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The launch of Windows Server 2008 triggers VARs' imaginations for new ways they can utilize the operating system's virtualization capabilities for their customers, especially when you consider Hyper-V.
When multiple server environments can be deployed without the need for additional hardware and also can be centrally maintained, the possibilities are endless. The Test Center chose its own adventure and built a streaming media server inside a Server 2008 virtual machine.
Significant Savings
To be clear, streaming media software has been around for a while and both software- and hardware-based solutions have been on the market almost as long. But while the demand for multimedia over IP is steadily growing, traditional media servers have been expensive and/or complex (especially with video over IP). With virtualization, VARs can potentially offer solutions that may have been out of reach for their clients in the past.
The Test Center found a more cost-effective solution to building a media server using a virtualized environment and open-source software.
The streaming server and client software downloaded for the test was VideoLAN version 0.8.6e--a free media player that is actually a complete multimedia solution, because it's a transcoder and streamer as well.
Installation was simple and there were no apparent compatibility issues with Server 2008. Streaming was set up via a wizard. Streaming can be done through UDP/RTP, UDP/RTP multicast, HTTP/HTTPS/FTP/MMS or RTSP. The streaming server was configured to use HTTP and the default port 8080.
The simplicity of the install does not belie how powerful this software is, however. Streaming can be controlled to the minutiae, through scripting and the command line.
The VideoLAN media player (VLC player) was installed on the client side (although other media players will work with VLC's streaming function, as well). VLC player was installed on Vista, and once again, there were no hiccups with the install. From the client, the networked stream was connected by simply pointing to the IP address of the server through port 8080.
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