Use your server to publish live content from Windows Media Encoder

This quick start demonstrates how to use Windows Media Services to stream live content that it pulls from a computer running Windows Media Encoder. The user experience is similar to watching a traditional television program or tuning into a radio broadcast. The user can watch or listen to the content, but does not have the ability to pause, fast-forward, or rewind it.

For this task, you must have a separate computer running Windows Media Encoder that has an audio or video capture card. The live stream is encoded from an attached video camera, VCR, or microphone. You can download Windows Media Encoder from the Windows Media home page at the Microsoft Web site.

1. On the computer running Windows Media Encoder, start encoding your live content by doing the following:
   • Start Windows Media Encoder and create a new broadcast session.
   • Begin encoding the session and note the connection URL for the encoder. The connection URL has the following syntax: connection protocol://encoder_name:port (for example, http://encoder1:8080). This is the URL that the Windows Media server uses to connect to the encoder. For more information about setting up the encoder for a live broadcast, see Windows Media Encoder Help.
2. Create a new broadcast publishing point on the Windows Media server by using the Add Publishing Point Wizard:
   • In the console tree, expand the server from which you want to stream the content, and then click the Publishing Points item.
   • On the Action menu, click Add Publishing Point (Wizard).
3. In the Add Publishing Point Wizard, do the following:
   • On the welcome page, click Next.
   • On the Publishing Point Name page, type a name for the new publishing point.
   • On the Content Type page, click Encoder.
   • On the Publishing Point Type page, click Broadcast publishing point.
   • On the Delivery Options for Broadcast Publishing Points page, click Unicast.
4. Using the wizard, configure the following settings to enable the publishing point to receive content from the encoder:
   • On the Encoder URL page, type the encoder URL using the following syntax: http://encoder_name:port.
   • On the Unicast Logging page, select the check box if you want to log data about your clients.
   • On the Publishing Point Summary page, verify that the settings for the new publishing point are correct.
   • On the Completing the Add Publishing Point Wizard page, select the Start publishing point when wizard finishes check box, clear the After this wizard finishes check box, and then click Finish.

Users can now connect to the live encoder stream by using the URL of your publishing point. The URL of a broadcast publishing point uses the following syntax:
connection protocol://server_name/publishing_point_name (for example, mms://server1/my broadcast).

For more information about testing your streaming content, see Testing a stream.

Notes

• You can use announcements to direct users to your content. Announcements are metafiles that automatically open Windows Media Player and direct the Player to the content on a publishing point. For more information about announcements, see Working with the announcement wizards.
• For a detailed description of how to set up Windows Media Encoder, see Windows Media Encoder Help.

Related topics

• Quick starts
• Sourcing from an encoder