Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Explorer Azure Media Services with the new Azure Media Services Explorer Tool (with source too)

Azure BlogAnnouncements - Media Services - Managing Media Workflows with the new Azure Media Services Explorer Tool

Several months ago, a broadcaster asked me to provide a tool with a User Interface to upload, encode and manage assets with Azure Media Services. They wanted to easily, and without code, test our cloud encoding and streaming services before asking their developers to do the integration with their current system. The Azure Media Services management portal provides some of the features but has some limitations too (asset upload is limited, no possibility to call all the processors or to see detailed information on entities, not all API features are exposed, etc.).

For a few months, the tool has been trialed by several customers and based on their feedback it is time to release it widely.

So, I am pleased to announce the new Azure Media Services Explorer tool!

It’s a Windows Forms tool based on the Azure Media SDKs that can be used by non-developers to test media workflows, monitor activities on their Azure Media Services accounts, or do just about anything that the full API allows you to do today without writing a line of code.

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You can find the installation package on http://aka.ms/amse.

We are also pleased to announce that the full source code for this tool is published to GitHub as well to help you better learn our APIs and integrate features into your own applications.

This sample tool will continue to evolve in the coming weeks and months. Check for updates! And please provide your feedback and suggestions to amse@microsoft.com.

Summary of features

Asset upload/download/management

  • Asset upload from files, folder, in batch mode, with a watch folder
  • Asset import from Azure Storage or from any http source
  • Asset download to local, and export to Azure Storage
  • Asset files management (upload or delete) within an existing asset
  • Duplicate/merge assets

Process assets

  • Encode with Azure Media Encoder (standard and custom presets, video stitching, audio or video overlay, etc)
  • Extract keywords and TTML caption files with Media Indexer
  • Encrypt with static packagers: PlayReady encryptor, MP4 to Smooth, Smooth to HLS, storage decryptor, multi MP4 validator
  • Generate thumbnails for your existing assets
  • Call any Media Processor generically
  • Manage jobs (progress, priority…)
  • List all available processors in your account

Live streaming

  • Enable live channels and programs (creation, start, stop, delete, reset)
  • Live preview playback, program playback

Publish assets

  • Dynamic encryption setup (AES, Common Encryption) and key/license delivery service
  • SAS and streaming locators creation/deletion
  • Playback assets with web based players (Silverlight, Flash, HTML5/Dash)
  • Manage streaming endpoints management (creation, deletion, settings)

Display and reporting

  • Display detailed information on assets (locators, protection), jobs (tasks), live channels, programs, streaming endpoints
  • Send email report for jobs and assets
  • Links to players and online documentation, and offline help file for Media Services

Note: you can select multiple assets, jobs, channels or programs for some features.

A first example..."

Two things I really dig about this (okay, three). The tool itself, making it easy easy to play with Azure Media Services. That it's based on the public API that we can all use to create our own like tools and that the source for this tool is available too. I've been interested in Media Services, wondering if it would let a little guy, a one man op, create my own cloud based studio and broadcasting solution. So instead of all the work and infrastructure required for sites like  Channel 9 or twit.tv, that it would lower the bar? I don't think it's there yet, but it sure is getting closer.

 

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