Product Review: Cisco DMS
August 6th, 2008
(9 votes, average: 4.44 out of 5)
Loading ...Cisco DMS (Digital Media System) is a suite of applications that provide video content in several different formats. This includes pushing content to digital signs (video displays) such as those that you see in lobbies of hotels and businesses. Additionally it manages content that is pushed to web clients (think Youtube for corporate). The topology is fairly easy. The main physical components that make up DMS are:
- DMM – Digital Media Manager
- DME – Digital Media Encoder
- DMP – Digital Media Player
- VP – Video Portal
To understand how all these pieces work with each other, it is important to look first at the DMM. The DMM is the central component of DMS. DMM manages the content that get pushed to the other components. It can schedule delivery of the content and provide expiration of the content as well. Although most of the other components can and sometimes do run standalone, the DMM typically controls their function inside an enterprise setup. This additionally permits a central location for administration of all the components.
The DME component serves as an encoder that takes analog video input and encodes it to a specific video codec so that it can be digitally stored or streamed live. You can compare this to what a video capture device does for a home user but on a larger scale and with more a professional quality. The DME registers to the DMM and becomes a resource the system can use. Cisco provides 3 DME models that have slightly different functions and features but essentially integrate the same.
As for the DMP, it provides an interface to a video display for viewing the digitally stored media that was created. It registers with the DMM and content is then pushed to it over the network. It connects up to a video display with HDMI, s-video, or composite video.
The VP serves up the desktop video content over the web. Users navigate to the VP web page and are presented with a interface to view and search for content that is published at the DMM. This content, once published, does not reside on the DMM or VP but rather resides on external web servers that the DMM has access to. This allows it to scale by using a web server farm that may be dedicated or already exist in the enterprise. This can be further scaled by using Cisco ACNS. The Video portal is the only device in the DMS suite that requires the DMM in order to function. Just like the DME and DMP, the VP registers with the DMM.
The content that can be published to either the VP or the DMP varies. The DMP can feed off a play-list or a presentation that includes pre-recorded video, live streaming video (read multicast), flash, jpg/gif images, and html or txt pages. As for the Video portal, it can present videos to users in the formats of wmv, mpg4 (h264), or flash video. These formats can be chosen based on the browser that is connecting to the VP page. Additionally it can include slides or links related to the video. Live video events can also be presented by the video portal. This additionally allows viewers to submit questions to the presenter during the live broadcast if so desired.
Creating content for Cisco DMS can be tricky for those that are not design/codec wizards. Cisco even offers classes specifically for learning this part of DMS. For the DMP’s, there is a lot of possibilities for content delivery due to the many formats the system can handle. DMM even includes a very basic presentation building application that allows design novices to compile applications for the purpose of formatting multiple media types into the same display simultaneously. Alternatively, advanced content is usually custom built and delivered as a flash, web or video application. However, this requires more of a background in graphic/web development but usually is not a problem as most enterprise companies have their own team for this. Things are a bit more straightforward with the video portal as the delivery format is more static and centered around video content. All you have to worry about here is codec formats for your source video.
In conclusion, the Cisco DMS product is a full featured suite that is easy to implement, scales very large, and functions well in enterprise environments. The downsides if any, are limited to the skills and creativity of the content developers as most of the visual delivery depends greatly on them. Personally, I’d like to see Cisco improve the functionality and flexibilty of the presentation builder application so higher quality and more varied content can be built easier by a non-designer. Soemthing more like a Power Point interface on steroids. However I expect this will definetly improve in future versions and I really look forward to seeing what Cisco has in store for the product.
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