Middleware and ISMA Client

Middleware concept and how you can employ it for VOD Quick Starts

Video Mate Pro uses Sigma Designs' EM 8621 decoder as the SOC on board. It incorporates an ARMS-7 CPU running at 266MHz. For the OS, we use embedded Linux. In order to lookup, fetch, download and decode ISO standard ISMA MPEG-4/WMV-9 HDTV streaming video files, we need an interface to allow Video Mate Pro to communicate with the ISMA streaming server (Apple Darwin or Video LAN), or with MicroSoft's Media Server. This piece of go-between software is generally referred to as "Middleware".

Our Video Mate Pro comes with embedded Linux, middleware for the media server, and it can visit the assigned server and starts the media streaming and playback.

If the developer wants to develop hardware related applications (such as menu customization, embedded Linux modification, addition of hardware device support, language modification, low-level application development), he need to license the development kit from Sigma Designs.

We provide the hardware platform, the embedded Linux, the browser and the middleware all wrapped inside the 4MB/8MB flash and 16MB of system memory.

The system integrator only need to set up the web server and the streaming server, and develop the web pages to hyperlink the icons to the ISMA/WMV-9 files on the video server, and he can start the streaming VOD in no time.

If he need to add pay-per-view or other charge related functions, he can contact Apple for Add-ons, or simply develop these applications under web-based data base engines such as Cold Fusion.

If the user requires DRM (Digital Rights Management), he needs to contact Microsoft for the license, and we can assist the customer in developing the DRM application under separate license agreement from Sigma Designs.

In this way, the customer can save on time and money for expensive development costs if he was to do everything by himself.

For NC 370-MTX-VTV and NC 8621 all-in-one mother boards, we provide the necessary Linux drivers and application software for link up to Darwin and Video LAN, as well as Microsoft's Media Server under Netcast's license fee schedule. Again, if streaming SKD on Sigma's EM 8621 is required, the customer can license the development kit from Sigma Designs, while we provide all the needed hardware and development work to make the whole solution work.

Embedded Linux Development

Embedded PC products have been in use for many years in a wide range of applications where size, flexibility and special features are required. Some of the markets that use embedded PC including machine control, data acquisition, security, Internet servers, thin client, embedded control, mobile applications, digital set-top box and interactive kiosks.

Increasing, microprocessors will be embedded in various appliances such as home appliances, digital AV appliances, and personal appliances. These appliances will be connected to various types of networks, especially the WAN and internet.

In response to the increasing demand for embedded IP device solutions, Netcast has started the Embedded PC section in early 2003 with focus on micro Linux as the embedded OS.

Earlier embedded modules required 32MB flash size, but now the typical embedded Linux is slimmed down to 8MB (with browser, middleware and client applications), while a special module supporting multiple languages is working with only 4MB flash.

Our main focus today is on VOD solutions under embedded Linux running on SOC or on all-in-one PC, but as business expands, we will branch into other embedded Linux solutions as the demand grows, since we have a few hardware platforms that function both as video kiosk and PC control units.

We accept projects to embed Linux into various hardware platforms and to develop specific applications. Please contact us for details and for quotes.

We make developers' jobs easier by embedding Linux, middleware and applications onto 8MB Flash

Middleware offers several advantages over hardwiring applications, which typically entails adding code to all of the applications involved, instructing them on specific tasks and can be very hardware specific and task orientated. Middleware adds an independent third party to that transaction, a translator. Middleware ties together all those apps and the OS, and connects the slim client to a Web server, hiding the complexity of the system from the customer.

With this middleware approach, Netcast works on the client side, usually a slim-client (SOC), typically our Video Mate Pro 8621, or our all-in-one set top PC platform, where we embed Linux into it. Here, we provide 2 main approaches:

Client-Server relationship

With this approach, we embed the Linux, and we develop the user interface, and provide a main menu for the customer. can provide us with the client-side application software in binary format (EXE file), and we embed the customer's application into the main menu. We then ship the whole unit with the customer's applications embedded.

The customer will work on the server side applications and provide us with the handshake protocol, and we are not involved in the server application developments.

This approach is easier for all parties when a VOD application is designed and fixed, and no on-the-fly changes are allowed. Such approach provides better control to the developer and system management, and requires much less effort in end-user support because all applications are fixed at design time, and users are virtually just operating a networked DVD player.

Alternatively, the customer can simply use our off-the-shelf VOD system, and just change the background image and logo and he can set up the whole system in no time.

Our Digital Signage System for Video Mate Pro, and the Video Mate Pro VOD, as well as the VM Centra Control software takes this approach, and we provide a total solution to the system integrators.

Because the Video Mate Pro acts as a slim client, with no browser, it simply acts as a HDTV decoder.

Video Mate Pro, with it built-in 266 MHz ARMS CPU, is not powerful enough to handle a JAVA browser while at the same time decoding a video stream, and the client-server approach is most suited for this purpose.

Browser-Server relationship

With this approach, we embed the Linux, together with a web browser for the thin-client, or typically our own set top box, and we then ship the unit with just the browser.

The customer can assign to the client a preset web/IP address, so that the thin-client boots up and links directly to the web site or web page, and the browser becomes the main bridge of communication between the user and the server.

In this way, what runs at the server is limited only by the customer's imagination, and minimal input is required from the customer.

This approach is most universal and more appealing to customers who require just a streaming decoder at the client side, but may have plenty of different solutions to his different end users. This approach is also most appealing to system integrators who may have different end user groups and just require a generic set top box at the front end.

In this middleware approach, Netcast is not involved in the total end user solution development, although we need to know the basics such as the streaming protocol and media format to be decoded.

Our NC 370 and NC 8621 all-in-1 mother board take this approach. They come with embedded Linux, Browser and ISMA/Media Player client for MPEG-4/WMV-9 SDTV and HDTV streaming decode. the customer needs only to administer on the web server and the streaming server without worrying about how to link up to the client units.

Under this approach, the customer needs only to maintain the web site and change its contents, and upload or refresh videos to the server, and he does not have to bother with how the whole system works.

This approach is most simplistic and does not even require a very technical staff to maintain the system.