Re: [kNT] FW: Moving Network Trial Forward

[Daniel Harris <daniel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi there Alex,

At 15:26 08/08/01 +0100, Alex Wolfe wrote:
>Astream is now in a position to add 3 servers to
>the network trial and 30 streams - this should
>put us in top place?

I look forward to it!

>1) Form option boxes to select prefered player
>and bitrate but also country location.
>(Once selected Kendra will remember for future
>streams)

In a way they can already select the country from the list of providers 
that host the content.

It would be far better to have some kind of automation that located the 
best server for the consumer. That doesn't necessarily mean the same 
country or even the geographically closest. "Best" is a combination of 
closest, in network terms, by looking at speed and latency, I guess.

>2) The different server urls are listed in each
>.asx or .ram file in order one after another - so
>if one server is busy or has failed the next
>server in the playlist is tried automatically by
>the client player.

Sounds cool.

Also, we should have a system that checks that the kI database is kept 
current with the real world servers. And maybe sends gentle reminders to 
people who say their hosting content but aren't.

Seems to me that we really need to get some kind of development methodology 
up and running so that we are not making ad hock changes here and there but 
actually have a set of miles stones to achieve. Me, I'm not a systems 
developer, so I look forward to hearing suggestions from those that are.

>It would be great to get a live demo going for
>the show as well.

Yes, it would be great to get the live streaming part of kNT up and running 
as well as the current ondemand part.

Cheers Daniel