Success of the PDC10 Player and Application
Microsoft Silverlight, Silverlight Media Framework and IIS Media Services transformed the 2010 Professional Developer Conference into a global virtual event that attracted an unprecedented 100,000 in-person and online attendees to the two day conference. A new Microsoft white paper titled "The Global Conference is Real: The Success of the PDC10 Player and Application" outlines how Microsoft implemented these technologies to create a solution and mobile application that resulted in the most well attended PDC ever, surpassing conference attendance goals by 50%.
The solution featured HD Broadcast Quality Live Streaming Video, a sophisticated, interactive conference application for Windows Phone 7 and a content management system that made republishing assets quick and easy.
HD Broadcast Quality Live Streaming Video
This year PDC10 keynote and breakout sessions were streamed worldwide via a Silverlight player that featured high-definition streaming of multiple camera angles and DVR capability. It was essential that the quality of video was HD so that code written on whiteboards during sessions would be legible to online attendees. The HD video feeds were enabled by IIS Media Services Smooth Streaming technology and the video players were based on Silverlight 4 and the Silverlight Media Framework 2. Additionally, the technologies support multiple bit-rate streams meaning that all viewers, regardless of the bandwidths of their internet connection, could tune in to the watch the video streams. The use of Microsoft Smooth Streaming technologies also eliminated the traditional need to buffer the downloading video before it could be played.
Windows Phone 7 Application
Microsoft also created an application for Windows Phone 7 to reach phone-based attendees. The application featured the same capabilities as the web-based application, including toggling between camera angles on the keynote presenter and on code samples from breakout sessions. Microsoft believes the PDC10 stream to be the first instance of live smooth-streaming of video on Windows Phone 7!
Content Management
Lastly, Microsoft used Rough Cut Editor, a Silverlight control, to edit Smooth Streaming video content and publish the result as a single video asset. The Rough Cut Editor was used to splice content from breakout sessions into prerecorded Channel 9 broadcasts. Because the Rough Cut Editor eliminated the traditional need to re-encode new assets, it expedited publishing, so that new content could be made available to online attendees more quickly.
Download the full whitepaper to read more: "The Global Conference is Real: The Success of the PDC10 Player and Application"