VBrick Systems VB5000, VB6000, VB4000 manual Introduction, Chapter, Overview, Topics in this chapter

Chapter 1

Introduction

Topics in this chapter

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Typical VBrick Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

VBrick Reflecting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Using Multiple Bit Rate Streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Using On Demand Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Optimizing System Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Mixed Model Appliances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Overview

Live and stored video-on-demand are among the most compelling and efficient forms of human communication and removes the barriers of time and distance. Microsoft Windows Media is a ubiquitous technology that makes it easier for VBrick customers to deploy video for one-way video delivery to millions of PCs and multimedia-equipped devices worldwide. "Windows Media" describes Microsoft's multimedia product technologies for Windows. It includes (1) Windows Media Format tools for encoding and decoding audio and video, (2) Window Media Services for publishing streaming audio and video on a server, and (3) Windows Media Player, which is the client program that plays Windows Media and other multimedia formats. The Windows Media Player is typically installed with the operating system on most desktop PCs so no player-side installation is necessary, eliminating a common IT concern when deploying a streaming audio/video solution. VBrick has licensed Windows Media encoding and server technology from Microsoft and created the VBrick WM Appliance to interoperate with other Windows Media compatible products including all versions of Windows Media Player and all versions of Windows Media Server.

System Requirements for Windows Media Player

•Ethernet LAN.

•Multicast IGMP Version 2.

•Windows 98, 2000, XP (Windows XP Service Pack 1 or above (Service Pack 2 recommended).

•500 MHz Pentium III processor for Windows Media streams (750 MHz recommended).

•128 MB RAM.

•SVGA video card 640x480, 256 colors (video card acceleration recommended).

•Windows-compatible sound device.

•Minimum 15 MB hard disk space for installation.

•Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher.

•Microsoft DirectX Media 8.1 or higher (9.0 recommended).

VBrick WM Appliance Admin Guide 1