This software solution allows the remote administration of multiple streaming media encoders through an easy to use web interface. It consists of three components:

• a web based user interface allows the easy creation of live or rebroadcast streaming events. The user only enters the name, the date, the time, and the duration of the event. All other parameters such as filenames, encoding profiles, and capture devices are managed automatically. The preview page displays a preview of all streams, which are currently in progress (streaming). Events in progress may be terminated by the user.
• a web based administrator interface gives full access rights to all events stored in the database.
• an application on the encoder (StreamBoxx) scans the database for new events, retrieves them, schedules them for up to 4 concurrent encoding tasks, and reports status back to the database, so that the user and administrator stay informed about the streaming activities.

Rich Media Events
For rich media events with synchronized flipping of powerpoint slides, two streams may be managed by user automatically. The first streams encodes the audio and video of the presenter. The second stream only encodes the powerpoint slides, which are captured from the monitor (RGB) output of the presenter's notebook PC. For slides of 640x480 pixels a bandwidth of 50kbit/s is sufficient for most powerpoint presentations.

Administrators
The administrators schedule the events through a web interface. Two access modes are supported. The user mode allows limited access. Many parameters are automatically managed. The admin mode provides full access.

Encoder (StreamBoxx)
The encoder encodes one or multiple streams. They are based on Windows Media Technology 9. The live encoding from VfW or DirectShow capture devices (Winnov Videum cards) and the rebroadcast of previously recorded files are supported.

SQL Server
The SQL server stores the events and their status in a database. Both the administrator and the encoders access this database. Depending on the performance of the SQL server this system is very scalable to support multiple encoders.

Web Server
The web server stores the interfaces for the administrator and the viewers. The administrator pages are html/php based, to dynamically embed the contents of the database. The viewers pages may be custom designed to embed the Windows Media Player object, which displays the streamed videos and presentations.