14 DAY TRIAL // Content providers interested in leveraging Silverlight in tandem with Internet Information Services in order to provide media experiences for customers can now take advantage of an updated development kit for IIS Smooth Streaming. Today, January 15th, 2010, the second beta development milestone of Beta IIS Smooth Streaming Player Development Kit (SSPDK) 1.0 went live on the Microsoft Download Center and is available free of charge. According to Microsoft, the IIS Smooth Streaming Player Development Kit is designed to streamline the development of rich Smooth Streaming players and experiences.
“The kit includes:Smooth Streaming Player SDK – This enables developers and designers to build rich Smooth Streaming player experiences. We are providing a .net (Silverlight) based SDK with full XAML support. The core part of this infrastructure is Smooth Streaming Media Element that is similar to Silverlight Media Element if you are already familiar with Silverlight development platform. Push Encoder – This tool allows you to simulate a live stream for testing purposes. Sample Smooth Streaming Player (built on Smooth Streaming Player SDK) – This is a sample that uses Smooth Streaming Player SDK and enables you to test the IIS Media Services 3.0,” revealed Vishal Sood, a program manager in the IIS team.
With the advent of the Beta 2 build, the IIS Smooth Streaming Player Development Kit now supports new scenarios including Fast Forward/Rewind and Rough Cut Editing. This Kit simplifies the creation of players capable of delivering not only On Demand but also Live playback. The promise from Microsoft is that the players put together using the kit deliver full DVR capabilities, Live Ad Insertion, Multiple Camera Angles as well as additional rich functionalities.
Sood enumerated some of the new features introduced in IIS Smooth Streaming Player Development Kit Beta 2, such as: support for keeping track of Live event while in DVR; Trick Play: Fast Forward / Rewind; H.264 / AAC support; support for specifying markers/Ad ingestion point outside the main manifest; and composite Manifest Support for scenarios like Rough Cut Editing.
Microsoft is offering Smooth Streaming as an IIS Media Services extension, which makes it possible for media experiences to be delivered to customers with Silverlight clients via adaptive streaming over HTTP connections. In this regard, Smooth Streaming is designed to tailor the content to the users’ bandwidth, being able to serve true HD 1080p media experiences provided that the internet connection allows it.
IIS Smooth Streaming Player Development Kit - Beta 2 is available for download here.