RealMedia (RealServer 8)

There are two RealMedia (streaming media) servers maintained by OIT. The first is available to any organization maintaining web space on the Auburn University web site. The second RealMedia server is part of the AU Study system and is reserved for use by AU course related applications and materials in the AU Study Multimedia Toolkit.

Please contact the OIT Help Desk to request a streaming content directory. Please do not store streamed files in "regular" department or organization data web space as this can present problems for the AU Web backup system. Instead, OIT can create a streaming directory on a different data volume for your streamed files (see above).

Please keep in mind that copyright restrictions apply to audio and video clips included in streaming media presentations.

AU's streaming servers (stream.auburn.edu) run "RealServer 8". (See the documentation)

Chapter 4: Sources of Content of the documentation indicate that RealServer 8 streams the following content types:

However, we have not successfully tested streaming all these types from our server. Please see the TEST AREAS below.


Streaming RealAudio and RealMedia Files From AU Web RealMedia Space

To play a .rm or .ra file in from your RealMedia directory on the AU Web, reference a URL of this form:

http://stream.auburn.edu:7070/ramgen/pathname/filename.rm
OR
rtsp://stream.auburn.edu:8080/pathname/filename.rm

Where pathname/filename.rm is your subdirectory of the "content" directory and the name of the file you want to play.

EXAMPLE: rtsp://stream.auburn.edu:7070/suggjan/welcome.rm
and
http://stream.auburn.edu:7070/ramgen/suggjan/welcome.rm
play the file at /export/vol2/real/content/suggjan/welcome.rm

EXAMPLE: rtsp://stream.auburn.edu:7070/g2_samples/africag2/africa.smi
and
http://stream.auburn.edu:7070/ramgen/g2_samples/africag2/africa.smi play the file at /export/vol2/real/content/g2_samples/africag2/africa.smi


Streaming RealMedia Files from your Personal Web Space (public_html directory)

Streamed files are usually pretty big. Students have 40MB of space on the network for storage and web pages and faculty/staff have 100MB of space. Faculty and staff may request a departmental or work related streaming directory by sending a note to the HelpDesk.

To play a .rm or .ra file in from your personal home page on the AU Web, reference a URL of this form:

http://stream.auburn.edu:7070/ramgen/~userid/filename.rm

Where ~userid/filename.rm is your OIT user ID (preceded by a ~) and the name of the file you want to play.

EXAMPLE: http://stream.auburn.edu:7070/ramgen/~suggjan/realmedia/realtest.rm
plays the file in my personal web page at ~suggjan/realmedia/realtest.rm


Embedding a Real Media File


To embed a RealMedia file on a web page, use the code below. If you want the file to play when the page is opened (without having to press the start button), turn autostart to "true".

<embed
            controls="imagewindow"
            console="Clip1"
            src="rtsp://stream.auburn.edu:7070/suggjan/welcome.rm"
            width="320" height="240"
            autostart="false">

<embed
            controls="controlpanel"
            console="Clip1"
            src="rtsp://stream.auburn.edu:7070/suggjan/welcome.rm"
            width="320" height="30">

To set up an embedded live broadcast, see the sample at http://www.auburn.edu/~suggjan/realmedia/embedded_live.html.

Departments can request a live broadcast password via the HelpDesk.


Playing RealAudio and RealMedia Files Without a RealMedia Server

Even without access to a RealMedia server, you can still serve RealAudio and RealMedia files. Here's how:

Use the free encoder to create .ra and/or .rm files. Keep them small because the user will have to download them instead of streaming them. With small files this will be transparent. Create a .ram metafile for each Real file that contains a single line stating the complete URL of the corresponding .ra or .rm file.

Put this line in your .htaccess file:

AddType audio/x-pn-realmedia ram

Then create a link to the .ram file in the HTML file like

http://www.server.org/pathname/filename.ram

where www.server.org is the name of the server, pathname is the full path to the web directory, and filename.ram is the name of the .ram file.

TEST AREAS

rtsp://web8.duc.auburn.edu:29982/insy/career_video.mpeg

rtsp://web8.duc.auburn.edu:29982/suggjan/career_video.mpg

rtsp://stream.auburn.edu:8080/oit/mpg/GERUND.RM

rtsp://stream.auburn.edu/suggjan/welcome.rm


MP3 - TEST AREA

rtsp://stream.duc.auburn.edu/suggjan/voice.mp3

Test (realmedia.auburn.edu)

http://realmedia.auburn.edu/web99u/spenser02a.mp3

rtsp://stream.duc.auburn.edu/suggjan/theta_xi.mp3


AVI - TEST AREA

3/7/2003 NOTE: there appears to be a difference in the way stream.auburn.edu and realmedia.duc.auburn.edu are configured... This AVI file plays differently on these servers.

created sept 2002 rtsp://stream.duc.auburn.edu:554/suggjan/videotest.avi - sound but no video

AU Study

created sept 2002 rtsp://realmedia.duc.auburn.edu:554/web99u/u9909/videotest.avi - sound and video - what's the difference?


QUICKTIME - TEST AREA

April 2001 - http://web8.duc.auburn.edu:8080/ramgen/suggjan/aubie2000.mpg - error message - requires update not available

rtsp://stream.duc.auburn.edu:7070/suggjan/aubeagle.mov - error message - requires update not available

http://rm.auburn.edu:7070/ramgen/real2/samples/oit_presentation/play.smi


GENERAL TEST AREA

http://rm.auburn.edu:7070/ramgen/real1/suggjan/aubie2000.rm

rtsp://stream.auburn.edu/auband/symphony54.rm

rtsp://stream.auburn.edu:7070/student_info/auband/colorado.rm

http://realmedia.auburn.edu:8080/ramgen/web99u/u9909/g2audio.rm

http://realmedia.auburn.edu:8080/ramgen/web99u/u9909/africag2/africa.smi