In a world where Windows Media content is used quite often, users have to constantly access such content in multi-user environments.There are some solutions out there tailored to companies who delivery applications via RDS (Remote Desktop Services) protocol. Citrix has one of, if not the best, solutions for this use case. It is called HDX Technology – Windows Media-client content fetching feature.
From a Citrix article, it states:
“…HDX includes three features designed to improve the delivery of Windows Media content:
• Windows Media client-side content fetching
• Windows Media redirection
• Real-time Windows Media multimedia transcoding
Windows Media client-side content fetching
Windows Media client-side content fetching enables a client device to stream multimedia files directly from the source provider on the Internet or Intranet, rather than through the host server. Benefits include:
• Improved network utilization and server scalability. The host does not perform any processing on the media; media files are streamed directly to the client for processing.
• The client device requires only the ability to play a file from a URL; it does not need an advanced multimedia framework such as Microsoft DirectShow or Media Foundation.
• Multicasting is allowed on networks that support it, enabling a single Windows Media source transmission to serve multiple users…” source: Citrix Article: Windows Media Client-Side Content Fetching
On a similar subject, but related to Flash Redirection, you can check this excellent blog: HDX MediaStream Flash Redirection – WAN support and other improvements that explains how to leverage HDX technology for Flash content in order to fetch it directly by the client
Note: If you want to validate if HDX is working fine in your Citrix environment you can check this nice tool called HDX Monitor available here.
Enjoy Fetching.
Cheers!
