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Reach, optimised mobile delivery by Limelight and now Mydeo!

January 12, 2012 by Danny

Reach is a great new service offered by Mydeo for optimised mobile delivery, Live and On-Demand. Below is all the information you need to know about this fantastic new solution.

Extend the reach of your video content to the growing
universe of mobile devices.

Publish once. Distribute everywhere. With LimelightREACH,™ you can grow the audience for your media content—reaching consumers wherever they happen to be, on whatever device they’re using, and in the right format for the device.

All devices are not created equal

As mobile video consumption surges, it’s no simple proposition to deliver content that works across an ever-expanding array of handsets and IP-capable gadgets. Now you can rise to the challenge—with LimelightREACH, an intelligence layer that optimizes media delivery for today’s mobile devices. This innovative solution combines video adaptation, device detection, and optimized delivery—so you don’t need worry about the technical details of reaching a mobile audience. A single Universal URL streamlines publishing for instant user access from any browser, any application.

You stay in control

LimelightREACH integrates mobile delivery intelligence with your existing workflow, so there’s no need to change the way you run your operation. You define how your content will be presented to consumers—and you can use the same hosting, publishing, and reporting infrastructure you already have in place. Thanks to an open architecture, LimelightREACH works with the leading CDNs used by media companies and integrates with popular advertising platforms, including LimelightADS,™ the new ad insertion service from Limelight Networks.®


With LimelightREACH, the business of publishing video to mobile audiences is easier than you think. The presentation of your content —whether on your mobile site or mobile application—remains under your control using one convenient URL for any piece of content.

LimelightREACH key features


Device targeting.

Limelight Networks maintains profile information for all the major smartphones, as well as the standard mass-market cell phones in use today. That means we’re on top of details like screen size, codecs, and encoding parameters—so you don’t need worry about the specific capabilities of every new device on the market.

One source file.

Publish your high-resolution source file and leave the rest to us. LimelightREACH supports on-demand video in a variety of container formats (MPEG2, MPEG4, MOV), video codecs (H.264, MPEG4 AVC, QuickTime), and audio codecs (AMR, AAC)—then adapts your media based on the profile settings for targeted devices.

Universal URL.

Your job is to present your content to mobile consumers and innovate on your mobile application or site. LimelightREACH makes that easy by giving you a single URL that works for any device. When a user requests your content, LimelightREACH detects the device and pulls the right version of your media, delivering it using the aprropriate scheme (HTTP or RSTP).

Media-grade CDN.

For scalable delivery, LimelightREACH leverages LimelightDELIVER,™ LimelightSTREAM,™ and other leading CDN platforms—giving you the confidence that any amount of content can be delivered reliably anywhere in the world.

Reporting and analytics.

Detailed reports on historical data, most requested programs, user behavior and consumption metrics, and geographic traffic give you valuable information about your mobile audience and your business. LimelightREACH also supports popular external measurement systems, such as Omniture.

Conclusion

So concluding this, we offer the best solution for mobile delivery on the CDN market. If you’re interested in Reach or any of our other CDN services, please feel free to contact us by phone on: +44 208 540 2300 and by email: m3@mydeo.com.


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Mydeo is hiring!

September 12, 2011 by carymarsh

C# Web Application Developer

Mydeo is an award-winning web-based software company that provides small and medium-sized enterprises with a seamless way of accelerating their web content. Through Mydeo’s custom-built, self-service portal, Mydeo Media Manager, businesses can instantly upload their site content, including videos, images, and downloads for immediate delivery over a global CDN. Businesses can leverage the power of the high speed CDN to deliver whole sites, rich media like Flash®, streaming or progressive video, or to support campaigns with high peaks and performance requirements – all at a fraction of the price it would cost to buy from a CDN directly. Built on Microsoft’s new Windows Azure platform, the service offers infinitely scalable processing power, providing customers with data on each and every file, right down to the hour of day.

Mydeo are now looking to recruit a web application developer to work on our exciting new cloud-based media platform. You will possess strong .NET C# experience, along with a working knowledge of SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008. Additionally, you will be able to comfortably work with and maintain Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 servers, running IIS 6 and 7. Experience working with (or a sound knowledge of) the Windows Azure platform is desirable, but a broad understanding of the challenges of developing for cloud platforms is required. Candidates must be competent front-end and back-end developers, with a firm understanding of web principles, including API design, Javascript, CSS and support for a range of clients. Strong communication skills, together with a logical approach to problem solving are essential.

As a key member of our small team, there will be very good opportunities to progress within the business. Remuneration package will be based on experience and share options will be available to the right candidates.

Location: UK – Wimbledon, London SW19 (District line, SouthWest Trains, ThamesLink) or remote based.

To apply please send you CV, together with a covering letter outlining your salary expectations to cm@mydeo.com.

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Getting started with Live Flash Streaming

December 16, 2010 by Danny

This article will walk you through the process of downloading, installing and configuring all the software required to start broadcasting to a Flash Push Live Stream with Mydeo.

If you don’t have a trial account already, open a 15-day free trial account now by heading to www.mydeo.com. Once you’ve opened your account, you can trial our “on-demand” CDN services immediately, but for a live trial you’ll need to request one by giving us a call or dropping us an email from your registered account email address.

If you have your welcome letter, containing all your credentials, then you’re all set to proceed to Step #1:

1. Download and install the software

Once you’ve got your Flash Live service login details from Mydeo, you’ll want to make sure you’ve downloaded the following:

  • Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder (PC or Mac versions available) – it’s free!
  • Limelight Networks Access Adapter – if you are using a PC, there are currently three versions of Flash Media Live Encoder and you need to install the correct Access Adapter in order for your Live Stream to work. Click on the version you’re running to download the correct Access Adapter: (3.0) (3.1) (3.2).
  • If you are using a Mac, you can download the Access Adapter here - All Access Adapters are free.

Install Flash Media Live Encoder on your computer first, followed by the Limelight Networks Access Adapter (do not launch Flash Media Encoder before you’ve installed the adapter).

2. Configure Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder (FMLE)

Go ahead and fire up your copy of FMLE.

Referring to the screen shot below, you can configure your copy of FMLE with the correct settings for your account (the coloured boxes on our diagrams represent sections you need to change in order to set up your encoder properly. Refer to the guidance notes underneath the screen shot to determine what you need to do).

Your ‘welcome email’ will contain two very important URLs that you now need: the private FMS publishing URL, and the public RTMP streaming URL.

Click to enlarge

Key:

  • From the RED box, choose the camera you want to use to broadcast. If you’re only broadcasting audio, you can de-select the “Video” check box.
  • In the GREEN box, you need to type the FMS URL. This is the private publishing URL that you connect your encoder to.  The FMS URL is a special URL and has two very important parts, indicated in our example by the “XXX” and “SUFFIX” keywords.
  • The “XXX” in the private FMS publishing URL corresponds to the geographical location of the server. Picking one closest to you means you’ll get a faster connection to it. Refer to the table below to determine which is closest to you, then substitute “XXX” in the FMS URL with the three letter code shown:
Click to enlarge

For example, to select “London, United Kingdom”, you would replace “XXX” with “lon” to get: rtmp://fmspush.lon.llnwd.net/SUFFX

Next, replace the word “SUFFIX” with the SUFFIX keyword quoted in your welcome email. For example: rtmp://fmspush.lon.llnwd.net/mycompany

These URLs are CAsE SenSItIvE… You must type them exactly as we’ve given them to you, else they won’t work.

  • Finally, in the PURPLE box, you can give this stream a name. It must be all one word, and it is case-sensitive. We advise customers to give their stream names a meaningful name, for example, “camera1″ or “shop_cam”.

3. Start publishing

You’re now ready to start publishing. To begin, click the green START button at the bottom of the FMLE window:

You’ll then see the Limelight Networks Access Adapter pop up and ask you to enter a username and password:

Click to enlarge

Type in the username and password we sent you in your welcome email, then click OK.

That’s it, you’re all set to start streaming using the Mydeo and Limelight Networks!

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Comparing Mydeo to Amazon S3

November 30, 2010 by carymarsh

We often get asked how Mydeo differs from Amazon S3 – so here’s a quick summary.

Amazon S3 is a storage system, whereas Mydeo provides Content Delivery via a Content Delivery Network (CDN). The CDN Mydeo use exclusively is Limelight Networks, one of the leading global CDNs optimised for rich media delivery.

The focus of S3 is not to get the content to the client as fast as possible, it is to have it available to them when they need it. A CDN incorporates both of these things, the content is always available and the network is designed to get it to the customer as fast as possible. There is also no chance of any down time on a CDN because of the numerous server clusters around the world. With a CDN, if a data centre were to go down, the content would just be delivered from a different location. Amazon’s S3 has been known to go down in the past for hours at a time, on one occasion it was down for over 24 hours – and no explanation was ever given as to why from Amazon.

Amazon’s pricing can be complicated. While it will be cheaper than a CDN it is not a cheap as it may first appear – you must pay for connections as well as throughput.

Amazon’s S3 is a great system for what it is designed to do but that is not streaming video delivery. A CDN is designed for video delivery primarily and the files are delivered from appropriate servers – flash files from an FMS etc.

I would therefore always recommend using a CDN for any streaming media delivery where viewers would, rightly, expect excellent delivery performance and 100% availability.

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November 9, 2010 by carymarsh

Live streaming: Push vs. Pull

When encoding video or audio, you have two options. You can either ‘push’ the stream or ‘pull’ the stream. Each method has advantages and disadvantages which we will discuss here and help you to choose the method best for your circumstances.

Pushing a stream:

With a push stream, the local machine running the encoder is initiating the connection. This connection has to be made with a streaming server.

The main advantage of pushing a stream is that router port forwarding and firewall exceptions do not have to be made. A static IP address is not required to push a stream which would be necessary with the pull method. Static IP addresses are less common than they used to be and with some ISPs they have to be paid for. On an internet connection with no static IP address available, pushing the stream will be your only option. A push stream is generally less stable than a pull stream and would consume more local bandwidth because it is constantly connected to the streaming server that it is pushing to.

A push stream would normally be used for short one off webcasts rather than 24/7 webcasting because of its inherent bandwidth overheads.

Pulling a stream:

With a pull stream, a streaming server (or a viewer) initiates the connection with the encoding machine. It is possible to webcast without the use of a streaming server using the pull method; however, if more than 2 or 3 people connect to the stream simultaneously it will suffer and not be delivered properly to any of the viewers. When a streaming server is ‘pulling’ from the local encoder it would be possible to have hundreds of thousands of viewers without the stream suffering at all.

One of the big advantages of pulling a stream is that the server will only connect to the encoder when the stream is requested by a viewer. This means that you will be limiting your local bandwidth usage by using this method because you will not have to be constantly connected to the server. This obviously makes it much more suitable for constant 24 hour streaming. It is possible to restrict access to the encoder by IP address – which means you can only allow the streaming server to connect and restrict any unauthorised access. Windows media encoder also records and IP address of connections so you can see who is connected at any time.

One disadvantage of using this method is that in order for the streaming server to connect to the encoder, port forwarding and firewall exceptions will have to be set up. Using the pull method is ideal for streaming from a static location where the configuration of the network stays constant.

Conclusion:

When choosing the method you are going to use, the best thing to do is ask yourself a few questions before you start.

1.       Do I have a static IP address?

2.       Am I going to be broadcasting for longer than a few hours at a time?

3.       Do I have access to the router to set up port forwarding or firewall exceptions?

4.       Will I be broadcasting from more than one network?

If you answered no to the first question then pulling a stream will not be an option for you. If you are going to be broadcasting for more than a few hours pulling the stream would be the obvious choice because you will save on bandwidth use. Without access to the router (or someone who does have access) you will not be able to set up the port forwarding properly and the streaming server will not be able to connect to your encoder with the pull method which mean, you will have to push. When you are broadcasting from more than one network, the settings are likely to be different on each network. Pushing the stream would most definitely be a better option here because it will work regardless of the network security in most instances.

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FLV Seek

November 3, 2010 by Danny

Many of our customers at Mydeo have asked us about the concepts of FLV Seek. It is useful to remember that FLV Seek and Streaming are two different things but appear to the end user as being the same. Limelight Networks have provided some useful information about FLV Seek and how you can utilise the benefits:

FLV Seek

When you deliver your Flash video files via progressive download, it’s usually an all or nothing deal. You pay for delivering the entire file, even if your user skips most of the content. But with the FLV Seek feature of LimelightDELIVER, you can let your audience jump to any point in the media. Not only does this eliminate unnecessary delivery costs, but it provides a better user experience. For example, if a viewer wants to skip the first half of a video, FLV Seek jumps to the second half of the file, resulting in a smaller download and faster user access.

Seek and deploy

All you need to do to deploy FLV Seek is update your metadata to include keyframe and offset locations. When your user skips ahead, your embedded player will start playing from the closest keyframe relative to his scrub point. In this way, FLV Seek simulates Flash video streaming for progressive download scenarios.

Perfect for social media and other user-generated content, FLV Seek offers an economic way to provide a great user experience.

We hope that this article has helped to create a better understanding of FLV Seek. Remember, Mydeo offers full support for videos using FLV Seek, so no need to look any further!

Thanks for reading.

www.mydeo.com

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So why not YouTube?

October 13, 2010 by Danny

This is a common question asked by many customers who are trying to establish the value in using a CDN service.

YouTube is often the first place many think to go for uploading and broadcasting their personal videos.  When you take YouTube’s service into consideration it is undeniably good. So if its good at distributing video, why not use it for your business website? There are many reasons for why a business might want to avoid a service such as YouTube, and I’m going to share a few of our thoughts with you here:

  • Any videos uploaded to YouTube are accessible globally. From a business point-of-view, you may wish to keep your videos for private use so that only your consumers can view the content.
  • If you upload a video to YouTube, you automatically lose the rights of that video. This is critical because it means YouTube essentially ‘own’ the rights to any content you upload, giving them the right to distribute it or promote it however they see fit.
  • After watching a YouTube video, the player automatically recommends other videos within the same category. This could ultimately lead customers to your competitor’s videos. YouTube may not deliver exact replicas of the videos that you upload. The player compresses the image to make the video fit into their standardised frame.
  • YouTube might be regarded as a ‘cheap option’ by your potential customers, which could reflect poorly on your business.
  • YouTube have no professional support service that we are aware of. That means, if you have questions or a problem, you’re only recourse is with the community at large – and not with YouTube directly.

Ok, so I’ve covered some of the things you might want to consider before you choose YouTube over Mydeo from a business point-of-view.

So why choose Mydeo instead? Well, for starters, Mydeo doesn’t carry the limitations mentioned above and also utilises all the benefits of a Global CDN which has been proven to make websites up to 30% faster. Plus, we take all types of media, too – not just videos (your images, CSS, JavaScript files – even files that you want your customers to be able to download, like executables etc). And finally, we’re a professional team who will work with you to get up and running, coupled with our promise of providing excellent customer services and support.

Don’t just take our word for it, try it yourself at www.mydeo.com and you’ll be up and running in no time at all.

Thanks for reading. :)

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HTML5 Video – What you need to know

September 22, 2010 by Danny

What is HTML 5 Video?

First, lets talk about what HTML 5 is. HTML 5 is the successor to HTML, the standard formatting language used to publish all web sites, and interpreted by all web browsers to display them. HTML 5 is a necessary replacement for traditional HTML because this new standard includes native support for today’s data-rich, interactive web applications. Traditional HTML does not include native support for rich media (videos, animations etc.) whereas HTML 5 does.

Ok, so what is “HTML 5 Video”?

Recently, the HTML 5 specification was updated to state the following:  

[Browsers] should support Theora video and Vorbis audio, as well as the Ogg container format.

This is primarily because there are no known patents or royalty arrangements that need be observed in order to produce or consume media encoded with these standards.

Can Mydeo deliver HTML 5 video?

Yes! In fact, we include support for it in all our packages. To get started, sign up for your free 15 day trial or give us a call to discuss.

What do I need to get started?

If you’ve got existing media that you’d like to convert into an HTML 5 video format, you can either do this yourself using a commercial encoder or use our pay as you go encoding service within your account.

You’ll then need your web designers to design you a player and a player page that support HTML 5. Some off the shelf freebies are available for this, check out HTML5video.org as an example.

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What is Smooth Streaming?

August 11, 2010 by Kent

Smooth Streaming is a relatively new way to stream your videos at an adaptive rate giving your viewers the best possible viewing experience.  Smooth streaming can determine the bandwidth available and select the appropriate bit-rate to display your video at. This means that you will never have to cater for the lowest common denominator to make sure that everyone who requests your video will have a flawless viewing experience.

Smooth Streaming delivers small fragments of a video at a time (typically about 2 seconds worth) and verifies that each has arrived at the destination within the appropriate time and played back at the expected quality. If a fragment of video is not up to the expected standard then the next one will be delivered at a slightly lower bit-rate. Of course, the converse is true too.  This all happens over the HTTP protocol.

To create Smooth Streaming presentations you need to encode your videos in a particular way. The same source content would need to be encoded at various bit-rates with each bit-rate being one complete file. The advantage of this is that the user does not have to manage hundreds or even thousands of ‘fragments’ as the server will create ‘virtual fragments’ and will be able to switch between which complete file it is delivering. Smooth Streaming presentations can be created using an encoder such as Microsoft Expression Encoder.

A great example of Smooth Streaming in action can be found here – http://www.iis.net/media/experiencesmoothstreaming. This will require that you have Silverlight installed on your computer.

If you would like to discuss Smooth Streaming or any other requirements with us, please do not hesitate to give us a call on +44 208 540 2300 or email us on help@mydeo.com.

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Mydeo and Smooth Streaming

July 9, 2010 by Kent

Anyone looking for Smooth Streaming should look no further. Mydeo is now capable of dealing with your smooth streaming needs as well as all of the other services that we offer. A great example of this can be found at www.countrybehindthecup.com that is using Mydeo to deliver their videos using Smooth Streaming technology.

Smooth Streaming is an adaptive way of streaming your content over HTTP to make sure that your viewers get the best possible quality video for the internet connection that they have. You will no longer have to cater for the lowest common denominator or have your viewers make a selection of bandwidth before the video starts to play.

 For some more insight into Smooth Streaming visit this page – http://www.iis.net/download/SmoothStreaming

 If you have any questions or would like any more information regarding Smooth Streaming, please do not hesitate to contact us on service@mydeo.com or +44 208 540 2300.

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