Encode Once and Deliver to Three Screens with Microsoft’s IIS Media Services 4.0 Beta

Microsoft has released Internet Information Services (IIS) Media Services 4.0 Beta for download (available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions). As previewed at the NAB show in April, IIS Media Services allows delivery networks, encoders and developers to encode live and on-demand video streams once and deliver to three screens across multiple file formats and protocols.

IIS Smooth Streaming (part of IIS Media Services) is an HTTP adaptive streaming technology for delivering content online, and broadcasters have used it to deliver live and on-demand content of high-profile sporting event such as the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the Tour de France, and Sunday Night Football.

One Format, Several Devices

Using one encoding format, IIS Media Services 4.0 allows for live adaptive streaming delivery to Silverlight players on PCs, Macs, Linux, Nokia S60, Windows Phone 7, Broadcom and Intel set-top-boxes, and now, Apple devices including the iPad, iPod, and iPhone.

Content Conversion

IIS Media Services 4.0 has also unveiled IIS Transform Manager, based on Expression Encoder 4, which provides a full set of features for automatically converting content for use with IIS Media Services.

Content Creation & Rich Player Options

Through the IIS Smooth Streaming Format SDK 1.0 Beta 2, also released last week, developers and encoding partners can create live and on-demand files for adaptive streaming. In addition, the IIS Smooth Streaming Client 1.0 (formerly known as the Smooth Streaming Media Element and available as a component of IIS Smooth Streaming), delivers a rich media player with analytics and advertising capabilities.

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