Silverlight 3 is an amazing release but perhaps mostly for digital media. Here is the full explanation of what is new as well as our commentary on what we are using in our new Silverlight 3 Media Platform.
The demo which shows off most of below (and much more including deep zoom) check out the Movie Trailer sample of our platform. This platform can be used by anyone as a site template for media, a personal app, and is fully customizable either as Expression Encoder 3 templates (no support for 2) or controls with template parts/skin exposed customizations just like Microsoft controls.
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True HD video
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Smooth Streaming
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Go out of browser
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Mac, Windows, and Linux
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Millions of skilled developers to help you
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Seamless Designer-Developer workflow
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Monetize your assets
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Silverlight DRM, Powered by PlayReady
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Compatible with Windows Media DRM 10
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Third Party DRM Providers
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Advertising
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Lower delivery costs
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Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 Media Services
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Windows Media Services 2008
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Multicast Support for Silverlight
True HD video
Customers can enjoy 720/1080p true HD-quality video using H.264 (MP4/F4V) or WMV/VC-1. Use your existing Windows Media library or add support for third-party codecs.
Silverlight 3 now supports H.264 natively for playback of MP4 or F4V files. Silverlight also supports Windows Media Video (WMV) 9, which is Microsoft’s implementation of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) VC-1 codec standard. In addition to WMA and WMA Pro audio codecs, Silverlight supports MP3 audio and with Silverlight 3 supports MP4 standard AAC audio.
With Silverlight 3 it’s easy to add in support for managed codecs. Developers can deliver non-native Silverlight codecs via an application, and using the new Raw AV pipeline audio or video is then rendered in Silverlight.
Leveraging graphics processor unit (GPU) hardware acceleration, Silverlight experiences can now be delivered in true full-screen HD (720p+). The GPU can be used for windowed or full-screen video scaling enabling smoother playback.
Silverlight’s support for VC-1 and legacy Windows Media Video formats means that existing WMV content libraries are Silverlight-ready. Video encoded for Silverlight can be simultaneously delivered to other Windows Media compatible players on a variety of platforms and devices.
Smooth Streaming
Extend viewing times using Smooth Streaming. Adjust the quality in real-time based upon the consumer’s changing bandwidth and CPU conditions. Get minimal buffering and quick start-up time using HTTP-based adaptive streaming.
Smooth Streaming is a new extension for Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 Media Services, enabling adaptive streaming of media to Silverlight clients via HTTP.
Smooth Streaming dynamically detects and seamlessly switches, in real time, the video quality of a media file that a Silverlight player receives based on local bandwidth and CPU conditions. Consumers with high bandwidth connections can experience HD quality streaming while others with lower bandwidth speeds receive the appropriate stream for their connectivity, allowing consumers across the board to enjoy a compelling, uninterrupted streaming experience which leads to extended audience engagement.
Media companies can boost advertising and subscription revenues by using true HD (720p+) video with uninterrupted delivery to extend viewing times. By using Smooth Streaming, leverage the massive scale of existing HTTP infrastructure. Proprietary streaming networks have much fewer resources than HTTP and network congestion can limit access to popular content.
Live Smooth Streaming (in-beta) also enables PVR-style access and navigation to live video streams. Join events in progress and quickly seek to the beginning, rewind the highlights and enjoy the Silverlight experience in your own way.
Go out of browser
Play video whether you are connected via the Web or not. Save content locally for disconnected scenarios and update when you connect.
Mac, Windows, and Linux
When you create applications for Silverlight you’re actually creating one application that will run equally on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari on Windows, Mac and Linux. Silverlight on different platforms and browsers has exactly the same functionality, ensuring the same experience for all your users. Microsoft is working with Novell to offer Silverlight support for the Linux platform. The Mono Project is an open-source initiative hosted at http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight. This is available for all major Linux distributions. Moonlight 2.0 supports C# and other Dynamic Languages, and includes controls, layout and media.
Millions of skilled developers to help you
Tap into the talent pool of six million .NET developers to find the expertise you need. A vibrant ecosystem means it’s easy to find partners and pre-built components.
Seamless Designer-Developer workflow
Accelerate time to market as designers collaborate with developers using the integration between Expression Studio’s creative tools and the Visual Studio family of development tools.
Talk to anyone building interactive applications, and they will tell you about the promise and the frustration of user experience design. Concepts that look great in photo editing tools rarely lend themselves well to actual implementation, while tools that mash together designer and developer disciplines often fall short. In organizations lucky enough to have dedicated designers, they are often forced to spend more time on programming than on actual design. While the integration of developer and designer disciplines is increasing, it is hardly the norm. This is why Microsoft® Expression® Studio was created.
Whether developing applications for the desktop or the Web, the Expression products will allow designers to fully engage with developers to finally bridge the gap in the designer/developer workflow. This will bring together the best minds in design and development to create applications and sites with a focus on great User Experience (UX).
Expression Blend shares project format, XAML, and .NET development with Visual Studio for Designer-Developer workflow; and has added support for Silverlight. This means that the designer can work on the same project as the developer, and thus requires no re-writing of code or use of exporters or clunky add-ins. It also means that developer practices can be applied to the UI mark-up, such as diff’ing and source control.
Monetize your assets
Silverlight offers a choice of content protection techniques for subscriptions: End-user authentication, SSL, Web playlists, Silverlight DRM, and Windows Media DRM.
With the explosive growth in streaming online video and rich internet experiences, it’s critical to ensure your content and your business models are secure. The new peaks in online video audiences not only create a great opportunity to explore new revenue opportunities, but to also expose the challenges in managing and protecting valuable media assets. A variety of content protection schemes, including Digital Rights Management (DRM); end-user authentication and authorization; Web Playlists; and SSL ensure that content owners can fully monetize and protect their media assets.
Silverlight DRM, Powered by PlayReady
Silverlight DRM, Powered by PlayReady is a content encryption technology designed and optimized to enable key Silverlight online content distribution scenarios including live streaming, on-demand streaming, progressive download, and adaptive streaming (e.g., IIS7 Smooth Streaming). Unlike simple stream or link encryption technologies (e.g., Adobe’s RTMP/e), Silverlight DRM, encrypts the video and audio in a secure wrapper ensuring content, including advertising, stays protected from server to Silverlight plug-in until it is decompressed during playback.
Silverlight DRM is a small, cross-platform version of the PlayReady client used exclusively by the Silverlight Web browser plug-in. Analogous to other online content services, a Silverlight service that offers protected content uses the PlayReady Server SDK (or alternatively, the WM Rights Manager 10.1 SDK) to first package (encrypt) the Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV) content. When a consumer then wants to play that content a license is requested and obtained from a license acquisition server that uses the PlayReady Server SDK.
The Silverlight plug-in includes an individualized PlayReady client acquired from an online service, hosted by Microsoft. Individualization binds the run-time client to the computer on which the client was initially installed. Every end-user is given an individualized Playready component and different certified license keys. This significantly reduces the danger of global breaks. If a specific version of a PlayReady client becomes compromised, it can be barred from acquiring licenses for new digital media files unless the latest version of the PlayReady client is downloaded that is robust against the circumvention.
Compatible with Windows Media DRM 10
Silverlight DRM allows content owners to deliver their protected content using either legacy WMDRM10 or new PlayReady encryption. This enables content owners to deliver existing libraries of WMDRM10 content to Silverlight without having to re-encrypt anything and means that the same protected content can be played back in both Silverlight and Windows Media based-clients.
Third Party DRM Providers
With the extensibility and openness of Silverlight, third-parties are able to build content protection solutions, extending customer choice and opening up infrastructure options.
SKY player in Silverlight using Silverlight DRM, Powered by PlayReady
Advertising
Silverlight, approved by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), supports all leading advertising scenarios, including linear pre-rolls, post-rolls, interstitials as well as non-linear tickers, bugs and transparent overlays.
As the market for online advertising continues to grow, the technology powering rich media-based ads needs to be up for the challenge. Complex business needs and creative capabilities demand more than simple animation and basic tagging – which is where Silverlight comes in. Silverlight enables lightning-fast development through familiar markup and controls based on XML that, combined with integrated productivity tools such as Expression Studio and Visual Studio, helps designers and developers work better together and push the limits of interactive innovation.
When designers and developers work together to bring advertising ideas to life, campaigns can be more nimble, more powerful and more effective. Silverlight enables agencies and advertisers to create, launch, measure, and quickly respond to online advertising campaigns through powerful controls and fully integrated tools.
Benefits of Silverlight for Rich Media and In-stream Advertising
- User Engagement
Silverlight powers the most compelling media experiences on the Web for rich media and in-stream advertising, offering the most effective engagement and conversion opportunities for advertisers - Discoverability
Silverlight is the most discoverable rich media ad platform with superior SEO capabilities - Analytics
Silverlight supports robust and complex online advertising reporting and analytics to enable effective campaign response and measurement
Online campaigns created with Silverlight can be more engaging, discoverable, and accountable than with other technologies
Lower delivery costs
Leverage existing HTTP infrastructure and improve delivery over proprietary streaming servers. Use multicast for Intranet-based executive broadcasts and online training.
Windows Server helps content providers realize new levels of reliability and scalability, all with lower-cost content delivery. Windows Server represents a significant competitive edge when delivering streaming media and/or applications cross-platform and cross-device, and is already in use by most major broadcasters around the world. Windows Server now powers HTTP-based adaptive streaming via Smooth Streaming.
Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 Media Services
IIS Media Services is the new name (previously IIS Media Pack) for the media-relevant extensions for IIS. With IIS Media Services, Microsoft is offering an integrated media delivery platform for customers interested in delivering media over HTTP-based adaptive streaming, a new hybrid technique for content delivery. IIS Media Services provides an easy to deploy and manage set of capabilities for companies interested in taking advantage of the inherent scale and availability advantages that come with using standards-based HTTP as a media delivery protocol.
IIS Media Services provides the fundamental features of a proprietary streaming solution: bit rate throttling, secure playlists and logging capabilities that are required for cost effectively delivering, measuring and monetizing media content. On top of these basic media delivery features, IIS Media Services offers enhanced media delivery capabilities such as on-demand and live adaptive streaming (Smooth Streaming) which makes true HD (720p+) media experiences practical as well as real-time logging and analytics capabilities for measuring and maximizing return on your media investment.
Windows Media Services 2008
Windows Media Services, like all of Windows Server 2008, is significantly more secure, reliable, and robust — and it is already considered by many customers to be the best in the market for live and n-demand streaming delivery using “traditional” streaming. The latest improvements provide twice the scalability over Windows Media Services 9.0.
In addition to its proven scalability and reliability, Windows Media Services now supports a Server Core installation, enabling reduced footprints for fixed-function streaming server scenarios, offering embedded appliance-like performance. Additionally, a cache/proxy plug-in is built in, making it easier to configure WMS for edge network enterprise and Internet topologies. Many features of Windows Media Services that were previously available only on Windows Server Enterprise and Datacenter are now available on Windows Server Standard, and all Standard features are now also available on Windows Web Server 2008. This makes the power of Windows Media Services 2008 available to a broader set of users at a lower cost.
Multicast Support for Silverlight
Windows Media Services, together with Silverlight and a third-party open-source plug-in from QUMU, can support multicast-enabled scenarios for executive broadcasts and training scenarios behind the firewall.
