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6 © 2008 VBrick Systems, Inc.
Reflecting from VBrick Appliances
This section provides more information about how to use VBrick appliances in reflecting
applications. For more about the specific configuration settings on the VBrick, see
Configuration: Encoder
on page 23 and Configuration: Reflector on page 57.
A VBrick Reflector can reflect an HTTP Push from a VBrick Encoder, a VBrick Reflector, or
Microsoft Encoder or it can pull an HTTP stream from a Microsoft Server, a Microsoft
Encoder, a VBrick Encoder, or a VBrick Reflector. The VBrick Reflector supports a variety
of destinations including multicast, Served HTTP, Served RTSP, and HTTP Push—all at the
same time. Each VBrick Reflector supports a single pull or push source for the Windows
Media stream. Note that only one source can be active at a time for a given Reflector and the
same source stream is reflected to each of the enabled destinations. The reflector source
option is currently available on single encoder and standalone VBrick reflector models. In all
cases the reflector source connects to the Slot2 destinations and the Slot1 encoder features
are not affected. For example, in the VBrick Encoder/Reflector model, the Slot1 multicast
can be sending an encoded stream at the same time the Slot2 multicast is sending a reflected
stream. Note that the reflector always sends exactly what is received. For this reason, there
are no video or audio configuration fields on the reflector configuration pages nor do the
destination pages let you select different video and audio rates.
Figure 2. WM Appliance Encoder/Reflector
Push Reflecting
For push reflecting, there are basically two steps to starting a reflection. First you configure a
reflector to receive the push and then you configure an encoder to initiate a push to the
reflector. VBrick Appliances support up to 25 concurrent pushes, so many destinations (any
mixture of VBrick Reflectors and Microsoft or Real Helix Servers) can receive the push at the
same time and each of the servers or VBrick Reflectors can then reflect the stream using any
or all of their supported protocols. This multiple push feature is unique to VBrick and is
useful for stream distribution from a single encoder in a central office to many remote offices
over WANs because you can push a stream over the low bandwidth WAN links to a reflector
at each of the remote offices, and the reflector can then multicast or unicast to many viewers
on the remote LAN.