Starting Flumotion

Starting Flumotion
	Chapter 2. Quick Start

To start Flumotion, choose the Application → Sound & Video → Flumotion Streaming Server Administration menu item on your panel. This starts the Flumotion Connections Assistant.

A Simple Example

This example will show how to start a Flumotion streaming system with the simplest possible defaults, just to demonstrate the basics. You won't even need a camera or microphone because we will use some test inputs that provide computer-generated video and audio.

When the Flumotion Configuration Assistant first starts, you will see this dialog.

Figure 2.1. Starting the Configuration Assistant

If you already had a Flumotion system running, then you could use this dialog to connect to it and administer it. But we will create a new Flumotion system by choosing the Start a new manager and connect to it option.

On the next page, click Forward to start and connect. We will learn more about Managers and Workers in the Architecture chapter.

Figure 2.2. Starting a new Manager and Worker

After these processes have started, you will see a confirmation page before actually connecting to the manager.

Figure 2.3. Connecting to the new Manager

You will now see the detailed Configuration Assistant.

Figure 2.4. The Configuration Assistant's Welcome Page

Click the Forward button to see the first real page of the assistant, which allows you to choose a common scenario, such as Stream Live or Stream Files On Demand. We will choose the defaults Stream Live scenario so just click Forward to accept these defaults.

Figure 2.5. The Configuration Assistant's Scenario Page

The next page allows you to choose Production inputs. We will use the defaults - Test Video Producer and Test Audio Producer so just click Forward to accept these defaults.

Figure 2.6. The Configuration Assistant's Production Page, Showing Test Inputs

We don't need to change anything on the remaining pages, so you can now continue to click Forward until you reach the last page. You will pass pages for Test Video Producer settings, Overlay settings, Test Audio Producer settings, Encoding settings, Theora Encoder settings, Vorbis Encoder settings, Consumption settings (streaming or saving to disk), HTTP Streaming settings, HTTP Streaming (Audio & Video) settings, Content License settings, and then the Summary page.

Figure 2.7. The Configuration Assistant's Summary Page

After you click Apply, the Flumotion Administration window will open, showing all the components in your chosen Flumotion system. The icon for each component will gradually change as each component is started. If any component has a problem then the icon will indicate this and you can click on the component to see details.

Figure 2.8. The Administration Window

If you select the http-audio-video component you will see a clickable URL button on the right-hand side, in the Statistics tab. Clicking this button should cause the appropriate client application to open and play the streaming video. For instance, the Totem Movie Player will open on most Linux systems.

If you have no suitable player application, you can instead click on the http-server-audio-video server component to see an alternative URL. This plays the streamed content via a client-side Cortado Java applet embedded in an otherwise static web page.

Figure 2.9. Viewing the Streamed Content, Showing Test Inputs

When you have finished, stop all the components by selecting Manage → Stop All from the menu, then close the window.

See the Using The Assistant chapter for more details about the Configuration Assistant. See also the Administration Window section.