VBrick Systems VB6000, VB4000, VB5000 manual Configuration Encoder Server

WM Configuration

Log URL

Allows the operator to set a log URL for the .asx file. The log URL is used by the player to access a server for logging playback statistics.

Announce Program Guide (SAP) for Multicast -- Slot1

See Multicasting on page 4 for more information about accessing a multicast.

Transmit	Enables or disables SAP transmission. Default = Enabled.
Retransmit Time	1–9999. Default = 10. If SAP Timing is fixed, this is the time in
(sec)	seconds between SAP transmissions. If SAP Timing is variable, the
	actual retransmit time, as per RFC 2974, is reported. See
	Configuration: System > General for more information.
Time To Live	The number of hops (between routers) for which an IP packet is valid
	on the network.
Type Of Service	The TOS (Type of Service) can be configured in the IP header to
	establish SAP packet priority in the network.
IP Address	The destination IP address for the SAP packets.
Port	The destination port for the SAP packets.

Configuration: Encoder > Server

Use this page to configure the encoder server. For multiple bit rate applications you can configure groups of stream parameters. If you are not using multiple bit rates, simply ignore the parameters for MBR Group2 and MBR Group3. If configuring for multiple bit rates, you have the option of serving one, two, or three groups of streams. A group is one set of parameters for video, audio, and script data (script data includes Closed Caption and/or Meta Data). One group must be enabled; the other groups are optional and are enabled only when you want to serve multiple bit rates. For a broad overview of MBR, see MBR Groups on page 11.

When serving multiple bit rate streams, the WM appliance offers all enabled groups to the Windows Media player and the player determines which group to request and play based on its bandwidth configuration or based on measured of network performance between the player and the appliance. The appliance sends a stream to the player containing only the requested group.

When a Microsoft server publishing point is configured to pull from an MBR-configured WM appliance, the Microsoft server will receive all video, audio, and script data from all enabled MBR groups. The server clients however, receive only the video, audio, and script streams that meet their bandwidth limitations. In this case it is important to note that the network between the appliance and the WM server must be able to handle the combined bit rate of all enabled groups because the pulled stream contains all enabled groups.

The WM appliance also provides a special URL that forces the Windows Media Player or Windows Media Server to pull only a single group even when the appliance is configured to serve multiple bit rates. This is a good way to force a particular group to be played without using the MBR decision process in the player; it is also a good way to limit the bandwidth used for a server pull. You create a group-specific URL by appending /GroupN to the end of the standard URL. For example, to specifically request MBR Group3, you type:

http://172.22.5.5/vbrickvideo1/Group3

VBrick WM Appliance Admin Guide 41