supports DirectShow interface. There can be multiple live sources attached to a single computer. Hardware encoding appliances with DirectShow support are also supported.
Download and run the installation program for Unreal Live Server . The service named ULiveServer should be running and listening on TCP port 5120. Use Live Server configuration tool to add and configure a source for your live media content, such as camera/microphone/other. When configuring a live source, choose appropriate encoding that matches the player you want to use. For example, use H264/AAC for Flash player, and VC1/WMA for Silverlight player. You can also configure access restrictions based on Media Server IP addresses.
It's important to understand that requests to Live Server will be coming from Media Server computer, not from the client computers. Media Server will send requests to Live Server based on "Live Broadcast" settings, configured with Media Server. In case of static live broadcast, the Media Server will first initiate a TCP (port 5120) connection to Live Server. Once a connection is established, the Media Server will send request for live media. In case of dynamic live broadcast, the Media Server will expect the Live Server to initiate a connection. Live Server configuration tool allows initiating a connection to Media Server on configurable TCP port.
Live Server also allows recording of Audio/Video sources to ASF/MP4 files, based on scheduler or motion/beat detection, independently of streaming.

3. Creating a link to media resource

The most convenient way for the users to access remote media is to click on a link in the Web browser. Setup of Streaming Media Player registers a custom URL protocol on user's machine. This is a UMS protocol, allowing launching Streaming Media Player directly from the hyperlink on the Web page. The person who configures the Media Server is responsible for creation of these links and putting them to web pages.

The link can refer to File, Playlist or Alias of the live source.
Link should consist of 4 parts:

1. "ums:\\" or "ums://".
2. Transport protocol followed by semicolon - TCP, HTTP, HTTPS, RTP, MULTICAST.
3. Media Server IP address followed by backslash. If no port is specified, default port corresponding to the transport protocol will be used for the connection. Default TCP/HTTP/RTP/MULTICAST port is 5119; default HTTPS port is 443 (IIS port).
4. Actual media name. In no slash or backslash is found in the name, the name will be treated as the Alias of the live broadcast. Otherwise: If the word "playlist\" is found in the name, the name will be treated as a playlist. Otherwise the name will be treated as filename.

The hyperlink for playing a file myfile.avi via TCP Unicast might look like this:
<A HREF="ums:\\TCP:192.168.1.1:5119\Media\Myfile.avi"> Myfile.avi</A>
The hyperlink for playing a live broadcast named MyWebCam via HTTP Unicast might look like this:
<A HREF="ums:\\HTTP:192.168.1.1:5119\MyWebCam">My Web Camera</A>
or like this, if playing on LAN via RTP Multicast:
<A HREF="ums:\\MULTICAST:192.168.1.1:5119\MyWebCam">My Web Camera</A>
The hyperlink for playing a playlist named Media via RTP Unicast might look like this:
<A HREF="ums:\\RTP:192.168.1.1:5119\playlist\Media">Media virtual folder</A>

For previewing local live sources, specify ums:\\localpreview:ID, where ID is local live source ID.
For playing in fullscreen mode, append ///FULLSCREEN to the end of the link

The part shown in brown is the actual UMS link.
This link can alternatively be used on the local user's machine in two ways:
Passing it as a parameter to Streaming media player:
StreamingMediaPlayer.exe ums:\\TCP:192.168.1.1:5119\Media\File.avi
Running the link alone:
ums:\\TCP:192.168.1.1:5119\Media\File.avi
In all the described cases Streaming media player will launch and play remote media.

4. Creating MMS links

MMS links are a lot like UMS links, with the exception of not specifying the network protocol right before IP address. Media Server Configuration program allows creating MMS playlists containing MMS links for any virtual folder. Use MMS links for "Open URL" option in any MMS-capable player.

It is recommended to use forward slashes in MMS links.
Assuming Media Server's port for client connections was changed from default 5119 to 5127,
MMS link for playing a file named "File.avi", residing in virtual folder "Mediaroot", looks like this:
mms://192.168.1.1:5127/mediaroot/File.avi
MMS link for playing a live broadcast named "Webcam" looks like this:
mms://192.168.1.1:5127/WebCam

5. Creating RTMP links

RTMP links must have a fixed word for Flash application, which is "live" for live broadcasts and "vod" for files. Otherwise they look exactly like MMS links. RTMP links are assigned to a Flash player on a web page. Refer to our demo page and SDK package for examples.

Assuming Media Server's port for client connections was changed from default 5119 to 5127,
RTMP link for playing a file named "Test.mkv", residing in virtual folder "Mediaroot", looks like this:
rtmp://192.168.1.1:5127/vod/Mediaroot/Test.mkv
RTMP link for playing a live broadcast named "Webcam" looks like this:
rtmp://192.168.1.1:5127/live/WebCam

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