This may already be covered elsewhere, but I am writing it up anyway.
We use SharePoint 2010. We also have a lot of video content, shared amongst many staff, of which presently there are multiple copies of the content scattered around the network. The aim was to remove all these duplicate copies of ‘static’ data, combine them together and add them to a searchable database.
We wanted to use Windows Media Services to allow the media to be streamed to the clients too, so multiple people can watch and share the file simultaneously.
We needed a site which allowed users to upload files to the Windows Media Services Server, but also create the necessary URL links inside SharePoint. If it was too complicated people wouldn’t use it, and us in ICT did not want to spend the next few weeks doing it all for them.
This caused the birth of the Streaming Media Upload site. This site uses the following ideas to simplify making streaming media available.
- User browses to the site. They select the file that they want to upload, and enter basic details such as the Title, Author, Information about the clip and the Copyright Holder.
- The user also selects the SharePoint List to add the clip to.
- The user selects upload.
- The media file is uploaded and saved in the Windows Media Services Content Folder
- An ASX file is created with a link to the clip, along with the clip information specified to the user. This ASX file is saved in a web directory
- A new URL List Item is created in the SharePoint list which refers back to the ASX file.
In this way, SharePoint is not filled up with video content, which would bloat the database, but full details of the videos are stored in SharePoint which can be searched upon.
Full details of how we set up this system are included on the Windows Media Services Upload Site page, at the top.
