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lightman1978
Participant
March 1, 2010
Question

question about live streaming screen capture

  • March 1, 2010
  • 1 reply
  • 55640 views

Hi,

at my office we conduct live video broadcasts using widows media encoder, and we're working on moving away from it to a newer method, which most likely will be something flash related.

how the procedure is done today is that a user logs in the windows media encoder program, starts the broadcast, the broadcast starts building an asf file in the server people watch, our users get the link and they join. once the broadcast is finished, the host that did the broadcast exits and saves the file, in the video server. the broadcast is a screen capture presentation of what a host has in his computer.

I want to achieve this or something similar, using a broadcast on flash streaming, so that both, users can log to a link we provide to them, the video server saves the file (preferably as .flv) and of course the broadcast is done nice and smoothly without interruptions or gaps (or at least with a minimum amount).

my question would be,

what process do you guys use to broadcast ? say other members. I'm talking about a simultanous broadcast for about 200 people, I guess it's similar to the numbers that you handle.

I'm pretty wide open on slight modifications on the process, such as maybe the host of the broadcast, saving the broadcast file in his computer and uploading it into the video server afterwards, although I would pprefer of course if it's pushed directly.

resources that I have available:

we have a windows media server -the one we're using right now, and we also have an adobe flash media server, with full license. we have a flash encoder but so far we haven't been able to figure out how to maintain a screencapture broadcast. it works, but only for about 2 minutes and then the player stops reproduction of the broadcast, however the encoding still goes on.

so, while you can answer my request, if you can talk about your broadcasting experience, on broadcasting screen capture...

I am open to all recommendations and suggestions, and I am thankful to all your responses.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    S
    Adobe Employee
    SE_0208
    Adobe Employee
    March 1, 2010

    The use case you mentioned is very much possible using FMS. I will give you brief workflow here of how you need to go about it:

    You will need a screen capture device basically a video filter that allows capturing of computer screen which can be recognized by FMLE. FMLE is Flash Media Live Encoder which publishes input stream to Flash Media Server.

    Since you want recording too at server-end, you could server-side record of the incoming stream from FMLE and make it available DVR way to your clients.

    So FMLE takes input from capture filter, publishes it to any application on FMS , application has code which does server-side recording, recorded file gets created , user has option to subscriber to live or DVR stream (record in progress file)

    I will try to give more details about it in my next post but let me know if this suits you.

    S
    Adobe Employee
    SE_0208
    Adobe Employee
    March 1, 2010

    Below are two screen capture filters whuch you can use:

    http://www.videohelp.com/tools/UScreenCapture

    http://www.splitmedialabs.com/vh-video-sdk/vh-screen-capture.

    Please install them and they will get listed in Video Device filter in FMLE.

    If you don't have FMLE install , please install it from here :http://www.adobe.com/products/flashmediaserver/flashmediaencoder/

    Server-side recording can be achieved by using following code:

    application.onPublish = function(myClient,myStream){

         myStream.record();

    }

    application.onUnpublish = function(myClient,myStream){

         myStream.record(false);

    }

    I would suggest you can use dvrcast apps for better and simplified working and taking load from you to manage how to go about server-side aspect

    You can find dvrcast apps here: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashmediaserver/tool_downloads/ - DVRCAST APPLICATION FOR FLASH MEDIA INTERACTIVE SERVER 3.5 ( i am assuming you have Flash Media Server 3.5 or above - if not please let me know and i would see how we develop solution with your needs)

    Try this out first and let me know if you want more details.

    L
    lightman19781
    Participant
    March 1, 2010

    thank you for your response,

    yes we have flash media server and last week we started a few tests using flash media encoder with camtasia and another program called VH something, I think it's the one you mentioned. we started the broadcast with camtasia and for some reason it wouldn't work; with the other program it worked with the server creating a new file and building it in size as the broadcast went on going.

    we noticed that flash encoder would make them available as devices to select to record.

    I had my laptop watching the broadcast from outside the network and it would effectively work too, but at around the 2minute 2 minute 30 second mark, the reproduction would stop, I don't know why, I'm guessing the player is not good enough ?

    anyway, yes we have flash encoder and server, so so  far I understand what you mean.

    now questions, where do I add the code your giving to me ?.... I didn't understand that part.

    what will DVR cast exactly do regarding managing data in the server ?

    my key problem as right now is:

    guarantee a secure non stop broadcast for at least 30 minuntes up to an hour. (note, the broadcast doesn't stop, it's the playing that halts).

    and authentication for hosts that are going to perform the broadcast (not mandatory but preferable).

    thanks so far for all your help, I definetlly would like to see this to be solved .

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