Sourcing from a multicast broadcast
You can use a remote multicast broadcast as a source of content for a broadcast publishing point or to create an archive file for later, on-demand or broadcast playback. By setting a distribution server at the edge of a network to receive a multicast transmission and redistributing it to clients as a unicast broadcast, you can overcome multicast incompatibilities within your network and reach users who would not normally be able to receive your multicast content. If you are broadcasting content to widely distributed networks from a central location, you can reduce the necessary bandwidth at the origin server by multicasting the content. Local distribution servers can then rebroadcast the content to individual users or can archive the content for on-demand access.
Note
Using a multicast stream as a content source in a playlist is only available in the Windows Media Services snap-in.
Note
You can include a multicast stream as a content source in a server-side playlist by specifying the URL to the multicast information file as a src attribute of a media element. To do this, the playlist that references the multicast stream must already be assigned to a broadcast publishing point. Then, using the playlist editing control on the Source tab in the Windows Media Services snap-in, add a media element for the multicast stream. When adding the URL to the multicast information file, you must specify an absolute path, such as MCast://%systemdrive%\Wmpub\Wmroot<EM>file.nsc or MCast://\machine\Inetpub\Wwwroot<EM>file.nsc. You cannot add a multicast stream to a playlist using Windows Media Playlist Editor.