Receiving a Live Stream

A Windows Media server can be configured to stream live content directly from an encoder source. The encoded content could be anything ranging from a live concert to a direct screen capture of the current computer for tutorial purposes. The live stream can also be archived concurrently with the broadcast to allow for easy rebroadcast. For a broadcast publishing point to stream a live encoding session, the content path must be set to either ‘push’ or ‘pull’ from an encoder source.

The following table shows examples of valid paths to live content.

Content source	Example path
Stream pulled from an encoder	http://encoder:port
Stream pushed to an encoder	push:*

The following examples illustrate how to set up a new broadcast publishing point for a live stream.

Visual Basic .NET Example

Imports Microsoft.WindowsMediaServices.Interop
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices

' Declare variables.
Dim Server As WMSServer
Dim BCPubPoint As IWMSBroadcastPublishingPoint
Dim Plugin As IWMSPlugin

Try

    ' Create the WMSServer object.
    Server = New WMSServer()

    ' Add a new broadcast publishing point and set the
    ' content path to the local encoder.
    BCPubPoint = Server.PublishingPoints.Add("LiveBroadcast", _
          WMS_PUBLISHING_POINT_CATEGORY.WMS_PUBLISHING_POINT_BROADCAST, _
          "http://encoder:port")

    ' Enable the archive plug-in prior to archiving.
    Plugin = BCPubPoint.BroadcastDataSinks.Item("WMS Archive Data Writer")
    Plugin.Enabled = True

    ' Initialize the publishing point and start broadcasting.
    BCPubPoint.Start()

    ' Start archiving the broadcast data locally for rebroadcast.
    BCPubPoint.StartArchive()

Catch errCom As COMException
    ' TODO: Handle COM exceptions.
Catch err As Exception
    ' TODO: Exception handler goes here.

Finally
    ' TODO: Clean-up code goes here.
End Try

C# Example

using Microsoft.WindowsMediaServices.Interop;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

   WMSServer Server;
   IWMSBroadcastPublishingPoint BCPubPoint;
   IWMSPlugin Plugin;

   try
   {

    // Create the WMSServer object.
    Server = new WMSServerClass();

    // Add a new broadcast publishing point and set the
    // content path to the local encoder.
    BCPubPoint = (IWMSBroadcastPublishingPoint)Server.PublishingPoints.Add("LiveBroadcast", 
                                WMS_PUBLISHING_POINT_CATEGORY.WMS_PUBLISHING_POINT_BROADCAST, 
                                "http://server_name:8080");

    // Enable the archive plug-in prior to archiving.
    Plugin = BCPubPoint.BroadcastDataSinks["WMS Archive Data Writer"];
    Plugin.Enabled = true;
    
    // Initialize the publishing point and start broadcasting.
    BCPubPoint.Start();

    // Start archiving the broadcast data locally for rebroadcast.
    BCPubPoint.StartArchive();
   }
   catch (COMException comExc)
   {
       // TODO: Handle COM exceptions.
   }
   catch (Exception exc)
   {
       // TODO: Exception handler goes here.
   }
   finally
   {
    // TODO: Clean-up code goes here.
   }

C++ Example

#include <windows.h>
#include <atlbase.h>    // Includes CComBSTR.
#include "wmsserver.h"

// Declare variables and interfaces.
IWMSServer                    *pServer;
IWMSPublishingPoints          *pPubPoints;
IWMSPublishingPoint           *pPubPoint;

HRESULT         hr;
CComBSTR        bstrFile;
CComBSTR        bstrName;

// Initialize the COM library and retrieve a pointer
// to an IWMSServer interface.
hr = CoInitialize(NULL);
hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_WMSServer,
                      NULL,
                      CLSCTX_ALL,
                      IID_IWMSServer,
                      (void **)&pServer);
if (FAILED(hr)) goto EXIT;

// Retrieve a pointer to the IWMSPublishingPoints
// interface and add a new broadcast publishing point.
hr = pServer->get_PublishingPoints(&pPubPoints);
if (FAILED(hr)) goto EXIT;

// Set the content path to point to the local encoder.
bstrFile = "Push:*";
bstrName = "LiveBroadcast";
hr = pPubPoints->Add(bstrName, WMS_PUBLISHING_POINT_BROADCAST,
                     bstrFile, &pPubPoint);
if (FAILED(hr)) goto EXIT;

// TODO: Start your Windows Media Encoder application.

EXIT:
    // TODO: Release temporary COM objects and uninitialize COM.

See Also

Reference

IWMSBroadcastPublishingPoint Interface

IWMSBroadcastPublishingPoint Object (C#)

IWMSBroadcastPublishingPoint Object (Visual Basic .NET)

Concepts

Programming the Server Object Model