Microsoft, in conjunction with Vertigo Software, has released a reference project that provides an end-to-end solution for hosting a video sharing site called Video.Show. The feature list you get out of the box includes:
- Video wall for browsing videos. Hover the mouse over any individual video to see an instant thumbnail preview.
- Time marker-based comment system. Pause the video at an interesting moment and add your comment, and it will appear as that frame is displayed on playback.
- Site membership using ASP.NET. Sign in and create a custom profile; favorite, tag and upload videos.
- First-time experience for a user without Silverlight installed demonstrates best practices for detection and installation.
- Web services for retrieving video catalogs, tagging and favorites.
- Background batch processing task that handles the encoding of videos using Expression Encoder and uploads to Silverlight Streaming.
Tim Sneath of Microsoft describes this sample as,
Video.Show is an end-to-end solution that provides a reference-quality sample for user-generated video content sites. Taking advantage of all of our latest technologies: .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET AJAX, LINQ, Silverlight, Expression Encoder and Silverlight Streaming, Video.Show provides support for uploading, encoding, tagging, viewing and commenting on videos. Since not many people are building video sites like YouTube that have millions of videos, we've optimized the experience for sites with tens to thousands of videos.
Video.Show, is actually the second sample project from Vertigo Software. Microsoft also commissioned a genealogy project called Family.Show. Video.Show, and presumably Family.Show, will migrated into Microsoft's new initiative called Software + Services Blueprints.
As a starting point for building real solutions by architects and developers, each Software+Services Blueprint includes code and/or utilities, guidance, structured step-by-step workflow and tools delivered within Visual Studio. Each S+S Blueprint is focused on media/community, eCommerce, Office Business Applications (OBA), mobility or other future S+S application areas. They range in complexity from rapid development packages to complete end-to-end scenarios.