Set Publishing Point options

A Live Broadcasting Project supports two types of live streaming modes: Broadcast mode (also referred to as pull mode, because other sources are pulling the content from Microsoft Expression Encoder) and Publishing Point mode (also referred to as push mode, because you are pushing content to a server). This topic covers using Publishing Point mode. For more information on Broadcast mode, see Set the Broadcast stream options.

In Publishing Point mode, you deploy, or push, the streaming content directly to a Windows Media or IIS Smooth Streaming server. If you are using a Windows Media Server, you can also choose to create a multicast file. A multicast file can stream data simultaneously to a specific group of recipients on a network. This differs from a broadcast, which generally is distributed throughout the network. For more information on creating a multicast file, see Create a multicast file.

In IIS Smooth Streaming broadcasts, Expression Encoder enables you to create, restart or update publishing points on an IIS Smooth Streaming server.

For more information about multicast streaming, see Delivering content as a multicast stream .

For more information about how to use Windows Media Services for streaming content, see Streaming media server role: Configuring a streaming media server .

Connect to a publish point

Before you can push your live broadcast, you will need to specify a publishing point. You can use an existing publishing point or you can create your own.

To set Publishing Point options

1. In the Output panel, select Publishing Point.

2. In the Location box, type the full URL of the server to which you are pushing content. The URL destination depends on the output format choice that you made in the Encode panel. If you chose Windows Media, Expression Encoder will push the content to a Windows Media Server. If you chose IIS Smooth Streaming, Expression Encoder will push the content to an IIS Smooth Streaming server. You can generally use the syntax “http://<ServerName>:<Port>/<PublishingPointName>”. If you are using an IIS server, you will need to append “.isml” to the URL. You can also update a current publishing point or create a new one. For more information, see the next procedure, “Update a publishing point.”

3. Click Connect to enter any authentication information and to establish a connection to the server. If you do not click Connect now, you will be prompted for authentication information, if necessary, when you start your streaming session. Once you click Connect, Expression Encoder attempts to connect to the specified publishing point. Once a connection is made, and depending upon the state of the connection, you will see one of the following three scenarios in the area beneath the Location menu. Depending upon the scenario, follow the directions specified for each one. Note that all the scenarios below are relevant only if the server you are publishing to uses IIS Media 4.1.  If you are using IIS Media 4.0, you will have the same behavior as previous versions of Expression Encoder.

   • If the publishing point is shut down:   The status of the connection in this scenario is dependent upon whether the ‘Start publishing point automatically upon first client request’ command is enabled on the server. If the server option is enabled, Expression Encoder will connect to the publishing point and will be in a started state. If the server option is disabled, then the connect button will be red, the status will read Idle and an error message will appear that reads: “Publishing point not started. Please restart before broadcasting.”

   • If the publishing point has already been started:   A red dot appears on the Connect button, and the status will read In Use. In order to broadcast, you must restart the publishing point. To do this, click Restart. Expression Encoder will send a restart message to the IIS server. If the restart was successful, a green dot appears on the Connect button, and the status will read Starting.

   • If the publishing point has been stopped:   A red dot appears on the Connect button, and the status will read “Stopped”. You will need to restart the publishing point before using it.

Creating a new publishing point

You can create a new publishing point on the server directly from Expression Encoder.

To create a new publishing point

1. In the Publishing Point section, type a new publishing point URL in the Location box.

2. Click Connect.

3. Because the publishing point doesn’t yet exist, Expression Encoder displays a Create button next to the Connect button. Clicking Create will create a new publishing point in the location on the server specified with the default settings. Once you have created the publishing point, you can begin publishing or update the publishing point with custom values. For information on updating the publishing point, see the next section.

Updating a publishing point

You can update an existing publishing point on an IIS server from within Expression Encoder by copying settings from a previously-created publishing point on the server, and then applying those settings to another existing publishing point. You can create a new publishing point on the server directly from Expression Encoder.

You can use this feature to create new publishing points from any number of publishing point templates that you have created on the server. You can also quickly update existing publishing points with the new title and duration data of your next broadcast.

To update a publishing point

1. In the Output panel, select Publishing Point.

2. Connect to a publishing point or create a new one.

3. Once connected, if necessary, click Show/Hide advanced properties to reveal the Update publishing point section.

4. Select Update publishing point.

5. In the Copy Settings box, choose a URL from the menu if you want to update settings from an existing publishing point on the server. The menu will display all the publishing points that exist on the server you are connected to. Select Use default publishing point settings if you only want to update the title and duration.

6. In the Title box, type a title for your broadcast.

7. In the Duration box, type the length of your broadcast using the DD:HH:MM:SS format. Entering a duration enables the seek bar, upon playback, to scroll smoothly while the broadcast is playing and allow for easier seeking for DVR content.

8. Click Update. The publishing point updates and Start is enabled in the transport area. From this point, you can begin your broadcast.

Working with EventIDs

The EventID field is primarily used to prevent cache pollution when the client requests streams from a publishing point that has been reused. If you are using the same publishing point to broadcast different content, you will want to use a different EventID for each broadcast to prevent the client from requesting an old fragment that has been cached. The EventID field enables you to add a unique identifier in the URL requested by the server for the current broadcast. This guarantees that the client requests the correct fragments.

To create an EventID

1. If necessary, in the Publishing Point section, click Show/Hide advanced properties to reveal the EventID box.

   

2. Do one of the following:

   • Enter a unique value for the EventID as long as it is a valid URL character

   • Click Generate to add the current date/time stamp to the URL.

3. Optionally, you can click click Automatically update EventID on restart if you want Expression Encoder to generate a new EventID each time that the broadcast stops. If you select this option, you will not need to update the EventID manually. Expression Encoder uses the current system date and time as the automatically-generated EventID.

See also

Tasks

Create a multicast file
Set the Broadcast stream options
Create a Live Broadcasting session

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