The Microsoft Media Platform is a complete set of technologies for digital media encoding, delivery, and playback for virtually any network-connected device. Whether you are a content creator, content owner, content distributor, or an enterprise, the Microsoft Media Platform enables you to address user and business needs through an integrated platform.

Built on the powerful foundations of Windows Server, IIS, Expression Encoder, Silverlight, and PlayReady, the Microsoft Platform provides functions for every stage of digital media processes and can be easily integrated into existing workflows and third-party services.

The Microsoft Media Platform has been proven for live events at a massive scale, and is used 24/7 by customers to power exciting video experiences, from video streaming in the enterprise to delivering premium content on demand.

The Microsoft Media Platform: Player Framework 2.5 and Microsoft Media Platform: Player Framework 2.5 for Windows Phone has been released to the web on Codeplex.

http://smf.codeplex.com/releases/view/63434

New features include support for stereoscopic 3D video and for advertising standards such as MAST, VAST 2.0 and VPAID 1.1. The framework includes a red-cyan anaglyph module for rendering of stereoscopic 3D content on legacy displays, while an NVIDIA 3D Vision module for use with active shutter glasses is available from NVIDIA.

Stereoscopic 3D support

• Anaglyph Stereoscopic 3D video plugin (supports Anaglyph 3D, Greyscale 3D, Left eye only modes)
• NVidia 3DVision Active Shutter Stereoscopic 3D plugin. Available as a separate download.
• S3DProperties property added to PlaylistItem class.
• Support for 3rd party Stereoscopic 3D plugins.
• More info…

• MAST (Media Abstract Sequencing Template) - supports ad sequencing and targeting.
• VAST 2.0 (Digital Video Ad Serving Template) - supports ad definitions and tracking.
• VPAID 1.1 (Digital Video Player-Ad Interface Definition) - supports actual playback of ads.
• Extensible architecture to plug in your own ad sequencing engines, ad handlers, and ad players.

• Breaking change: PlaylistItem.MarkerResource has been renamed to PlaylistItem.MarkerResources and now contains a list of MarkerResource objects instead of a single MarkerResource.
• Breaking change: Protected member SMFPlayer.MarkerProvider has been renamed to MarkerProviders and now returns a list of IMarkerProvider objects instead of a single IMarkerProvider.
• Fix: TTML cell unit sizing incorrect. Resulted in TTML captions being too small to see.
• Optimization: Under certain circumstances, switching audio streams would cause visible freeze (1-2 seconds).
• Fix: If a marker is removed while it is active, MediaMarkerManager.MarkerLeft now fires.
• Fix: LoggingService.StartingSession never fired.
• Fix: SMFPlayer.PlayerID was not always persisting the GUID.
• Fix: TimedText plugin stops rendering in AsNeeded mode after 2 mintues.
• Fix: Can't create custom template for VersionInformation
• Fix: UEs go unhandled if using Monitoring plugin
• Fix: AdvertisementClickThrough handler throws NullReferenceException depending on how ad was scheduled
• Fix: VideoStopLog would not always get generated for health monitor.
• Improvement: Added ability to set additional logging data for health monitor via PlaylistItem's new CustomMetadata property
• Improvement: Adding new VideoLoadLog to health monitor and VideoStartLog now is generated only once visible playback begins.
• Improvement: Exposing SMFLogger in monitoring plugin.
• Improvement: Uses SSME 1.5 Update 1

Comcast Xfinity, Microsoft and ThePlatform enable Delivery

Microsoft’s  IIS Smooth Streaming platform, together with Microsoft PlayReady DRM technology, is being deployed for Comcast’s Xfinity online service.

The announcement courtesy of “thePlatform”:

Microsoft and thePlatform Enable Delivery of Protected, High-Quality, Premium Online Video

thePlatform’s video management system, mpx, now integrates Microsoft PlayReady DRM and adaptive streaming technologies; first joint deployment with Xfinity TV Online

REDMOND, Wash., and SEATTLE — April 8, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. and thePlatform today announced that the companies have integrated Microsoft’s leading digital media technologies, including Microsoft PlayReady and Internet Information Services (IIS) Smooth Streaming, into thePlatform’s mpx video management system. With this integration, premium video providers can deliver protected, high-definition (HD) Web video for both in-home and remote viewing experiences. The solution provides full offline and streaming capabilities across a broad ecosystem of devices spanning Windows-based PCs and Macs.

“Media companies and TV service providers are seeking protected, scalable, cross-platform solutions for publishing premium video,” said Marty Roberts, vice president of sales and marketing at thePlatform. “We’re very proud to work with Microsoft, which has established itself as a leader in the delivery of smooth, high-quality streaming and advanced content protection. Together, our integrated solution can offer our mutual customers a robust, high-quality viewing experience for their viewers around the world.”

“thePlatform is one of the leading online video management and publishing companies, and it offers us the ability to extend the reach of Microsoft technology to more network operators and content creators,” said Austen Mulinder, corporate vice president, Communications Sector at Microsoft. “At Microsoft, we seek out relationships with companies such as thePlatform to create opportunities for media and entertainment companies to innovate, differentiate and create new revenue streams and experiences across the PC, TV, phone and beyond.”

Bringing HD Media Experiences Online

By implementing IIS Smooth Streaming, a feature of IIS Media Services, thePlatform’s customers can present optimal experiences based on available network bandwidth and device capabilities. IIS Smooth Streaming is a form of dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP for delivering live and on-demand content that adjusts video quality automatically and scales massively on content distribution networks. It provides a high-quality viewing experience, which can lead to longer engagement times and makes possible the delivery of full HD 1080p media experiences. thePlatform is also using Transform Manager, which is a server-side transformation engine built into IIS Media Services, to streamline production workflow for content companies by enabling solutions such as encoding once and simultaneously delivering multiple formats.

Microsoft PlayReady DRM Technology Enables Seamless Access to Premium Content

Microsoft PlayReady technology is widely supported in the industry and draws on the experience gained from more than a decade of investment that Microsoft has made in the development of digital rights management (DRM) technology. By offering Microsoft PlayReady, thePlatform offers content protection technology for publishers on Windows-based PCs and Macs. thePlatform’s support of Microsoft PlayReady underscores its benefits as a flexible, reliable and scalable content protection technology.

Comcast’s Xfinity TV Online Adopts thePlatform and Microsoft Technology

Comcast Interactive Media LLC is the first company to combine Microsoft PlayReady and IIS Smooth Streaming technology with thePlatform’s video management services, as part of Comcast’s Xfinity® TV service, which is available online through the company’s popular Xfinity TV app. The technologies are integrated as part of the On Demand video streaming feature on the iPad.

“We’re always looking at technologies that will help us deliver high-quality, premium video to a broad range of IP-connected devices,” said Charlie Herrin, senior vice president of product development and technology for Comcast Interactive Media. “This new, integrated solution from Microsoft and thePlatform supports our ongoing efforts to deliver great entertainment experiences for our customers on all screens and devices.”

Additional information about thePlatform is available at http://www.thePlatform.com. Additional information about Microsoft is available at http://www.microsoft.com.