Synchronize flash video on multiple PC's?

Question

For an event we need the following setup:

Multiple computers running a kinda of quiz (in asp.net). Every one of them plays a video as background (in the browser), sorta like a screensaver (with advertising). When moving the mouse a div pops up which allows the user to choose a quiz in fill out the forms. The catch is that the video needs to be synchronized on all the PCs.

These are the constraints:

• The asp.net code is already there, so writing it completely in flash is no option.
• We know .NET, javascript, html, the standard webdev stuff best, so investing time is something new is a last resort.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

The way I see it, you have a couple options here:

1) Hack together synchronicity using a server-side timestamp passed to the Flash clients. Give the client the current time (server-side) and the time you want playback to begin (server-side, also). Then have the client wait that many milliseconds.

2) Configure your media server to stream the video as though it were a live feed. I am 90% sure this is possible with Flash Media Server, but I've never had the budget to manage my own video server.