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College Home / LEMON STreaming Server

Lemon Streaming Server


What is Lemon?

Lemon is the new streaming server on the College of Charleston campus.  It is a delivery system that can be used to stream many different formats of videos across websites for users to view.

Lemon is not a file system, and it is also not backed up. What this means is it should only be used for the purpose of streaming videos, and you should make sure to have your own copy of your videos incase something should happen to the copy on Lemon.


Why would I want to stream video?

Streaming video allows for a progressive download of content in the background, while video that has already been received plays.  This allows your user to start watching a video immediately, even if the content isn't fully downloaded yet.

How do I get a personal folder on Lemon?


Email webmaster@cofc.edu asking for a new folder for <insert username> on Lemon. 

One of the two CofC Webmasters will set up a folder that only that username can access.  You will be able to upload .mov, .mpeg4, .mp3, and .flv files here to later stream on a web site.

Note: if you wish your Instructional Technologist to have access as well you may request that at the same time.

How to connect to lemon to upload your files

The College uses Secure FTP (SFTP) to connect to the server. Programs that use standard FTP only will not work with this server. Secure FTP protects your username and password as it is sent over the Internet. The College recommends Dreamweaver, a popular full Web development suite, or FileZilla, a cross-platform Secure FTP client; however, any Secure FTP program will work. Instructions for FileZilla and Dreamweaver are listed below.

FileZilla

FileZilla is a free, Open Source, program which supports SFTP. It runs on Windows PCs, Apple Computers running OSX, and many other platforms.

GET FILEZILLA

  • FileZilla is available for free from http://filezilla-project.org.
  • Use the "Download FileZilla Client" to obtain the proper version of FileZilla for your operating system.
  • Run the installer, accepting default settings.

CONNECT TO THE SERVER

  • Open FileZilla.
  • Fill in the fields:
    • Host: sftp://lemon.cofc.edu
    • Username: your COUGARS username
    • Password: your COUGARS password
    • Port: 22
  • Click Quickconnect to connect to the Faculty/Staff Web Page Server.

MANAGING FILES

  • The FileZilla window is split into two columns. The left column shows files on your computer, while the right column shows files on the server.
  • To upload a file:
    • First, navigate to that file in the "Local site" tree.
    • Next, make sure that you've selected the appropriate folder in "Remote site" (/Volumes/RAID/streaming/YOURUSERNAME)
    • Then, just drag and drop the files you'd like onto the server.

How to include a stream on your personal site

If you want to embed a video on your personal site, please follow the instructions for the Flash Playback below.  If your file does not have a .flv extension, please convert it to one using the instructions for the Video Encoding Server at the bottom of the documentation.

  1. Paste the following code inside the <body></body> tags of your website.  Make sure to change content that is dynamic (indicated by red and blue colors) in order for your video to be viewed correctly. if you are pasting inside of cascade surround your code with
    <!--#START-CODE  {code} #END-CODE-->

        Flash Playback (.flv)

<div id="container"><a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">Get the Flash Player</a> to see this player.</div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://cofc.edu/scripts/mediaplayer/swfobject.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var s1 = new SWFObject("http://cofc.edu/scripts/mediaplayer/player.swf","ply","328","200","9","#FFFFFF");
s1.addParam("allowfullscreen","true");
s1.addParam("allowscriptaccess","always");
s1.addParam("flashvars","file=flv:cofc/videoName.flv&streamer=rtmp://lemon.cofc.edu:1935/cofc/&image=http://cofc.edu/livethelife/images/2010-04-01_1415.jpg&skin=http://cofc.edu/scripts/mediaplayer/modieus/modieus.swf&plugins=sharing-3");
s1.write("container");
</script>

 

If you wish to have the code generated for you automatically, visit: http://webdev.cofc.edu/tools/streaming.php

        Flash Playback with Mobile support (.flv and .mp4)

<div id="container">
<video controls="controls" width="432" height="240">
<source src="http://lemon.cofc.edu:1935/cofc/yourUsername/yourUsername/yourvideo.mp4/playlist.m3u8" type="video/quicktime" />
<source src="http://lemon.cofc.edu/yourUsername/yourvideo.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
</video>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://cofc.edu/scripts/mediaplayer/swfobject.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var s1 = new SWFObject("http://cofc.edu/scripts/mediaplayer/player.swf","ply","328","200","9","#FFFFFF");
s1.addParam("allowfullscreen","true");
s1.addParam("allowscriptaccess","always");
s1.addParam("flashvars","file=flv:cofc/videoName.flv&streamer=rtmp://lemon.cofc.edu:1935/cofc/&image=http://cofc.edu/livethelife/images/2010-04-01_1415.jpg&skin=http://cofc.edu/scripts/mediaplayer/modieus/modieus.swf&plugins=sharing-3");
s1.write("container");
</script>

 

To provide mobile support you will have to convert two copies of the video file, one for flash and one for mp4. You cannot convert a flv file to an mp4 using Magnolia. If you wish to have the code generated for you automatically, visit: http://webdev.cofc.edu/tools/mobile-streaming.php

 

Note: 
  • Red areas indicate dynamic fields in which you must change the data in order for your content to show up correctly.
  • Example: flv:cofc/videoName.mov =   videoPlaybackType:yourUsername/yourVideoName

  • Blue areas indicate the starting image for a video, and must be changed to pull in the correct content.  It is a URL to an image on your site, which can be a relative or absolute path.
  • Example: http://cofc.edu/ = your site domain.    /livethelife/images/2010-04-01_1415.jpg = path on your server to static image

What if my video is not in one of these formats?

On campus, we also have a Video Encoding Server which will convert a video from any format to any desired format for the streaming process.  

Video Encoding Server

Uploading and encoding Flash video

  1. Connect to server "Magnolia" (smb://magnolia for Mac and \\magnolia for Windows),  and then go to the folder called "incoming". If you do not have access, email webmaster@cofc.edu.
  2. Upload your file. Make sure your filenames use all lowercase letters and dashes for spaces. No other characters, please. Also, please prefix the filename with your department name. Example: admissions-my-video.mov
  3. Then email webmaster@cofc.edu with the name of your file(s).

Processing & Pick Up

That's it! Our server will then start to encode your files for Flash video. Once it's finished it will be automatically put in the "pickup" folder. From there you can pick up the video and place it in you streaming folder as described above.

Encoding Specs for .flv

Encoded videos will have a new extension .flv
Encoding Specs:
FLV(H263) 496kbps 432x240 16x9 29.97fps

Hinted Quicktime and MPEG-4

Follow the steps above under "Uploading" but connect to "incoming_qt" to have videos encoded to Hinted Quicktime and upload to "incoming_mp4" for MPEG-4 encoding. You can pickup your videos in the "pickup" folder once they have been encoded.

 

Note: We cannot convert .swf or .rm files.

Authenticating Pages

.htaccess file

  1. Create .htaccess/.htpasswd combination

Robots.txt

  1. Create a text file and name it: robots.txt
  2. Add the following content (in the blockquote) to it.
  3. Save, and put the file in the root directory of your website.

#robots.txt for disallowing search engines to index authenticated pages

User-agent: *
Disallow: pathToAuthenticatedPage/authenticatedPage.php

Meta tag

  1. Edit your authenticated page.
  2. Place the following text (in the blockquote) in your page <head></head> section.
  3. Save your file and upload it to your site.
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">


Frequently Asked Questions

What if my video is not in a desired format to stream, and I only want to have it downloadable?

You can still put these videos in your folder. The URL to this video will be: http://lemon.cofc.edu/yourfolder/yourvideoname

 

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