Taking Sharepoint Calendars to the Web

There are many times in my career that I have ideas, and this is no exception. About a year and half ago, I had an idea... An IT guy idea. Lets get the data in one place, and then connect everything to that. As a truly lazy computer person, I hate, abhor the idea of repetitive tasks...That's why I like computers.

About a year ago, I shared an idea with my programmer about publishing a Sharepoint calendar to our website live...embedded in the page with no visible links back to Sharepoint.

About a month ago, my programmer, Richie, came back to me and wanted to tackle the project. About two weeks our beta went online, and last week we went live with a new breed of calendar.

http://www.calvaryccm.com/community/eventscalendar.aspx

This link takes you to a Flash Calendar that is reading it's data from Sharepoint WebServices on our back end Sharepoint site (our Intranet), and pumping in to the Flash App as an XML Document.

What is so totally cool about this is that it allows all of our ministries to publish their calendar information through standard methods (ie Sharepoint), and not have to learn something new. We are working on expanding this idea to include Categories (Each Ministry) and some of our larger venues as locations. We are also incorporating some really cool filtering so that each ministry can have their own calendars still based off the original idea.

When I found out that there were 12 calendars that all needed to be kept current...Well that blew my mind.

Thanks Microsoft, Thanks Sharepoint, Thanks Richie.... My hat is off to you for making this happen.

More to come on the Publishing Sharepoint Idea.

Optimizing Windows Media Streams

Our internet streaming is powered almost exclusively by Windows Media Streams. We stream a High, Low, and audio streams.

Our High bitrate = 323Kbps
Low = 160Kbps
Audio = MultiFormat 64Kbps, 23, 8

Everything has been great until recently when our streaming numbers have begun pushing 600 per weekend. We get reports of strange timeouts and other network related issues.

After doing some research, I have some key items to share with anyone interested for improving Windows Media Streaming Quality for the end user!

1. Send your stream from encoder to Windows Media Server Via HTTP. This will ensure your get the full stream delivered to distribution point.
2. Change your WM Encoder to use a set maximum packet size. Under the tabbed options for the encoder you can set the maximum packet size to something a little lower. I am using 1400 and it is working really well.
3. On your windows media server... Under the server->Unicast Stream Writer->Properties you will want to set your maximum packet size to 1400 as well.
4. On each publishing point, you should set your startup bandwidth to something less than the default 3500. (I use 512.) If you don't do this, when your system gets towards the upper end of bandwidth use, people get bumped while someone else is connecting.


There are some other things that can cleanup streaming performance, such as network path between encoder and distribution server, firewalls, and the like, but this is mainly focused on the encoder.

Infrastructure Series: Streaming Setup

At CCM we have two very different streaming systems right now. We have our regular Internet Streams, and we also have our Live Streaming Solution for our Multi-Site Church. Both work off many of the same systems, but operate very differently. Let's start with our Internet Streaming setup. Currently we have 3 encoders...2 in production, 1 in standby mode (manual, nothing fancy yet, just a spare). The encoders are all built with the following:

Hardware:
- homebuilt rackmount dual core computers
- Osprey 210 Cards
- 1 to 8 Analog Composite Video & RCA Stereo Distribution Amplifier

Software:
- Windows XP
- Osprey Drivers / Utilities
- Windows Media Encoder / Real Producer

Server Side we have an interesting mix. In the process of getting our distributed network for Multi-Site streaming in place, we ended up getting 75Mb of Internet as part of the deal. Long story with Time Warner, if anyone ever wants to know email me... On the servers we have, again a home built box with some redundancy for our Windows Media Distribution Point (Win 2k3, WMS, etc) and we have a leased server from the Planet where we run Real Server.

Currently we are running the following streams:

WMS:
- 282 Kbps (16:9 Video 360x240 Resolution)
- 30 Kbps (16:9 Video 180x120 Resolution)
- 14-20 Kbps Audio Only Stream
- 14-20 Kbps Spanish Audio Only Stream (translated on the fly)

Real:
- 250 Kbps (16:9 Video 360x240 Resolution)
- 30 Kbps (16:9 Video 180x120 Resolution)

Right now all of these streams are being done from 1 Encoder Computer. (Dell Optiplex with Core 2 Duo / 2 GB Ram) ViewCast offers a software called simulstream which allows you to fire up multiple encoders on a single computer using a single osprey card to create completely seperate streams.

Our Second Encoder computer is being used to test some higher bitrate streams. Right now I am testing the possibility of upgrading to using the Flash Media Encoder to provide a Real Time Flash Stream.

My other upgrade project is to get a Black Magic Capture board and offer a full resolution (720x480) stream.

Here is a look at our streaming setup. Our Live multisite is also diagrammed here, but I will cover that in a later article.

Infrastructure Series: Content Filtering

For content filtering we have standardized on WebSense http://www.websense.com . I have worked with Surf Control and Websense rather extensively over the last 6 months. Pound for pound Surf Control is less expensive and get’s “close” to filtering as well as WebSense, but in the end, WebSense is simply a much better product. There are obviously much less expensive solutions out there, but there aren’t too many that can keep up with our network. Websense has several little features that are really cool…

First things first – our Church environment might be a little different. We have a large atrium area where we have public internet access…Totally public. I am looking at putting a captive portal in place so we can at least splash something at folks as they come in. Additionally we have a K-8 school and those little guys need some supervision / blocking. Lastly we have a Youth Center Building where teens have free access to the Internet from 8 computers (thin clients, but that’s another story).

WebSense has been a great solution for us because:

1) It enforces Safe Search on Image Sites (images.google.com / images.yahoo.com)

2) Has a wonderfully selectable policy engine

a. Multiple policies

b. Multiple Category / List settings

3) Much faster update than Surf Control

All in all it is a fantastic product. I actually considered going with Surf Control and then I learned that they are in the process of being acquired by WebSense. So that sealed the deal, that and the fact that WebSense offered to match the Surf Control Pricing.

So that begs the question? What is everyone doing on Content Filtering?

What is the best Blog to use?

I have noticed that many people are using different solutions to accomplish blogging, so the question I have is, what is the best solution right now for blogging? Anybody have any metrics on it?

Multi-Site Church: LIVE

Here is a shot of our Saturday Night service at our multi-site church.

On each side of the High School Auditorium our Viera Campus meets in, we added a 10 foot WideScreen Projector / Screen combo, and then also added a 25' WideScreen Projector screen for a center shot.

We are currently streaming both the side and center shots from our main campus in Melbourne, about 20 miles south.







This is half of the powerhouse that makes the multi-site church possible. What you see are 2 StreamBox units, 3 rows of monitors, 2 Camera Control Base Stations and an Opera Video Switcher. Basically we have enough power to run most churches, but contained in single roadcase. The Streamboxes allow us to broadcast the service live over IP at or above DVD quality.

We actually record the service to DVD at the multi-site church.




This campus has it's own band, and both campuses use the same set list everyweek. We still have a couple of timing issues to work out, like when we switch over to the live feed from the main campus, but in general everything runs really smooth.