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Posts Tagged ‘LLNW’

Streaming anywhere with the Stream Anywhere 2.1 upgrade

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 25, 2013 | 1 Comment »

Stream Anywhere is Mydeo’s solution to mobile streaming and since we launched it last year, we’ve received very positive feedback. You can read our initial post on Stream Anywhere by clicking here.  We’re very happy to tell you that Stream Anywhere has just been upgraded. This post will talk you through some of the major updates included in V.2.1

DVR

A feature that’s been requested many times since Mydeo released Stream Anywhere is DVR functionality. If you didn’t already know, DVR is Digital Video Recording and it grants the viewer a number of benefits. Firstly, using the player controls, the viewer can rewind the live feed.  Imagine you’re watching a football game and you missed the match winning goal. Using DVR functionality, you’d be able to rewind the stream back to the point of the goal and continue watching from that point. Afterwards, you could always fast forward back to the point where you left off.

The second great feature of DVR is the ability to pause the live feed, much like most modern set top boxes. The DVR functionality is preconfigured to allow the viewer to pause the live feed up to a certain amount of time before continuing the stream.

Lastly DVR functionality enables you to make the live stream available for On-demand delivery up to 24 hours after the live feed has finished publishing. The on-demand file is made available through the same publishing URL as the live feed so will work seamlessly within your player. This is great because once a live event has finished,  it’s not uncommon for an on-demand version of the video to be put up in its place. By making the original stream available for on-demand play gives the production team a window to edit the original footage and replace the live feed with a permanent on-demand file. This means zero downtime and a much better experience for your audience.

RTMP playback

Adding to the existing playback URLs for Stream Anywhere is the ability to output in basic RTMP. The way Stream Anywhere works is by taking a single RTMP feed from your encoder and transmuxing it into HDS, HLS and Smooth Streaming formats. RTMP playback has been added to the list in V.2.1 which gives the user much more flexibility when targeting older browsers or devices that don’t support HTML5. Mydeo already offers normal RTMP live streaming but we can now offer it as part of the Stream Anywhere package.

Apple AES encryption

Until know, the only security option for Stream Anywhere was Media Vault which uses MD5 hashing to encrypt the playback URLs to only work when pre-defined parameters are met. For example you could configure the stream so it only works on a particular page of a particular website. In addition to this, we can now offer Apple AES encryption for the HLS playback URLs. This functionality can be added upon direct request to your Mydeo Account Manager. Along with AES, we can also now block streams to geographical locations so if you only want your stream to work in the US, we can now do that for you.

As ever, if you have any questions about Stream Anywhere or any of our other fantastic CDN solutions, please do not hesitate to contact us by email: help@mydeo.com or by phone: +44 208 540 2300.

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Uploading to the CDN through Mydeo

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on April 18, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

So you already know that you require a CDN to deliver your web assets but now you need to know how to get your content ready for delivery. Here at Mydeo, we offer two methods for uploading your content to the CDN for superfast global distribution.

 

FTP 

 

If your plan is to offload your content library onto Mydeo, then FTP is definitely the best way moving forward. The process is very simple and only requires the user to have an FTP client installed on their local machine. There are many decent FTP clients out there and the majority of the best ones are completely free. If you need a free, easy to use FTP client, then Mydeo suggests FileZilla. You can download FileZilla FTP Client here: https://filezilla-project.org/download.php. Do make sure you download the client version and not the server edition…

Once you have your FTP client installed, you will need three things to connect to the network and these are: Host address, Username and Password. If you’re using FileZilla, these fields are located near the top of the window. If you’re using another FTP client, the process is usually the same and very straight forward.

Once you’ve logged into your FTP folder, if it’s a new set up, there probably won’t be much going on but the best way to think about it is simply your new empty folder that’s located on the CDN. From here you’re able to upload directly to your route directory (main folder) or you can create a folder structure very similar to that of your local ‘My Documents’ folder found on every PC. At Mydeo, we find that our customers enjoy having the ability to completely define their directory layout within the FTP folder as it makes it very easy for them to manage.

As soon as content has been uploaded, it is immediately available for delivery over the CDN using a predefined URL called a publishing URL. The publishing URL is directly linked to your route FTP folder with a predefined path such as ‘http://llnw.mydeo.com/ftpFolder’. From there, you only need to add the file name plus extension and you’re ready to go (http://llnw.mydeo.com/ftpFolder/file.ext). If your file is within a directory you created, you also need to reference the folder name within the URL (http://llnw.mydeo.com/ftpFolder/directory/file.ext). We supply you with a publishing URL when you sign up.

To add a personal touch to your publishing URL, you can request a CNAME to be set up in its place. As long as you own the domain, we can set up your content so it delivers from a sub-domain created on your DNS. This is very quick and simple to configure and the majority of our clients go for this option.

 

Customer Origin (Origin Pull)

 

Mydeo also offers Customer Origin which is mainly for those who already have a large established library of content sitting on their existing servers. Customer Origin is great because technically, you never have to upload a single file. To configure Customer Origin, you will need to provide us with a source address to your servers. This can either be a top-level domain, sub-domain or even an IP address. Once configured, your server in essence becomes part of the CDN and your content can be pulled straight from your own origin. To deliver your content over the CDN, you’re given a unique publishing URL (again this can be a CNAME). When the published URL is requested, that file is pulled from your servers, delivered to the user and then cached on the network. The next time that file is requested; it then delivers straight from the CDN cache rather than your servers.

Customer origin gives you all the benefits of CDN caching and delivery but you retain complete control over your content as it’s stored on your own servers. It can also prove much more cost effective because you won’t be paying for CDN storage fees.

So there you have it, two very functional ways of having the CDN deliver your content. Both options have their plus points but really it’s down to your circumstances as to which method you choose to go with.

For more information on FTP, Customer Origin or any of our other services, you can contact us by email: m3@mydeo.com or by phone: +44 208 540 2300. We’re always happy to help.

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How to make a HTML5 player

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 15, 2013 | 1 Comment »

HTML5 has been a hot topic for some time now but in many ways it’s becoming more of a norm. At Mydeo, I’m seeing more and more of our customers jumping on the <video> tag bandwagon and for good reason too. The use of Flash is slowing down mainly due to the lack of support in iOS devices but it’s also interesting to add that the latest versions of Android are also dropping support. Android and iOS are the market leaders for smartphones and tablets and together control over 85% of the overall pie. Consumers demand their videos on the go and if you’re still using the ye old ways of Flash then you could be losing a sizeable chunk of your audience to your competitor who has already utilised a solution for reaching these devices.

I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to spend the whole of your quarterly budget  on a video platform just to reach smart devices. This post will show you how to embed videos on your site using the <video> tag. It will also show you how to reach multiple browsers and devices because not all end users have the same equipment/software. I will use video files that have already been uploaded to the Mydeo servers to test with.

In the example below you’ll see a standard  HTML page but with the addition of the video tag that’s referencing a file on the Mydeo servers. If you copy this code and paste it into notepad and save the file as a .htm or .html, the file will open as a web page containing the video. This, in its current format will also play on iOS devices.

<html>
<head>
<title>My HTML5 Video</title>
</head>
<body>
<video src="http://mydeo.vo.llnwd.net/o1/u/m3/64de828ce3264daf912aa3493414a30d.mp4" controls="controls" height="480" width="620"></video>
</body>
</html>

If the video is not playing for you, there’s a good chance that the browser you’re using doesn’t support .mp4 or HTML5 at all. To reach almost every browser/device, we need to do a few more things.

The example below has a few additions: firstly, I have moved the source tag onto a different line and added support for three different file types: mp4, ogv (ogg) and webm. These three files types are the video formats excepted by HTML5 so by referencing all of them, you’ll reach a better percentage of end users. All the files referenced here are the same video but I’ve just converted them into the separate file types (information on how to convert you videos for free is mentioned later in the article). Secondly, if you want to be able to reach users using older operating systems with older browsers, you can also add a traditional Flash player (see the code example on how to add a Flash player). The player below is coded so if the first option doesn’t work, the browser will seamlessly attempt to play the second option and then the third and so on. This process is called a ‘fall back’, the browser falls back until it finds a compatible version to play.

<html>
<head>
<title>My HTML5 Video</title>
</head>
<body>
<video controls="controls" height="480" width="620">
<source src="http://mydeo.vo.llnwd.net/o1/u/m3/64de828ce3264daf912aa3493414a30d.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
<source src="http://mydeo.vo.llnwd.net/o1/u/m3/59243cfe69c74f3ebc26d14cb29e9b96.webm" type="video/webm" />
<source src="http://mydeo.vo.llnwd.net/o1/u/m3/160a3cd44c074efcae8b1fbb784aca9f.ogv" type="video/ogg" />
<--! Here is where you add code for a traditional flash player, you can use the mp4 URL above and generate yourself a player by navigating here: http://blog.mydeo.com/2013/01/25/flash-video-player-generator/ -->
</video>
</body>
</html>

And that’s it! You can use the code above to create your own HTML5 player, all you need to do is replace the source URLs with your own. There are many different options for customising your player so be sure to have a play around with the code. If you need to convert your files into mp4, ogg or webm then there is a fantastic video converter which is 100% free and can be downloaded here: http://www.mirovideoconverter.com/.

Remember that these test files are utilising Mydeo’s servers so if you need a hosting provider to deliver your HTML5 videos over a super fast global network, then do not hesitate to contact us. You can do so by email: m3@mydeo.com or by phone: +44 208 540 2300.

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FMS Video Delivery – brought to you by Mydeo and Limelight Networks

Posted in Articles, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Even with the introduction of HTML5, Flash streaming is still one of the most widely used formats for delivering video over the internet – especially for live events. Here at Mydeo, we still receive many requests for Flash live and on-demand services.  The following article by Limelight Networks explains some of the options available to you when using FMS to deliver your video content:

Flash Media Server 3.5

Customers of Flash streaming services now have more options for broadcast-quality video delivery on the Internet. With support for Adobe Flash Media Server 3.5, Limelight Stream enables dynamic streaming, DVR functionality within a live stream, and enhanced H.264 video and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio. 

Dynamic Streaming

For an optimum viewing experience, the quality of the video file you deliver needs to match your end user’s available bandwidth. The trouble is, their bandwidth may suddenly drop, perhaps because other users in the house or community start consuming more bandwidth on a shared pipe. Your viewer is left watching (or trying to watch) a high-bit-rate video on a connection that’s too slow to handle the stream, resulting in stutters, stops, and a less-than-positive experience.

Dynamic streaming addresses this common scenario by switching seamlessly to a higher- or lower-quality stream based on available bandwidth — without ever disrupting the flow of video or audio. (Of course, this means you need to have encoded and uploaded the same content as multiple independent files at different bit-rates.)

Although Flash Media Server 3.5 provides the ability to switch files, it’s the Flash client that actually requests the change. The user’s Flash player (version 10 required) monitors current bandwidth and CPU load. If the video buffer is filling up too rapidly or the CPU is nearing pre-defined utilization levels, the Flash client can simply ask the server to switch to a different file.

Dynamic streaming is available for live and on-demand Flash content and supports both .flv and H.264 files types.

Live DVR

Give your viewers the freedom to walk away from a live event without worrying about missing out on the action. Flash Media Server 3.5 supports live DVR, enabling end users to return to portions of live streaming events, even if their Internet connection choked and missed a crucial moment. With Live DVR, you can create streaming video solutions that include instant-replay, catch-up, or seek functionality.

Even with all these interactive features, there’s no transfer of your content to the user’s system. As with all streaming services, Flash Media Server 3.5 caches the live DVR at your discretion.

At Mydeo we offer a whole host of Flash delivery solutions including those mentioned above – We also offer instant set up with no installation fees. If you’re interested in Mydeo’s Flash services or any of our other many CDN solutions, please do not hesitate to get in contact – Email: danny@mydeo.com, Phone: +44 208 540 2300.

You can also find us at: www.mydeo.com

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Customer Origin – reduce your CDN storage costs and keep source control of your content

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on July 5, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Customer Origin is the best way to have complete control over your content but at the same time, utilise the power of a global CDN like Limelight Networks.

What is a CDN?

As you probably already know, a CDN is a collection of servers strategically placed across the globe. When a file that’s being handled by a CDN is requested, a copy of that file is cached to the closest POP to the end user. This means that when another user requests the same file from a similar location, the file is now being served locally. This can do wonders for performance as well as taking critical load off of your own servers. Mydeo utilise the Limelight Networks CDN to provide our customer with global content delivery and site acceleration solutions.

What is Customer Origin?

Customer Origin is an alternative to storing your files straight on the CDN. Basically, Limelight Networks will pull your content directly from your servers eliminating the hassle of uploading and maintaining your content in a second location. This will save you time and money because you won’t be charged for storage space.

When would you use it?

Customer Origin is a great solution when you have tons of content already stored on your own server. Manually moving all your content over onto another storage solution will take valuable man hours which can be costly.  Control over HTTP headers is essential to those who want to specify caching policies and how their content behaves. If a file is uploaded to the CDN, there’s no way to control HTTP headers which makes practices such as browser caching impossible. Customer Origin means that, because your content is stored with you, you can determine its behaviour on the network.

How to get set up

To set up Customer Origin, all we would need from you is the address or IP of where your content is being stored. If your content is usually being served in this manner: http://myServer.com/folder/myFile.txt, the CDN will be able to use http://myServer.com/ as the source address. Our network will accept: top level domains, sub domains and specific directories such as: http://myServer.com/folder/. As long as the files you want to deliver over the CDN are accessible from the source you provide, the CDN will be able to handle and cache your content.

Once the source address has been configured and set up on the network. You will be given a Publishing URL. In most cases you can specify what this is so most of our customers follow this format: http://cdn.myCompany.com/. To use the network for content delivery you use the Publishing URL which maps directly to the source address. Going back to my source address example: http://myServer.com/, you would be able to call the same example file using this format: http://cdn.myCompany.com/folder/myFile.txt.

Content Freshness

The final point that needs to be raised is regarding content freshness. If the file is changed on the origin, will the cached ‘older’ copies of the file (that have been stored on the edge) continue to be delivered?

By setting the Time-To-Live (TTL) header on your content, you’re telling the network how often it needs to check back with the origin to see if the file has been removed or modified. In most cases this is set somewhere between 24 – 72 hours because making too many freshness checks could have an effect on performance. If there’s a particular case where a file or a whole range of files needs to be removed from the network quickly, we can make a purge request. Purging will remove all traces of that file or collection of files from the edge and force all new requests to be called from the origin, resetting the caching process.

I hope this has given you a better understanding of how we set up Customer Origin and how the network handles your content. If you ever have any questions regarding Customer Origin or other CDN solutions, you can get hold of us by email: m3@mydeo.com or by phone: 0208 540 2300, we are always happy to help. Pricing can also be found here on our website.

Many thanks

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Mydeo customer origin

Posted in Announcements, tagged , , , , , on August 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Mydeo now have the ability to collect content from your servers and deliver it via the Limelight CDN. This is what is known as customer origin. Basically, your server will become part of the network and you will not have to upload your content anymore. This is particularly useful for people who already manage content on their own servers and do not want to do it in two locations – it is a great way to switch to using a CDN without the major hassle of uploading everything. We can set up a customer origin for any customer who is on an m3 plan and has their own server where the content will be hosted. If you would like more information about this or anything else, please do not hesitate to contact us on m3@mydeo.com.

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Using a CDN to optimize your websites performance

Posted in Articles, tagged , , , , on July 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

One of the major factors that affect the performance of your website delivery is the distance between the end user and your web server. With this in mind it makes sense to try and get your content as close to your users as possible. A content delivery network (CDN) is a great way to do this.

A CDN is a collection of web servers positioned around the world. When a user makes a request for a file, the CDN automatically determines which server is closest to that user and delivers the files from that location.

CDNs are mainly used for the delivery of video because of the videos need for high bandwidth capabilities to deliver properly. However, there are lots of other possibilities for the use of CDNs. You could deliver images, stylesheets, scripts, animations etc. By delivering these from CDN you will drastically increase the speed of your website.

Typically in the past it has been cost prohibitive for smaller companies to use a CDN to host their content for website optimization because of minimum throughput commitments being multiple terabytes and contract length being a year or even longer in some cases. M3 eliminates this problem. With plans starting at 25GBs of throughput any one can use a CDN to optimize their website. M3 uses the Limelight Networks CDN which is widely known as one of the biggest and best in the world so you can always be sure that your content is being delivered on a top class network which will certainly increase the delivery speed of any media. You can view our pricing here https://m3.mydeo.com/Business/plans.aspx and sign up for a trial at www.mydeo.com.

If you have any questions please feel free to write to us on m3@mydeo.com

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Mydeo and Limelight Networks Bring Affordable CDN delivery to European Small Businesses

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on September 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

 

Mydeo and Limelight Networks, Inc, (Nasdaq: LLNW) today announce that the companies will work together to provide its European small business customers with a more flexible, low-cost way of delivering content via its global content delivery network.

London, UK (PRWEB) September 17, 2008 — Mydeo and Limelight Networks, Inc, (Nasdaq: LLNW) today announce that the companies will work together to provide European small business customers with a more flexible, low-cost way of delivering content via its global CDN.

The service, called Mydeo Media Manager (m3), offers a number of benefits to the business requiring the high performance and reliable delivery of the Limelight Network’s content delivery platform, but on commercial terms that are designed for smaller companies. These include lower minimum throughput plans, instant online account set up and free trial, no setup costs, no minimum contract terms and free premium reporting. M3 supports all the major file formats including Quicktime, Flash and Windows Media and offers publishers the choice of streaming or HTTP delivery through a simple and intuitive web interface.

“The service is aimed at small businesses with the same needs as the large corporates i.e. requiring high quality media delivery to increase their website performance, run rich media campaigns, build brands and boost sales, but with lower data throughput requirements” commented Mydeo’s Founder and CEO, Cary Marsh. “It helps them overcome some of the technical difficulties associated with delivering large media files on their websites such as poor delivery and reduced site performance, at affordable rates. Using Limelight’s CDN, video and other rich media files are delivered effortlessly, allowing the consumer to remain fully engaged with the site.”

Chris Townsley, Limelight Network’s Director of Strategic Sales, EMEA commented “We are very excited about the alliance with Mydeo to provide Limelight Network streaming solutions for customers who require a low cost of entry for the delivery of their online content. As more and more organisations are putting their content online there is a need to provide this type of flexible and cost effective solution.”

Mydeo launched in 2005 with the help of an R&D grant for Technical Innovation from the DTI. By the end of 2005 Mydeo were Microsoft’s European Windows Movie Maker partner, providing high quality Windows Media Hosting services for XP users worldwide. In October 2007, Mydeo and Best Buy Co. Inc., a multinational retailer of technology and entertainment products and services, entered into a business partnership; Mydeo now powers the company’s video sharing service.

“From the outset our consumer hosting service always attracted business users” said Marsh. “We’ve created m3 to address their needs much more specifically. We are delivering a range of file formats, have a detailed statistical reporting interface and easy media management via grouping and tagging, all at very competitive rates that will be attractive to the small business market”. The London based video streaming experts are also offering a co-branded version of the M3 service to advertising and digital agencies and working with other service providers looking to extending their offerings through the Mydeo API.

In 2008 Mydeo has continued its’ award winning run, being named as a Red Herring Europe 100 finalist for 2008 and winning a commendation in the ‘Best Streaming Service’ category at the 2008 Internet Service Providers awards.

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