The Magic of Micro-Client Player Technology Within the enterprise, in the hospital, and across the educational campus, there is one common requirement of video-over-IP deployments: Users just want them to work. They don’t want to read lengthy procedural manuals to make sure their system is set up with the right software or plug-ins. They don’t want to call the IT department. They don’t want to be asked to upgrade their player or browser. They want to click on a button and see what they need to see, regardless of the type of computer they are using. They want it to be easy. They just want it to work.
The Big IP Video Challenge
While the concept of “just working” is straightforward, it presents a challenge that works its way backwards from the user’s ears, eyes, and fingers through the viewing device, across the network, and to the source content material. The content can be live channels from a camera or a broadcast feed, it can be material broadcast from disk such as signage content or in-house TV channels, or it can be media that is available to users on demand. Across the divide between the source and the user many hurdles exist depending on the content, the user’s platform of choice, the user’s location, and so on. Furthermore, interoperability with other internal systems, such as LDAP and other central directories, also plays a role. All things considered, the challenge is not as straightforward as the concept of “just make it work.”
InStream: A Magical Player Technology In consideration of today’s requirements within the enterprise, including educational and medical markets, the original HaiVision developers, brought InStreamTM to life. InStream is the player technology of Video Furnace System 5—HaiVision’s end-to-end HD H.264 IP video solution. This paper describes, in detail, the application of InStream and how its unique micro-client architecture addresses the key challenges of the video-over-IP deployment and satisfies its fundamental objective: It just works!
Today’s IP Video Environment Today, enterprises rely on a variety of technologies and techniques for delivering information to users. For example, in a university setting, guidelines and controls are fairly loose or entirely absent. Students operate in a wide variety of platforms including MACs, PCs running Windows, and Linux-based systems. On the other hand, enterprises such as hospitals and military facilities have very rigid user guidelines, some relying on strict hardware profiles and software suites distributed only through standard hard-disk images, allowing no user-triggered software installations. Across the spectrum of enterprise users, the implementation of network-based video is a significant challenge.
Some of today’s “standard” desktop players work across various platforms. Flash is fairly ubiquitous, and it now supports H.264. Other players are somewhat tied to their native platforms. Windows Media works best when used on Windows machines. SilverlightTM, now supporting H.264 is emerging and many say it is a replacement for Windows Media. Regardless of their operation across different platforms, all of these technologies require regular updates that must be installed by the user.
Another important consideration in deploying IP video is ease of use across the broadest possible user base. Three primary IP video capabilities— live video delivery, channels played from disk, and video-on-demand content— must be satisfied to facilitate broad use and a common user experience. Consistency across platforms and even to “hard” viewing endpoints, such as flat panels equipped with set-top box technology, is key.
Live channels are those encoded directly to multicast distribution, playback channels are those delivered from disk to multicast channels, and video on demand is delivered from disk directly to users via unicast distribution. The player environment must be designed to take advantage of these basic and efficient network capabilities to deliver the required services. Adobe Flash, for example, is a great vehicle for addressing many direct streams across the Internet, but it is not well-suited to take advantage of multicast. Multicast enables enterprises to deliver common video content to every user without large streaming server farms or massively provisioned networks.
Security is another concern for enterprises delivering video content. Broadcasters need to be assured that content streamed via IP is not being recorded. In order to meet copyright restrictions, educators need content that is provisioned only as required according to course curricula. Other industries have even more stringent requirements. Patient confidentiality is crucial within healthcare. Hospitals need 100% confidence that unauthorized users cannot view live or record patient-related medical information. In addition, they need to be able to report on who viewed what video and when. This is a significant challenge for IP video, especially when most streaming technologies have no affirmative messaging between the players and the distributing video servers.
The Micro-Client Player Design From the very beginning, HaiVision’s Video Furnace technology designers considered issues such as cross-platform support, limiting or eliminating installation and update requirements, addressing the widest possible user base, supporting different delivery models, and ensuring security. They proposed an architecture that dissociates the player from the software environments of the desktop. They had the vision of a highly optimized player that would work across all platforms—one that was extremely powerful yet compact enough to be distributed “on demand.” They envisioned a player that supports industry-standard video and audio compression, incorporates advanced security and network resiliency features, and is in constant communication with its server. InStreamTM was born from this vision.
InStream is unlike any other player technology available today in that it relies on a coupled client/server approach. When a user requests to view media through a simple Web link, instantaneous communication is triggered with the server. This critical initial communication informs the server what platform the user has and, if conditional access is implemented, who the user is. After this simple communication, the player is sent to the user’s computer and launched (according to user specific content and player behavior if conditional access is implemented). The player then provides straightforward access to live channels, playback channels originating from disk, and video on demand.
InStream runs solely in the computer's memory space and is less than 800kB size, but, within that highly optimized package it offers:
- A high-performance video decoder for industry-standard MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and H.264 for multiple resolutions from CIF (approximately one-quarter SD) all the way up to 1080p HD, and even computer resolutions
- An advanced de-interlacing suite to smooth SD broadcasts
- A synchronous audio decoder supporting industry-standard MP2, MP3, AAC, and AC3 audio
- Performance implementations of AES security and forward error correction
- Access to user-associated channel lineups and video on demand with powerful playback controls
- An extensive electronic programming guide (EPG)
- A full-featured interface with complete audio, video, and window controls
- A communications link to the server that understands what is being watched and how it is being watched
- A communications link from the server that can control what is being watched and how it is being watched
Once the client requests the player and the player is sent by the server to the client, which occurs instantaneously, the user can select what content to view. The content, with forward error correction and security optionally applied, is then delivered in real time to the player. Delivery is fast, secure, reliable, consistent, and controlled, without requiring the user to install any software. What makes this approach particularly compelling is that once the user closes the session, the player is removed completely from the end user’s machine. No configuration or user files are created. No media is cached. Once the player is removed from the computer, there is no trace of it left. There is no history, no remnant, nothing.
Ease of Deployment With InStream’s unique client/server architecture, there is nothing to install on viewing computers. There is no need to install software, plug-ins, or programs in order to deploy, upgrade, configure, or maintain the player in any way. Furthermore, InStream works on any computer platform, including Windows PC, Mac, and Linux. Thanks to requests by the U.S. Department of Defense, it even works on Sun Solaris platforms. Deploying InStream is actually easier then launching a simple Web page. Users simply click on a link and InStream is immediately launched. Regardless of the user’s operating system, the interface is the same, offering a consistent viewing experience across the entire enterprise. The Video Furnace server can support the standard “PLAY” link that produces a default screen layout, content access, and player behavior, but it also features a link generator that can create links with specific layouts, access rights (channel lineups and video-on-demand selections), and even behavior. InStream can be launched in any way administrators want it to be launched.
Absolute Security Early on, Video Furnace technology designers realized that security was a key component of any successful IP video deployment. The company’s architects used discussions with media companies, large enterprises, universities, and government agencies to understand their requirements for secure IP video. As a result, the InStream player supports full 256-bit AES encryption and is FIPS 197 and FIPS 140-2 compliant, assuring the security of video as it traverses the data network. The InStream player never caches any data, thus removing the need for complicated digital rights management to attempt to protect content. A digital watermark can be inserted as a video overlay to help thwart unauthorized analog attempts to steal content or to identify streams. Lastly, integrated with a customer’s conditional access solution, the InStream player can be locked down to provide users with only the content they are authorized to view. With these security measures in place, the InStream viewing environment is totally secure making it impossible to steal any content.
Network Resiliency
Network-related problems are an unfortunate fact of life. Considering the performance requirements and security concerns of users across the enterprise spectrum, Video Furnace architects decided that InStream would not cache. This decision, however, eliminated the most common method employed by client technologies to deal with packet loss. To get around this apparent limitation, the Video Furnace solution uses forward error correction (FEC) to handle packet loss on the network. As a result, an FEC algorithm was chosen that could handle up to 5% packet loss without any significant loss of video or audio data. With this robust FEC in place, the InStream player is fully capable of handling the challenges of streaming video on modern data networks, without raising the security concerns of other client technologies.
Coordinated Media Delivery Many clients require that their users not only have access on their computers, but also can enjoy content on fixed endpoints such as displays driven by set-top boxes. Video Furnace architects designed a low-cost set-top box, the STINGRAYTM that exactly mimics the desktop user experience. The STINGRAY supports all of the core features of InStream and presents the same user interface, operated with a remote control instead of the computer keyboard. In fact, the InStream player is delivered to the STINGRAY on start-up in exactly the same way as on the desktop. All players adhere to the client/server architecture. As the Video Furnace Portal Server is in constant communication with all InStream desktop players and STINGRAY set-top boxes, it can provide the unique benefit of player/STB synchronization. This is particularly useful when both players and fixed displays are in the same area, such as on a financial trading floor.
Another application benefit within the Video Furnace System 5 is the ability to set up high-bandwidth and small-bandwidth streams simultaneously from the encoders and distribute those to all endpoints through a feature called HiLo Streaming. Should an older computer not have the power to perform full HD decoding with InStream, users can select a reduced-bandwidth or reduced-resolution duplicate of the same media – all in real-time with no additional transcoding delays.
Command and Control In the enterprise, it is critical that administrators have control over what users view and how they view it, not just on set-top boxes, but also on desktop clients. Additionally, administrators at universities need a method for getting emergency alerts out to users throughout their campuses. The Video Furnace solution incorporates a Command and Control system to handle both of these needs. From the Command and Control software interface, administrators can quickly and easily control anything that a user can do with either a set-top box or with the InStream micro-client. For example, administrators can remotely change channels, power up/down set top boxes, and create commands that operate on a full 30 year recurring scheduler. Administrators can also send messages to players and set-top boxes. Since the Video Furnace Command and Control supports the “One Net” emergency alert standard, it can interoperate with existing emergency alert systems. With Command and Control, administrators have a tool that gives them complete control over their IP video distribution system.
Standards-Based, Open, Extensible Enterprises today take their media operations very seriously. Assets contained within these systems may be used for years to come, and administrators want the systems that are required and deployed in any section of the organization to interoperate with other media systems. In order to assure interoperability, these media systems must be standards-based. Overwhelmingly, the most pervasive video standard being deployed today is H.264.
InStream is the player extension of HaiVision’s Video Furnace System 5. Both are standards-based and initially designed to accommodate the widely adopted MPEG standards. The newest MPEG standard, MPEG-4 part 10, also commonly known as H.264, is poised to dominate all areas of network video and video storage for years to come. It is about 60 percent more efficient than MPEG-2, enables efficient storage and transmission of HD at bit rates equal to those used for MPEG-2 at SD, and is the basis of everything from Blu-ray DiscTM to broadcast to iPods. InStream supports MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and H.264 from low resolution through 1080p HD.
It Just Works! Different IP video technologies have their place within the enterprise. Flash, for example, is an excellent medium for delivering video over the Web. Many organizations focused on a Windows-only approach find Window Media Player the best solution for their needs. QuickTime remains in extensive use for video delivery. All of these technologies are based on software that is installed and maintained across all desktops within the organization.
For those enterprises that wish to avoid or overcome the challenges of installing software on every desktop and the associated maintenance, for those that need consistency across platforms, that take security very seriously, that demand performance, for those that may need a harmonized desktop player/set-top box delivery approach, and those who may want some centralized control of those elements, a client/server approach has unmistakable benefits. InStream’s proven client/server architecture provides enterprises and their users with those benefits.
Video Furnace System 5 (1.3 mb)
InStream Technology White Paper(1.3 mb)
InStream Datasheet(870 kb)
