Full guide to movie server solutions for Internet cafes (1)

The Streaming Media Server we mentioned here is essentially designed to meet the requirements of customers. However, compared with the systems currently used by most Internet cafes, the system is mainly based on the characteristics that we attract customers and reflect the differences between the Internet cafes and other competitors in terms of on-demand video.
Considering the investors, we separate two different schemes.

One is to use the film and television field as a service model equivalent to Internet cafes, that is, to set up video rooms and other entertainment venues. On the big scale, this solution is only suitable for those Internet cafes that are qualified for this type of service, and it is combined with the LAN on-demand solution provided in the internet cafe to provide more personalized services. The investment in this area is relatively large, especially when the video recording room is used as an entertainment place, its operation qualifications are not suitable for general internet cafe owners, and its PR costs are relatively high. In addition, for some Internet cafes with small passenger flows, the large investment income cannot be effectively guaranteed, so you may not consider it.

Another mode is similar to the Local Area Network on-demand video solution adopted by most Internet cafes. The difference is to associate VOD with the member system and virtual community of Internet cafes to increase popularity. We focus on setting this mode. In this regard, we mainly consider the streaming media servers self-built in Internet cafes and the available network resources. Let's take a look at the self-configured Streaming Media Server. We will discuss the cooperation with other parties later.

When you configure your own streaming media server, you must consider the following aspects: server configuration, video source, and maintenance management.

Server Configuration:

Let's first look at the hardware selection. For streaming media servers, the most important thing is the egress bandwidth and hard disk read speed. Therefore, when configuring servers, consider the two in the first place. CPU is not important, but the current mainstream CPU frequency is enough to meet the needs of small and medium-sized applications. Of course, for better results, you may also consider increasing one-time investment and configuring brand servers, which may be advantageous in terms of stability.

The selection of CPU and motherboard can be selected randomly based on the local market. This is not a big problem. In terms of hard disks, PA hard disks have become useless on the client and are not enough for servers. When selecting a hard disk, you must consider the following aspects: speed, single disk capacity, cache, and interface specifications.

Everyone is an expert on speed and cache, and we will not detail it here. Let's take a look at the capacity of a single disk. Because the larger the capacity of a single disk, the higher the density of the fan interval. In addition, the hard disk writes data to the track in a continuous manner, therefore, if you can concentrate all the written data on a single disk, the data transmission speed of the hard disk can be improved naturally during reading, this is why the current 5400-to-60 GB hard drive with a single dish capacity of 80 GB is better than some 60 GB hard drive with an earlier 7200-to-60 GB hard drive. At present, the mainstream hard drive on the market has transitioned to a single disk of 80 GB, and at present, Seagate has launched a single disk capacity of GB hard drive products. If you have a large-capacity hard disk, You 'd better pay attention to this indicator, because when the hard disk speed is the same, A hard disk with a single disk capacity larger than a single disk capacity can read more files at the same time, and the transmission rate of the hard disk will be accelerated.

From the perspective of VOD capacity requirements, the overall capacity must be considered in addition to single-disc capacity. However, we recommend that you select about 80 GB of mainstream capacity and use multiple hard disks to form a RAID array. If there is no problem with funding and technology, it is better to use the array card directly. We recommend that you use 80 Gbit/s x 6, a mainstream brand in the market, and a general array card. However, the formation of disk arrays requires dedicated technical personnel to do this. The general network management system is not competent, and may cause additional expenses.

In terms of interfaces, the PATA hard drive has become a thing of the future. Even the SATA hard drive used by the client has become a mainstream configuration. If PATA is used on the video server, it is not enough. If you have enough funds, you may also consider the SCSI interface hard disk, the performance is much better. I believe that in the near future, SCSI interface hard disks will become the mainstream in the market. However, in line with the principle of spending less money to do things, we recommend that you choose SATA hard disks When configuring streaming media servers. Based on the current video source situation, this can basically meet your needs.

Thousands of M Ethernet cards should be used for NICs, with better adaptive functions. This is also based on matching with Internet cafe access bandwidth. Every customer does not want to be choppy or choppy when they enjoy the video. Even if this happens only occasionally, it will affect the customer's impression of the Internet cafe.

Set the VOD environment. For servers, the operating system is naturally LUNIX or Microsoft's NT platform. However, for most Internet cafes, it is still difficult to maintain the LINUX System in Internet cafes. Therefore, it is difficult to hire technicians. Although LUNIX is better than Microsoft's NT platform in terms of stability, it is far worse in terms of manageability and maintainability.

In this manual, we recommend that Internet cafe owners use Microsoft's server operating system. Microsoft's Server OS includes the Windows NT series, while Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 both belong to the Server OS. In addition, some features of the Microsoft operating system are very easy to configure when setting up a streaming media system. For version 2000, we already have enough access to the SERVER version, while version 2003 is an upgraded version of version 2000. In view of the scalability of the service, we recommend that you use the Microsoft Windows 2003 SERVER version.

If you do not have any extra funds to buy a genuine version (if you have any money, consider it ?), You can download this operating system from the Internet. After the download is complete, you can dial your own disk or install it directly on the hard disk. The installation process is not much different from that of XP. We will not detail the installation process here. Note that if you use the master-slave disk Mounting Mode to configure a hard disk, you must manage the hard disk in the operating system and assign a drive letter to the slave disk. Otherwise, you cannot see the existence of the slave disk, let alone manage the resources on the disk. The specific method is: desktop, right-click "my computer", select the "manage" menu, enter the Management Panel, and specify a drive letter for the selected hard disk.

Considering the selection of the VOD system, we should first upgrade the DIRECTX version after installing the system. You can view the current system DIRECTX version by starting → running, entering DXDIAG, you can download to the sky software station (http://www.skycn.com) if you need to upgrade. Upgrade it to version 9.0C.

Next, we need to configure the ASP, CGI, or PHP environment that may be used. Running these programs requires database support. If it is an ACCESS database, you do not need to install a database. This is also the database environment for ASP applications. If ASP + SQL is used, it should be noted that windows SQL 2000 SERVER cannot be successfully installed on 2003, you can go to the Chinese webmaster station alliance to find a version that can be directly installed under 2003 (webmaster station address: http: // www.chinaz.com ). Both PHP and CGI require SQL database support. If Microsoft's MSSQL database is not used, MYSQL can be used for ease of management. We will not detail the specific IIS configuration process.

In fact, the above work is to configure an environment that can run the video-on-demand program. Currently, on-demand video programs that can meet the needs of our Internet cafes are everywhere on the Internet. Some may need to be charged, such as the jinmei video-on-demand program, some are provided for free, you can go to the relevant site to find out. Next, we will take the installation and modification process of an on-demand video-on-demand program in ASP language as an example to explain how to configure such a program. Of course, if you think this is too troublesome, you can use some simple and intuitive systems to achieve your goal, such as using the VOD System of Meiping.

It should be noted that because we require personalization, that is to say, to achieve a significant difference from other competitors, the use of the Meiping system is desirable. While using self-built programs, although the kernel may be the same, we can achieve our own needs through our own modification and beautification, but also different from the competitor's system. It is also worth noting that we do not recommend using some modified code by netizens, such as deleting the membership system code, because membership is also a key point that distinguishes us from competitors, the following describes how to apply the application.

In this example, we use the ASP-code Huafeng Video Program, which can be directly downloaded from the Chinese webmaster download center. After downloading and configuring IIS, create a folder named MOVIE in the root directory and put all the files to the folder. Enter http: // localhost/movie in the browser to access the VOD system. However, this system has already been used by many people. What is our personalization? This problem also occurs when other code is used, because the free code is made public on the Internet and can be used by anyone. Therefore, we also need to modify and beautify it.

Modifying a program is not a complicated task. Most of the content does not require you to be proficient in the ASP programming language, but you only need to follow the gourd painting steps step by step. For example, we can add another link on it. In fact, we only need to set it in the background menu and link it to other functional code. In terms of beautification, the color or style of the entire interface is determined based on the overall atmosphere of the Internet cafe, or even the CIS system in the corporate culture. Modifying images is simple. Most image processing programs are competent. Even if you are not very proficient in PS or FIREWORKS, you should be able to process general images. Change the image in the program folder to what you need, and the work has been completed. In this way, we have set up a video-on-demand service program on our own server. However, streaming media services are not just video-on-demand. On-Demand music and animation appreciation must be provided, and they must be integrated into the unified Internet cafe site program.

On-demand music programs can also collect a considerable amount of excellent code on the Internet. There is no difference between the setup and modification programs and video programs. If it is CGI or PHP code, as long as the runtime environment is configured and the database connection mode and path are set, there is no major problem. Generally, the Network Management of Internet cafes can be performed independently. The animation appreciation program is a FLASH program, and the other has a larger scope. It also includes the appreciation of funny films. However, for short clips and other materials, we can create a menu in the video-on-demand program and put it together with the film and TV program to achieve better results. The configuration method is the same as the preceding two.

In fact, the above steps are only a special case. Now many related technologies can meet our requirements. For example, a friend put forward his own opinions on a forum, and even programmed a video-on-demand program suitable for the special circumstances of the Internet cafe. We only provide a suggestion here. The specific solution should be selected based on your own situation. The fundamental principle is to achieve the best results with the least investment, and also consider the customer's psychological needs.

For example, for Internet cafe owners or Internet cafe staff, a program or a form facilitates the publishing and Management of films, but for many customers, this form is very unfamiliar and unacceptable at the moment. Although this is a form of personality, It is also different from the competitors of other Internet cafes, but whether the advantage can be reflected in the market operation process is also worth the consideration of Internet cafe owners. Next, let's discuss how to collect video-on-demand video sources in Internet cafes. The film capacity of an excellent Internet cafe that runs video on demand is quite large. Well-known films can generally be found in it. We recommend new or popular films to our customers in a conspicuous position. As a result, how to collect a large number of video resources becomes a headache.

Video Source:

The source of the video is mainly from several methods, such as disk copying, online collection and download, and leeching. Leeching is convenient, but the quality cannot be guaranteed. We may not be able to watch it any day. Moreover, it also involves legal bans, which is not the method we should choose.
The cost of disk rental is also relatively low, but in general, the quality of the film can be guaranteed. It is not a problem to designate a special network administrator to take charge of this aspect. For Internet cafes, surplus bandwidth is a waste if it is useless. Moreover, as network bandwidth continues to grow, the quality of the video source is getting better and better, and HD, and even DVD-format films have become popular online. Therefore, we recommend that you sort the source files by downloading the network and copying the disk rental. Most resources on the network are free of charge, but not all forums can find the desired source.

For example, in some Film and Television Forums, although we often release resources for download, the quality is generally not guaranteed and the situation in each region is different, these free resources have limited access time. For management, it takes a lot of time and effort to track the publishers of these resources to designate an employee to do this, therefore, we recommend that you consider obtaining resources for large-scale on-demand video download sites from the coroutine we mentioned later. In the collection and arrangement of the source film, you must make a good note and register the source and date of each film to facilitate the planning and management of all the source film. We recommend that you sign an agreement with these sellers to obtain the video source at a preferential price. Because it is not a long time for us to rent out the discs rented in the audio and video store, we can just copy them and send them back. This is definitely cheaper than the market price. long-term accumulation is also a lot of savings.

It should also be noted that the products obtained from the audio and video store must be genuine. If the products are pirated with high quality, do not select them even if other competitors have already provided them, we 'd rather let this part of customers go. Our goal is to create a quasi-cinema-level enjoyment. If there is a poor quality apsaravideo for VOD, this image will be damaged. For Videos collected and downloaded on the network, you can specify the network administrator or waiter on duty to set the indicators for each cycle and write them into the work log.