Multi streams on multi screens...

I haven't seen any discussion here so far and I may be way off base, but, has anyone discussed the use particulars and possible advancements of server side presentation of video content to SL. With the single media link limit per parcel I'm wondering if it is possible to do some sort of http forward / redirect or aliased serving up of video content.

I personally have a need for serving up multiple dynamic video content on multiple screens per parcel all simultaneously.

It seems to me that if you can supply either a generic media link that will be served based upon a secondary channel of information (ie a cooresponding http request) and that either forward the request to the specified video file or actually just returns a video file with a generic name but specfic content with in might be a direction to go in.

The possible problems I can see is that 1) the forward or redirect is not compatible with the quciktime player and it will either reject it or be confused by it, 2) it has been my experience that when one has multiple screens on a parcel that it plays the same content (well duh, it's the same media link) but even with the AWM Mars media server. Now this isn't any kind of criticism of Mar's product probably mostly my inexperience with it. I am just wondering if when one requests a video for one screen and then requests an additional video for another, does that spawn separate QT player instances or will it hijack the first request with the results of the second and just end up with 2 screens with the same content.

This is sounding like a 99% server based solution and to throw the final monkey wrench into the mix is that I personally use IIS and .Net server technologies but I know many developers are using Apache and PHP and other open source server technologies. I think some sort of server side product is what I would be looking to pay for or god forbid write. If I gotta write it and if anyone else is interested in the solution we would all probably benefit from some discussion. Anyone else have some ideas, am I completely off base on my possible approach. I'd be interested in discussion and the resulting solution or solutions, I think, they would be very valuable to the community....whatta say...

hiro

this was done a long time ago

(I beat you to the comment AWM!! haha)

Inworld, search for "silverstream"

Check out I3d I think thats the company I would have to log on to find out exactly but they are doing this exact thing.. ive seen 6 video feeds at the same time.. problems with that is of course bandwith.. the more streams you have the more bandwith you use.. so it tends to lag a bit.. but i recommend checking them out.. Ill edit this with the name of the people to get in touch with.

as soon as i get on.

Name is Navillus Batra and the company he is with is i3d

Damn ur up early Geuis lol...

[url=http://www.eml-entertainments.com has a full explaination of what you seek, to the OP.
Indeed i3Dnow do in fact make the SilverStream system, but as the official and authorised resellers of the system... I'm sure i3Dnow will direct you to us anyway.
There are 3 systems which may be of interest to you.
The SilverStream Media system.. The Multi Screen (up to 6 media screens visible to a single viewer) and the Memory version of the Silver Stream, that plays a movie to the viewer from the point where they last watched it.

The 'problem' you are perhaps encountering is one of perception... The Silver Stream delivers media from the screens playlist you are watching to your client, not broadcasting it across the parcel (even though the system isn't parcel relevant), so everyone watches the same stream.. however as we use a singular texture for all the screens, you perceive that everyone else is watching the same movie you are... and they think the same LOL.... Simple way to prove it, get ppls you trust to each stand in groups around different screens and shout out what they are each watching... the system works and thats a fact... perceptions are perhaps harder to explain.

The way that it works, in a very breif explaination, each screen detects an avatar that comes within its sensor range, it them sends a comand, via the network, direct to THAT client only, to play the relevant urls in its playlist, no one elses (unless they are also in sensor range), walk to a different screen, and that sensor will do the same, but with its playlist. More details can be had, by sending checks (cheques) to the value of 15,000 USD to our emailing address. LOL.. j/k

The release of the vHUD will 'soften' the wearers perception issues. It overrides any Silver Stream Screen/players within view and plays the media on a 'screen in screen'. You can also select media from a menu system that will play that media in any Sim that has a Silver Stream Server installed. What we termed as the SLIntranet. It also has RSS feeds, and website news links to live broadcasts within SL.

AWM, if two or more AVs are watching the same screen will they all be seeing the same video? Or, is it possible that each of them could be watching a different video?

They would be watching the same media that is contained within that screen/players playlist, however, dependant on when the triggered the sensor, they maybe watching it from the start, while anyone who has been there longer would be further into the movie.. that is until the movie reaches the end and the timer kicks in a triggers the sensor again to send out the next url in the playlist.

There are systems in SL that allow different people to watch different movies from the same screen, by selecting it from a menu. A clever system no doubt, draw backs are, for shops in say a mall, or multi floored shops/appartments, you would need to setup that same system in each location. As the Silver Stream Screen/player system is sold from as little as 600L$ each, it is perhaps more flexible and cheaper in those instances. Whereas for a Movie Theatre, the other system would be of greater benefit.

With the iminent release of the 'wearable media screen/player' each wearer can watch their own movie of their choice and gain more flexibility of live broadcasts from the likes of SLCN etc and RSS direct from the internet.

The limitation I've experienced with the AWMs system is that it only support 30 screens per sim and I need a magnitude more than that. My need is about 50 - 60 installation of 23 screens in a sim. The content is the lowest bandwidth one can imagine, so that won't be a problem but the links in the notecard are inconsequential because I need to push content rather than pull.

AWM, just to clarify, if I set up 23 or your screens in your room and set them to 23 different links, would I see all 23 different streams?

In addition, what I am after is the server portion of the solution. AWM, how firm is that 15k price you quoted. I don't know if I'd drop that much before just doing the research and development myself but I'd consider a bit less possibly.

Well the 'limitation' quoted was simply an indication of what we tested the system with, although we only quoted 30+ screens as we did not see a reason to test beyond that. The success of installing a greater quatity of screen/player is dependant on the class of sim, what other scripts/active objects reside on that sim etc.
As each screen/player incorporates its own playlist, which in therory can hold upto 125 urls (NoteCard limitation), you do not have to have 1 screen per url. The player functions can handle media of virtually any format that is compatible with the QuickTime pluggin, including 2d pictures (jpg, png etc), movie media and music formats (unlike the music channel of the client, which is restricted to one or two formats).
There is a system available, that uses a function within the QuickTime pluggin, that allows upto 6 media streams (movies, 2d pics and or music) to be streamed together (piggybacked) into the SL client, each of these streams will be displayed/played simultaniously to the viewer, however once the combined data stream exceeds 100kbps this starts to load the client and can cause lag to the point that the client will crash, once it reaches around 250kbps. As you can mix the media formats within this system, you could have a combination of movies, 2d pictures and or music playing at the same time, the only loading, after the initial download of the 2d's and cached media, that would leave the client free to run normally. It is also illadviseable to use heavy codex for each of the media streams, as this placed additional load on the system to decode on the fly.

It is physically impossible to show 23+ streams to a viewer at the same time in any platform environment, as I have said above, the maximum allowed via the QuickTime pluggin is 6. However with a bit of creativity, we could apply post production techniques to your media to create a visual 20+ individual media sections 'honeycombed' over a large screen, or via say 4 seperate large screen, each with 6 media sections. We would be more than happy to supply a quotation for this work.

With my comment about the 15k 'QUOTE[More details can be had, by sending checks (cheques) to the value of 15,000 USD to our emailing address. LOL.. j/k]UNQUOTE', I was kidding. There is no intention to release this technology in open source, only for purchasing the fully working systems.
The technology used incorporates many functions, and with the release of the vHUD later this month, the system will include RSS feeds, live broadcasting streams, multimedia handling, slurl TP functions to 'hotspots' etc. Future plans are the introduction of 'Buy from the screen' shopping facilities, a search engine linked to websites supporting both SL and RL directories and a 'morphing screen' that will format itself to the size of the media being displayed automatically without the need for 'autoscaling', which causes a 50% overhead on the client.

I hope this answers your questions, if not, feel free to contact me.