Enabling multicast on your TV Server

By default, TV Server and HD Encoder appliances ship with multicast disabled. If you're a network admin and understand the requirements, enabling multicast on the web interface gives you an additional choice when configuring channels.

Enabling multicast

1. Access your server's web administration interface.
2. On the left side navigation pane, click Advanced, then select Configuration.
3. In the right pane, expand the Advanced box and put a tick in the Enable Multicast serving checkbox.
    
   
   
4. Restart when prompted to do so.

Configuring channels as multicast

With the server enabled for multicast, you now need to configure your channels in the web administration interface.

1. Click Channels in the navigation pane.
2. Locate the channel you wish to modify in the list, then click its corresponding URL column entry to select from a drop-down menu.
3. Expand the drop-down menu and choose the Multicast entry within it.
    
   
   
4. You can either accept the server generated multicast IP and port, or create your own by typing it.

Announcing Multicast Streams

The availability of multicast channels is made using SAP, an announcement protocol for broadcasting multicast session information. You can pick up SAP broadcasts in media players such as vlc media player, and when configuring signage players such as ONELAN's Net-Top Box (NTB).