Windows Azure Media Services Overview and Setup

Windows Azure Media Services is a cloud-based platform that enables you to create, manage, and deliver media content to various devices and platforms. It's a scalable and secure solution that supports live and on-demand video streaming.

The platform offers a range of features, including media processing, encoding, and packaging, as well as content protection and delivery. You can use Azure Media Services to stream video content to various devices, including smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs.

To get started with Azure Media Services, you'll need to create an account and set up a media services account. This involves selecting a pricing tier and configuring your account settings.

To get started with Windows Azure Media Services, you'll want to learn how to encode and package content, which is a crucial step in delivering high-quality video and audio streams.

First, review the fundamental concepts, which include important topics like packaging, encoding, and protecting your content.

You'll also need to understand how to develop with Media Services v3 APIs, which involves accessing APIs, following naming conventions, and more.

Learning these basics will give you a solid foundation for creating and delivering on-demand and live video or audio streams that scale to millions of users.

To enable a system-assigned managed identity for your Media Services account, navigate to the Azure portal and select the Media Services account you want to manage. Then, from the left navigation menu, select Identity and click on the System-assigned tab.

To use a system-managed identity with a Media Services storage account, navigate to the Media Services account in the Azure portal, select Storage from the left navigation menu, and select System-assigned from the managed-identity dropdown list of the storage account.

You can also create a Media Services account with a system-managed identity by selecting the System-assigned tab in the Identity screen during account creation. However, keep in mind that all new Media Services accounts require a user-managed identity, and previously created accounts with a system-managed identity have not changed.

To create a Media Services account with the Azure portal, you'll need to sign in at the Azure portal.

You'll select +Create a resource, then enter "Media Services" in the search field and select Enter. The search results will appear, including a card for Media Services.

Select the Media Services card, and the Media Services detail screen will appear.

Select Create, and the Create a Media Services account screen will appear.

In this section, you'll enter required values, including the name of the new Media Services account, which must be all lowercase letters or numbers with no spaces, and 3 to 24 characters in length.

A resource group is a collection of resources that share lifecycle, permissions, and policies. You'll select the new or existing resource group for your Media Services account.

You'll also select the geographic region that will be used to store the media and metadata records for your Media Services account. This region will be used to process and stream your media.

A new storage account is created in the same region as your Media Services account. You can have any number of Secondary storage accounts associated with your Media Services account.

Here are the required values for creating a Media Services account:

You must have one Primary storage account and can have any number of Secondary storage accounts associated with your Media Services account.

It's strongly recommended to use storage accounts in the same location as the Media Services account to avoid additional latency and data egress costs.

You'll select the checkbox next to "I have all the rights to use the content/file, and agree that it will be handled per the Online Services Terms and the Microsoft Privacy Statement." to confirm and continue.

You'll then click Review + create or add tags with the Next:Tags button. Finally, click Create on the following screen, and deployment will begin.

To create a system-assigned managed identity, you'll need to navigate to your Media Services account in the Azure portal.

Select the Media Services account to which you want to add a system-managed identity from the list of resources on your portal home screen.

From the left navigation menu, select Identity, and then select the System-assigned tab.

Enable the system-assigned identity by selecting the Yes radio button and then select Save.

Alternatively, you can also enable a system-managed identity while creating a Media Services account.

Compliance and Security are crucial aspects of any media delivery service, and Azure Media Services takes them very seriously. Read the Compliance, privacy and security document before using Azure Media Services to deliver your media content.

Azure Media Services offers robust security features, including multi-DRM and AES encryption, ensuring that content is securely stored and delivered. This means you can rest assured that your sensitive content is protected from unauthorized access.

To ensure compliance, Azure Media Services requires users to read the Compliance, privacy and security document before using the service. This document outlines the necessary steps to follow for a secure and compliant media delivery experience.

Here are some of the key security features of Azure Media Services:

With Azure Media Services, you can have peace of mind knowing that your content is secure and compliant with industry standards. By following the necessary steps outlined in the Compliance, privacy and security document, you can ensure a smooth and secure media delivery experience.

Azure Media Services allows you to deliver any media on virtually any device to anywhere in the world using the cloud.

With a collection of services that provide encoding, live or on-demand streaming, content protection, and indexing for video and audio content, you can easily manage and distribute your media.

You can extract metadata from your audio and video files using AI for video technologies, making it easier to organize and analyze your content.

Azure Media Services lets you deliver any media, on virtually any device, to anywhere in the world using the cloud. The collection of services provide encoding, live or on-demand streaming, content protection, and indexing for video and audio content.

You can extract metadata from your audio and video files using AI for video technologies. This feature is part of the AI capabilities in Azure Media Services.

Media Services customers can choose between a standard streaming endpoint and one or more premium streaming units, depending on their needs. The standard streaming endpoint scales outbound bandwidth automatically, while premium streaming units provide dedicated, scalable bandwidth capacity.

Streaming is billed as the combination of streaming services and the quantity of data transferred. When Azure Content Delivery Network is enabled, standard Content Delivery Network pricing applies for all data transferred.

To encode a video source, you can upload a media asset and select a transform for encoding. You can also configure the output, including the output asset name, storage account, job name, and job priority.

The standard encoder transcodes video and audio input files into output formats suitable for playback on a variety of devices. The pricing for the standard encoder is $- per output minute.

You can choose from various codecs, including H.264 Basic, H.264, and HEVC, for on-demand encoding. The pricing for the H.264 Basic codec applies to all framerates of H.264 output for the Speed profile complexity.

To secure your assets, you can use PlayReady digital rights management (DRM), Widevine Modular license delivery, Apple FairPlay Streaming, or clear key Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption. The pricing for FairPlay is $-/100 licenses.

Here are some key features and pricing for Azure Media Services:

Audio Analytics offers two bundles of features at different price points. The standard Audio Analyzer preset provides a richer set of metadata using AI-based audio analysis models.

The standard preset includes speech transcription, speaker indexing, speech sentiment analysis, and keywords, with formatted output captions or subtitles. This feature is available at a specific price point, although it's not specified in the article.

The Basic Audio Analyzer preset is a low-cost option that extracts only speech transcription and formats output captions and subtitles. It will produce two separate meters on your bill for transcription and caption/subtitle formatting.

In regions without a local speech-to-text endpoint, additional in-region networking data transfer rates apply. These regions include Australia Southeast, Canada East, France South, Germany West Central, and others.

Here's a list of regions without a local speech endpoint:

The list of regions is subject to change as new speech endpoints are enabled.