Below is my research on WME 9 and the titles are hyperlinked so that you can access the information directly if you needed to see more than I have provided.

Best Practices for Windows Media Encoder in 2009

The difference between the new version and the older versions. Special configurations required to configure the encoder to perform int he desired manner.

Allow more than five clients to connect to my encoder

 The encoder comes with a default maximum value of five direct concurrent client connections. You will have to change a registry key to edit this setting. Below is the value to be changed. Keep in mind that if you have more than 50, you might think of a Windows Media Sever to host the stream.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Software\Microsoft\Windows MediaTools\Encoder\MaxClientConnections.

How do I display a banner image in the Player? 

To display a banner image (along with a link to more information) while video is rendered in Windows Media Player, add an entry to a Windows Media metafile (a file with a .wvx file name extension) by doing the following:

1. In a text editor such as Notepad, add the following basic code while substituting the example server, paths, and file names with the appropriate information:

<ASX version = “3.0″>

     <TITLE>Sample Demo</TITLE>

     <BANNER HREF=”http://WebServerName/Images/Banner.bmp”>

     <ABSTRACT>Learn more about our company</ABSTRACT>

     <MOREINFO HREF=”http://WebServerName.com”/>

     </BANNER>

     <ENTRY>

        <REF HREF=”mms://ServerName/PublishingPointName/Video.wmv”/>

     </ENTRY>

</ASX>

In the previous code, the HREF attribute of the BANNER element has the value http://WebServerName/Images/Banner.bmp that refers to a banner image (194 pixels wide by 32 pixels high) that is stored on a Web server. The text contained in the ABSTRACT element displays as a ToolTip when the user hovers over the banner graphic. Finally, when a user clicks the banner graphic, the URL provided in the MOREINFO element opens in a Internet browser, such as Internet Explorer. In this example, one digital media file named Video.wmv, which is stored on a computer running Windows Media Services, plays back in the Player.

2. On the File menu, click Save, type a file name, type .wvx as the file name extension, and then click Save.

3. Copy the Windows Media metafile with the .wvx file name extension to your Web server.

4. In a Web page, provide a link to the Windows Media metafile. For complete information about creating Windows Media metafiles, see the Windows Media Player 10 SDK.

1. Make sure that PCI is using a port that is on an IRQ alone. This means no other device in the PC can be sharing its IRQ.
2. If you are running a hyper-threaded CPU, by turning hyperthreading off from the bios. You can set the latency at 20ms or lower and you will usually not have any latency issues.
3. Change Processor Scheduling to ‘Background Services Navigate to the Advanced page of the System applet. Click on the Performance Settings button, select its Advanced tab and click on ‘Background Services’ for Processor Scheduling
4. Switch Off Power Schemes In the Power Options applet, choose the ‘Always On’ power scheme. Change the settings for monitor and hard disk turn off and System standby to ‘Never’, so that your PC doesn’t unexpectedly conk out during song playback
5. Disable System Sounds Select the ‘No Sounds’ scheme on the Sounds tabof the Sounds and Audio Devices applet.
6. Increase “MME/ASIO buffer” under the hardware settings for your audiocard. This could be a symptom of another problem in your computer slowing it down (system bottleneck).
7. Many programs are running behind your back using up the computers power. Try to disable or remove these background programs to free up your computers power which solves many users problems with clicks and pops.
8. Download and install the driver released in the website, not from theoriginal disk.

Media Streaming

(the image above comes from here but that is sort of the idea of streaming except for in our case it’s an audio input only for now)

As GLOBE f.m. being a portal to make available productions from Westminster College we need a scalable method to generate a stream containing scheduled content. The stream is really important for principal reason of Globe f.m. being advertised as a radio station. This does not take the importance of the on-demand content (Audio, video, text and photographic productions) available in the portal.

In this stream we will mostly be transmitting audio programs created by our students and professors, however we would also like to make the stream scalable and flexible enough for it to be able to stream audio when necessary.

CLIENTS SHOULD NOT BE REQUIRED TO DOWNLOAD ANYTHING SPECIAL JUST TO ACCESS OUT STREAM.

The above statement is exactly everyone wants when they set up streams and want people to access it. Imagine you had to buy a new TV for every channel you watch in via Satellite TV. Would that be a downer for the TV industry?

Below is my ongoing research to decide on the best media encoder:

-          Audio must be encoded into a widely used formats:

• RealAudio (.ra, .ram) (RealProducer)
  • Propriety audio format developed by RealNetworks
  • Possible to stream  RealAudio using HTTP
  • Low-bitrate formats to high-fidelity formats
  • Web pages link directly to a .ram (real audio metadata) or SMIL (synchronized multimedia integration language) file containing the link to audio stream opened only by media player.
  • Compatible players: RealPlayer, MPlayer, RM Downloader, VLC media player, StreamBox VCR, HiDownload and Real7ime Converter.

• MP3 (MPEG layer 3: Moving Pictures Experts Group) (LAME, icecast)
  • Very popular because of its excellent sound quality
  • Open and accessible (wide spread industry support and compatibility), not a proprietary delivery system
  • More complicated than many streaming formats
  • Compatible players: RealPlayer G2, Beatnik, Shockwave, QuickTime 4, and Windows Media

• FLV : Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder
  • RTMP streaming
  • Client can access stream using just flash plug in (no need for any other stuff)
  • Very expensive to obtain and maintain Flash Media Server
  • Main focus is Video  (not such a great thing)
  • Not free

• WMA (Windows Media Encoder)
  • Free, Easy to install and maintain
  • Users WMA format to stream over http
  • Clients need plug-in to access Windows Media Player embed
  • Not very open at all

• MPEG-4 (QuickTime Streaming or collectively QuickTime Broadcaster)
  • RTP/RTSP protocol for stream there for light on client end (unlike HTTP)
  • Good for on demand content because of above
  • Needs specialized plug-ins and/or software on client side
  • Mainly for video streaming

Things to consider when deciding on an Encoder:

1. Audience
   1. OS and media players used normally (make experience more passive)
   2. Connection Speed (single bit rate or multiple bit rate)
2. Source formatting
   1. Depending on the source encoder might not be capable of capturing
3. System requirement for Encoder and Streaming Server
   1. The workstation on which encoder is installed on
   2. The streaming server  and encoder compatibility issues
4. Price
   1. Maintenance fees if any
   2. Purchasing price
   3. If free or open source; reliability

Interesting Links

http://www.orban.com/plugin/

http://www.streamingmedia.com/

http://all-streaming-media.com/

http://www.realnetworks.com/products-services/helix/media/realproducer.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/broadcaster/

http://lame.sourceforge.net/

http://www.icecast.org/

http://www.vorbis.com/

Let me just start of by giving a big thank you to all the Drupal developers and contributors because without them I will be on the verge of suicide. Visit http://www.Drupal.org and see for yourself.

I have been using the following resources to learn about Drupal and its capabilities:

1. Good old Google searches which always lead me to roughly the same places
2. Lullabot.com (video tutorials)
   1. Understanding Drupal
   2. Learning Views for Drupal
3. Another 29 part video Tutorial series about doing the basics on Drupal
4. Drupal.org
5. Mustardseedmedia.com
6. And many more sites that I happen to stumble upon whenever I am stuck with a problem

(Thank you all for the great help. I will update this list as I find more resources and I would also appreciate if you could comment about the resources that you use.)

So far the modules that I have used and the reason that I have used them are as follows:

1. CCK: I don’t think I need much justification for using this. Content Construction Kit is used to create your own content types, fields etc. I used this module to create a special type of node for Audio programs that includes exactly the fields that I need. (Enabled modules for this includes:  content, filefield and imagefield)
2. Core-Optional: I have Blog, Books, Contact, Database Logging, Forum, Help, Menu, Search, Statistics, Syslog, Taxonomy, Throttle (in case my site gets too much traffic Drupal helps me manage my resources well) , Trigger (need to create automatic responses to certain actions carried out on the website) & Update status (important for the security as this module will let you know what updates are available).
3. Image module: Allows me to upload images and create different sizes of the image automatically. This module takes a lot of your headaches about the uploaded images.
4. Views : I can’t do justice to how useful this module is on this blog. See it for yourself, visit the link. J
5. Wysiwyg: This allows people who upload content to be able to present the content in exactly the way they want it to appear without typing out HTML code. (If you are the curious type: What You See Is What You Get = Wysiwyg) I am currently using the FCKEditor I can’t wait for the CKEditor to come out it’s the new version of the FCKEditor.
6. SWF Tools with OnePixelOut Player. The SWF tools allow me to have things like the audio player. However I am thinking of trying to find a javascript player that will do the same job because iphones and ipod touch does not have flash support. Also I am having problem using OnePixelOut, if you know any other mp3 players please let me know.
7. Filefield podcast: Using views2 and cck, i can now put out my podcasts as nodes. Check it out.

And that concludes what I am using so far. And I am trying to customize a theme that I downloaded from the Drupal website. The more I look at the source code and the theme files the more intuitive it seems to me.

One of the major disadvantages that I have found in Drupal so far is that they don’t have dropdown menue capability in the code menu module. I spent countless hours researching into this issue and finally decided to use my own menu in the theme completely made out of CSS.It sucks because the menu looks very ugly. I am trying to achieve a hulu.com’s menu kind of effect but I am stuck with a traditional one column dropdown menu. Please drop a line if you know anything better.

This concludes my Drupal adventures. Please help me if you think there is a better substitute for any of the modules I am using, espeically the SWF Tools flash player issue with iphones. Also if you have a suggestion about my dropdown menu problem please drop a line.

It will be much appreciated.

1. It had to be a PCI card: This is manily due to the fact that we didnt need the sound card to be mobile. We looked into the firewire and USB alternatives. 
2. 1/4″ stereo inputs: We needed atleast two quater inch stereo inputs and two outputs. This is because the 1/4″ is more universal than a RCA input, so the wires we use to connect the outputs from our mixer to the computer can be used for other purposes reducing the amount we will need to spend on wires.
3. Zero Latency: It takes some time for the sound from the microphone to travel through all these equipment and reach the audio stream that the listener will be enjoying. Taking into consideration that we hope to be doing phone interviews and live events that include call-ins from listeners, we needed a soundcard that will not delay the sound form reaching the audience.
4. Best value: We are working under a very tight budget and any savings that we can make will be fruitful in getting more things done. So we were looking for a cheap solution without compromising our needs.
5. Dependability, durable and good manufacturing and service.

Web Resources we used:

1. http://www.emu.com/
2. http://www.synthzone.com/sndcard.htm
3. http://www.audiophilesystems.com/
4. http://www.m-audio.com/

So anyway we finally decided to go with the EMU-1212M . Check out its specs.

• Enterprise CMS: managing content related to organizational processes of an enterprise.
• Web CMS: simplify publication of Web content
• Document MS: system to manage electronic documents (especially on an OS)
• Mobile CMS: sites and content management for mobile phones
• Component CMS: most of the time this is a sub functionality of all the other CMS, because it involves the managing of components at the component level (image, fields .. content types) rather than as big documents.
• Media Content MS: This is content management for media. Radio and TV.

For the purposes of this project I am just looking at the Web CMS. There is a big list of CMSs both propriety licensed and open source on this link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_content_management_systems

The most defining feature on a CMS is the language in which the CMS is built-on: ASP.Net, Java, PHP, Perl and Python.

As far as my own research goes Drupal is the most commonly used free CMS. Organizations like The United Nations, Warner Brothers Records, Discovery Club, Forbes, Grateful Dead, AOL Developer Network, Yahoo Research and Lime.com use Drupal.

Here are the major reasons why I chose Drupal:

1. User Management: You can customize user roles and access control functionality as much as you want. Multiple blogs feature for users can be enabled on the core.
2. Approval: Built into the Drupal is a process by which uploads to the system can be moderated.
3. Revision Control: Every change in the published content will be recorded and stored categorically. It is very easy to keep track of who posted what when.
4. Custom Content Types and Views: Ability to expand the type of content hosted on a Durpal site is unlimited. You can host every from videos to wikis. And all this without typing a single line of code.
5. Taxonomy: This is especially useful when enabling search on the website. Taxonomy combined with CCK (Content Construction Kit) and Views will enable high fidelity search.
6. Excellent Documentation: Everything that is done on Drupal is thoroughly documented. Nothing about Drupal is anything more than a Google search away.
7. PHP Themes: In Drupal you can create themes by customizing a PHP template file. It is not easy but very convenient especially when you know that your website will start small and it will eventually grow into a website with more functionality.
8. Drupal Modules: Think of something you want to achieve on Drupal that is not available on the Core module. Chances are you will find someone who has written a module for that need and has submitted it to the Drupal modules. I have been amazed at how many different modules there are.
9. Large and Friendly Community: Finally and most importantly if you can’t afford to higher Software Engineers, Programmers and Developers and you still require their services in keeping your CMS up to date Drupal is your friend. There are over 22000 contributors to Drupal (may be even more) updating and fixing bugs on t Drupal. So you can be assured that your IT team is bigger than just who’s on your payroll. The beauty of open source projects.

Now compare this functionality to Joomla! or WordPress or any other CMS that you think will beat?

WCRadio

Westminster College Radio is an initiative that began in the fall of 2008 with the vision of actualizing a campus radio station. A campus radio station that will bring a new mass communication tool, to enhance the sense of community and strengthen our connection to the world. This environmentally friendly and financially sustainable alternative will help raise social and global awareness through entertainment and intellectual discussions.

The radio will commence as an online radio station that will house on-demand content that is produced both locally and internationally. WCRadio will host a wide variety of programs that will be available as podcasts on-demand and live on-air.

IT Needs for the WCRadio

1.     A website (CMS) that can efficiently organize and present the content produced.

a.     Website must have the ability to create user profiles with the ability to administer each user’s profiles privileges.

b.     Users’ must be able to upload their content. (The type of content a user can upload must depend on the type of privileges the user has)

c.      It should allow users to create profiles for multiple programs that they may produce and upload content to that profile.

d.     There must be an automated process for content approval once submitted.

2.     A dedicated server

a.     The server must host the website and should have the ability to execute any scripts and software necessary for the smooth execution of the website.

b.     It should host the audio-stream which will be used to broadcast the content.

c.     It should host the Radio Automation software (MegaMix) that will be used to schedule content.

d.     It should store on-demand content.

(So far these are the immediate needs of the WCRadio; I am sure I will be updating this as I come across things that I haven’t thought about or just forgot.)

This blog is coming after some of these things have been completed either fully or partially. In my next posting I will try to address the needs separately and explain the process I went through to accomplish the needs.

Please feel free to comment and let me know things that I have over looked. Any suggestions or criticisms would be very helpful.