Ok, I'm serious about this streaming media server.

I can pay the bill. I need someone to manage it for me. The manager would get free space for their own site(s) and we would offer a good rate for sites that need the extra punch and bandwidth to be successful.

Are you referring to an RMS service? FFMPEG service?

What do you need the manager to do?

No. I'm talking about leasing a Gbit bandwidth server and installing and managing a flull blown media server...

Yes, I understand it will be media...but what specifically?

Specifically? The hot shot server specifically tailored for dolphin sites....

He's talking about dolphin video uploads.... streaming them via rtsp instead of http streaming.  It needs a FFserver/FFmpeg server set up for rtsp streaming instead of the usual Dolphin http streaming.

I expect the 'Manager' would need to set all this up, perform periodic updates, and backups.... remotely.  This would be a 1Gbps server with probably a maximum of 10 dolphin installations.  The idea is to have a 1Gbps transfer rate available for better delivery of concurrent HD Video streams by giving individual sitse a much higher data transfer rate as opposed to the usual 100Mbps dedicated server.  A 100Mbps server can realistically stream 25 concurrent HD video streams.... a 1Gbps server 250 concurrent streams.  Of course that 250 is distributed over how many sites are hosted on the server.  If any one site decides to be a BW hog... the whole idea goes to crap.

i'm needing a few of these servers as well, unfortunately i can't share

HA - I mostly lurk here... but...

We do streaming of video and images (for some of the sites we support) using a CDN (Content Delivery Network).

I'm not sure of your exact requirements, but it is something worth looking into...

An added side benefit is reduced network latency, as a CDN serves the content from the "closest node" to your viewer.

Smoge

ModMySite on Unity? My hero.

Ahh... Ok.  I'm on the same page now.  Sorry for my ignorance.

OK... Who want to integrate the Cloudfiles API into Dolphin?

http://www.rackspacecloud.com/cloud_hosting_products/files/api

how would this work with live streaming video?

PRICES:

Thought I'd do some quick math on this.  Let's assume you have 2,000 50MB videos stored.  Total storage space would be 100GB, and the monthly storage cost would be $15

It would have cost you $8 to upload those videos

The most expensive part is your users watching those videos, but it's not bad.  If your members watched a total of 5,000 videos in their entirety, your cost would be $55.  At that point, you probably have a fairly busy site... for a Dolphin site, that is.


Great Idea Smoge.... you should stop by more often with this stuff.  When will you have the D7 integration done?

Screw the 1Gbps server..... this is better.  I'm in.  I want it now.... I want it fk'n yesterday, dammit!!!

ya, i never knew about this kind of option. i likes it. i likes it a lauht.

We have been using CDN for some of our sites for 2+ years now... it works well in most cases... but it also depends on your exact needs.  In some cases, a dedicated server is better... and also, don't forget about your transcoding (format change) needs - which may take some horsepower.  You would normally transcode before you load the CDN.

Plus... you need to consider...

Origin Pull

- The content (video, or whatever), is pulled from your server on first use, then normally lives in the CDN for 24 hours (TTL).

- The first load of the content can be slow, as it goes from your server, into the CDN, then to the first user.

- The second and later views, as long as the TTL has not expired, are at full CDN speeds.

- This method is less expensive, and usually only has Bandwidth charges, and no storage charges.

POP Pull (or pre-load)

- The content (video, or whatever), is loaded into the CDN first.  It lives on the CDN until you delete it (no TTL).

- The first view, and later views, are the same speed, as the content is already on the CDN.

- This method is more expensive, as you have Bandwidth charges, and also Storage charges.

I re-opened our CDN forum on ModMySite.. I had it offline for a while, as most of the contacts we had from non-current clients who were interested in it, in fact, were not serious about it... but maybe the interest is peaking again.

http://www.modmysite.com/cdn-content-delivery-network/

Warm regards,

Smoge

>> Great Idea Smoge.... you should stop by more often with this stuff.  When will you have the D7 integration done?

Yea - maybe I'll post more here on Unity... I have just lurked for a couple of years now.. instead posting on our forum.

As for integrations - all our stuff works with all versions of aeDating and Dolphin... we are a custom coding outfit.

8 years now, working on aeWebWorks and Boonex products...

Smoge

Note:

Cloud Customer: ok - thanks

i think this will work great for photo, video content for me, but i guess i will have to go with super horsepower servers for my live video streaming.

>> how would this work with live streaming video?

CDN (in its standard configuration) is not for live streaming video.

Smoge

>> i guess i will have to go with super horsepower servers for my live video streaming.

I suggest you gather data.. and don't over buy on servers...

Servers are like girl friends... if the one you have (or get), does not "put out", then you get a new one (upgrade).

You don't need to "marry one", and get stuck into a high monthly fee, when you don't know what you really need.

And if you are really serious about a Media Server... why are you (I assume) use Red5 (or Ray Media Server)... FMS (Flash Media Server) is a far superior product (yes, we use this for our most serious sites).  http://www.adobe.com/products/flashmediaserver/
But for a lot of sites... RED5 or Ray Media Server maybe OK (and free!).

As for Wowza... well.... I am sorry, I can't recommend it..  have been there, and done that, and walked away feeling burnt and disappointed.

As for cooking up your own media server running FMS, sure, lots of fun - but there are TONS of providers out there for this... that provide FMS hosting and so on... just an option.

Anyways... ha ha... something to think about.

Smoge

i am planning on using fms. rms is only temporary. it's a budget thing at the moment.

>> ModMySite on Unity?

Yes, I have been lurking for 3 years now.

member since 06.10.2007

That is one hell of a lurk!

Ha ha!

hypocrite

I'm not pitching anything.. that post is from 2 years ago.... and totally out of date.

We no longer resell CDN - we only do the coding.

I'll update the post to avoid future confusion.

Also, you need to keep in mind the difference in pricing between ORIGIN PULL and POP PULL when looking at CDN costs.

You can find CDN's all over the place to compare price

Smoge

that's what i was wondering. i think it's just to make more money off the small amount of sites that actually do go over. they are most likely making plenty of money and can and are willing to pay the extra fees. yes? no?

I updated the thread (as I mentioned, it was 2+ years old).  Back then, we used to re-sell CDN, but we moved away from re-selling stuff, and instead, prefer that our clients are empowered with their own accounts.

http://www.modmysite.com/cdn-content-delivery-network/9157-cdnmysite-content-delivery-network.html

In a nutshell: We no longer re-sell CDN. We only do the modifications required to support it on your site / server.

There are lots of CDN providers, and lots of people who can add it to your site(s), if you choose to go the CDN route.

Smoge

thanks for the great info mod. i will be contacting you soon for cdn help.

I have hacked up some simple code to use http://www.simplecdn.com for videos and a few other things. Really the code is for any origin pull cdn and just changes the URL content is loaded from.

I have all so been working on making my own poor mans cdn using some kind of load balanced / fail over DNS and VPS / Nginx servers as a reverse proxy cache to replicate origin pull.

The goal of my project is to chase the cheap bandwidth, but not be knocked off line if the cheap accounts are shut down for using what was sold due to AUP violations.

Right now I able able to get $0.039 per GB all outbound data transfer so that's the price per GB I am tiring to beat.

Any one know of VPS or dedicated servers that offer bandwidth for less then $0.03 / GB?

Wow. This post has taekn on a life of it's own. Some great info in here.

after much research over the past couple weeks, i think i've finally made a decision. we are going to use influxis.com for our media hosting. i've been hearing good things about them and their rates are pretty competitive. i really like their tvstation2 app. they explained to me that you can make a page to embed the app on, and then embed the admin panel on each users profile page and add a stream for them. they can then login from their page and broadcast live, record, create schedules channels etc. if you use them for hosting, you get the app for free, along with any of their other apps.

looks like i'll have to spend a bit more money to integrate the users into the app, but they said it's not very difficult.

just in case anyone else is interested.

We are interested on developing a Dolphin CDN integration with Rackspace Cloud Files, we are a Rackspace Gold Partner and Open Source software integrator.

email us If you want to colaborate on an integration module for free distribution to Unity members.

jrodriguez@e-bcomm.com.mx

Julio Rodriguez

EBCOMM Inc.