Building A Multi-Media Server, Hyper-V Style

Possibilities are innumerable when multiple server environments can be deployed without the need for additional hardware and can be centrally maintained. The Test Center found one entertaining way to use Hyper-V: building a streaming media server inside a Server 2008 virtual machine.

To be clear: streaming media software has been around for a while and both software- and hardware-based solutions have been on the market. But while the demand for multimedia over IP is steadily growing, many traditional media servers have been expensive and/or complex (especially with video over IP.) With virtualization, there is the potential that VARs can offer solutions their clients may have felt perhaps were out of reach in the past.

In the Test Center, a more cost-effective solution to building a media server was done 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: it's a transcoder and streamer as well.

Installation was simple and there were no apparent compatibility issues with Server 2008. Streaming was setup 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 from the server was connected to by simply pointing to the IP address of the server through port 8080.

Next, the streaming software Andromeda was used for a second round of testing. An evaluation copy of Andromeda was downloaded, as was the .ASP version. Andromeda uses an ASP or PHP script to enable streaming and requires a Web server capable of running either. For the test, reviewers installed Internet Information Services (IIS) as a role inside the virtual machine. A virtual directory was then created against the physical folder containing the Andromeda ASP file and a few MP3 files.

The Andromeda home page is fully customizable. Company logos can be added as well as text. Links can be added and there is even a built in logon feature that can be used to restrict access.

To get to the Andromeda server, the clients browsed to the newly-created Website and streaming was underway. Andromeda only supports streaming for audio files at this time, however.

Streaming with both VLC and Andromeda resulted in no readily discernible performance issues on either the server or client side. With video streaming, reviewers were still able to Internet browse and run multiple Office applications.

VLC is free software; Andromeda is a $20 download. While the software was tested in a Windows virtual machine, VLC is platform-independent and Andromeda supports Windows or Linux deployment. That provides the VAR with the opportunity to essentially set his or her own price for deploying a streaming media server on a Hyper-V virtual machine.

There are several scenarios in which a company could incorporate a multimedia server into their technological infrastructure. A doctor's office could use it as a commercial-free streaming jukebox in a waiting room. It could be integrated with a VoIP telephony system, where companies would have full control over hold music for queued callers. Company announcements and alerts like weather closings could also be streamed via a multimedia server and delivered to the phone system or to computers.

Virtualization, though not a new technology, is now a full-blown hotbed in the technological sphere and is set for even greater deployment with Hyper-V's official launch later this year. As that happens, VARs may find they can offer once-prohibitively priced solutions to their customers for a song.