Big plans: MP in 12floor Office-building (1 Viewer)

[likos]

Hi all,

The company I work for will move to a new Office-building this spring, and we're thinking about how to provide TV signal to the lounge-area's, the boardrooms, reception desk, etc.

I am an MP enthousiast, and suggested MP to the project-leader. He was very Enthoustistic about what I told him.

My idea's are:

1. Sattelite Dish with quadruple LNB on the roof
2. MP TV server on the 12th floor with 4 DVB-S tuners
3. Divided over several floors: MP clients on HTPC enclosures

Considerations:

1. 4 Coax cables between the dish and the MP TV Server
2. 1 Gbit ethernet connection between the MP TV Server and a 24port switch in the serverroom (1st floor)
3. The 24port switch will be completely separated from the production LAN, so the streaming of video will have no effect on bandwith of office-LAN
4. 100Mbit ethernet connections between the 24ports switch and the MP clients
5. Seperate LAN connection for internet access, MP Clients will connect to internet thru MP TV server box (proxy)
6. All MP Clients have MCE remote + keyboard

Criteria:

1. 4 concurrent MP Clients should be able to watch TV channels
2. MP Clients use MP Server fileshare for company video's and photo's (promotial, company activities) and music
3. MP Clients connect to the internet thru the MP TV Server machine for online video's (youtube etc) and RSS feeds

I really want to make this project work, first of all I have to convince the general manager, so I have to calculate what the costs will be.

Does anyone know what kind of hardware specs the MP TVserver should have for streaming TV to max 4 concurrent MP Clients?

Thx!

Eric

 

[damaster]

Aren't you a little bit concerned about stability? Are you ready to do tech support across 12 floors

MP is great, but it isn't ready for public usage like this. I use it because I'm a techie and can debug problems and even patch the code to my needs. My wife and other family members get very frustrated when they turn on the TV and there's some kind or other pop-up error message or the TV client fails to connect to the TV server...
:sorry:

 

[KiLo81]

Lol...sounds like a good way to get demoted...Nah, really I can't even advise Mediaportal to most of my peers that are some what avid computers users, the dedication involved would just be too much for the them.

 

[Bagal]

I kinda have to agree with this, I think it would be too much to use MP for something like this at the moment, you'd probably be better off looking at using Sage TV, which while it can't compete with MP on many things, its PVR capabilities are rock solid.

 

[revs]

While my home MP install is pretty stable - if you are spending all this money I think i'd go for a commercial solution with support!

 

[umlaut]

I on the other hand think it is a great idea!
Your idea seems to well thought trough.

I have only one concern if time is an important factor i suggest you go the commercial route and get the support you pay for.

MP isn't ready - yet - for that kind of implementation you suggest. Wait at least until the 1.0 version is out - shouldnt take to long, some months hopefully - and then go for it

 

[likos]

Hi all,

Thanks for your reply's and concearns...

We'll move into the new building in the summer of 2009, so I guess by then, MP will be 1.0

The plans are getting more detailed...

2 sat. dishes with dual LNB's (2 dishes for redundancy)
4 cables from dishes to 4 FireDTV DVB-S2 tuners
HP Proliant DL380 server for MP TV server
The 4 MP Clients will be HTPC enclosures with AMD 780G chipset mobo's

I want to create a Valid Internal TV channel to display promo slides, welcome texts for visitors etc with a seperate PC with a TV Broadcast PCI card (coax) connected to a analogue TV tuner card (haupauge 150MCE) in the TV Server.

Next week our plans will be presented to the General manager

 

[funkstar]

is this going to be a private network for MP or are you going to be able to use MPClient from any of the regular network PCs?

 

[GiuseppeC]

For such setup you need a first class support. MP Stability isn't the best by now. I suggest you,like someone else did, another solution with commercial class support. I wouldn't risk by back because developers have no free time to support you.
Oh, this could be a good idea: having subscription based support for those who needs it. It would help mediaportal to raise money and human resources.

Giuseppe Chillemi

 

[likos]

funkstar: It is going to be a seperate LAN. So we will never disturb the regular business-LAN

The multimedia-LAN will only be patched on the locations where it is needed. My own PC will have a connection ofcourse

@Giuseppe: I work for an ICT-company, so the we'll do the support ourselves.

I've got a testrig right now, with 2 Haupauge 500 dual-tuners and streaming to 4 or 5 different MP Clients works perfectly