Programmed content

Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2

Using Windows Media Services, you can rebroadcast existing content, such as radio or television programs, or you can create original programs for the Web that provide a similar user experience. You can add advertisements to the playlist the same way you add digital media files. Loop and shuffle features randomize play so that your broadcast behaves like a real radio or TV station.

Windows Media Services can generate content-specific logs that you can then forward to advertisers to help evaluate advertising performance. Logs can also help you track the content played to determine licensing fees.

When implementing this scenario, consider the following:

• Wrappers are useful for station identification, bumpers, or short advertisements. You can use wrappers to stream content to users when a connection is requested, when a stream ends, or both.

• You need to determine the content for your broadcast, such as music, a live talk, video, or advertisements, and organize it into a playlist.

• You need to specify the order in which you want your playlist to play. By default, your playlist will play the sequence of content that you specify; however, you can include the following elements to modify the playlist order:

  • excl element. Use this element to set a rule that only one media element can play at a given time. For example, if you are broadcasting a live stream and want to switch to advertisements at certain times in the broadcast, you can place the live stream and the ads inside an excl element in your playlist. The ads can then be triggered by events generated by an encoder.

  • priorityClass element. Use this element to create a subset of media elements defined by their priority class, which specifies how items in a playlist can interrupt other items. For example, you may assign emergency broadcast information to a higher priority class so that it can interrupt any content that is playing.

• On the Source tab of your broadcast publishing point, you can specify values for the attributes of the items in your playlist. The following attributes are commonly used:

  • repeatCount. Use this attribute to repeat or loop the selected content a specified number of times. This is useful if you want to stream content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

  • role. Use this attribute to identify specific content as an advertisement for reporting purposes and for script events that are specific to ad behavior.

  • dur. Use this attribute to configure how long content should play.

• Monitor your publishing point activity accurately by enabling logging on the publishing point. For example, you can use data from the log file to create a report about the number of users that click a specific advertisement.