Today, at the National Association of Broadcasters show, Microsoft announced the Windows Azure Media Services.

From the Windows Azure Blog…

Windows Azure Media Services simplifies the creation, management, and delivery of media to almost any device including Microsoft Xbox, Windows Phone handsets and Windows PCs, as well as non-Microsoft platforms such as smart TVs, set-top boxes, MacOS, iOS, and Android.

Windows Azure Media Services offers a number of services that provide the capability for fast ingestion, encoding, format-conversion, storage, content protection, and streaming of both live and on-demand content. What’s particularly interesting about Windows Azure Media Services is the capability to serve up media across the many different platform sets we see in every day usage. From your Windows Phone to your iPad to your Xbox to your set-top box. The challenge for content providers is hitting the several different formats required for the multitude of devices in the market. With Windows Azure Media Services, the encoding slice of the workflow process allows producers to stream through formats including Smooth Streaming, HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) and Flash Media Streaming.

Imagine a video content producer having the capability to take advantage of the mass storage that Azure provides in addition to being able to manage their production and delivery workflow that covers the majority (it not all) of their primary delivery targets; allowing them to reach more customers with minimal effort and cost.

And for the developer crowd, these services are exposed through HTTP REST API, giving you’re the opportunity to build your own custom solution using the features of Windows Azure Media Services.

You can learn more about Windows Azure Media Services at http://windowsazure.com/media and developers can learn more about the API at the Windows Azure Media Dev Center.

You can also find additional details on the announcement over on Scott Guthrie’s blog.

Simple…

Sign up for a FREE Windows Azure 3-month Trial account

That’s it!

Well, not quite that simple.

Here’s what you need to do:

1.) Sign up for the free Windows Azure 3-Month trial account

2.) Once registered, capture your Subscription ID#

3.) Email MSNextDe@microsoft.com with the subject line “I want to WIN!” and paste in your Azure Subscription ID #.

Entries must be received by January 23, 2012

That’s’ it! Now that seems pretty simple to me.

Go do it now!

I recently recorded a Screen Cast series for Channel9 with fellow colleague, George Huey, on utilizing the SQL Azure Migration Wizard to help you push your SQL Server database in the SQL Azure cloud. George is the developer and brains behind the SQL Azure Migration Wizard. In this Screen Cast series, George walks us through use cases of where you might want to push your databases to the cloud and how you get there with the SQL Azure Migration Wizard.

SQL Azure Migration Wizard (Part 1): SQL Azure – What is it?

SQL Azure Migration Wizard (Part 2): Using the SQL Azure Migration Wizard

Back in the Fall, my team and I held several training events around Windows Phone 7. It was an opportunity to bring developers together to learn the facets of creating great Windows Phone 7 applications. We’ve done these sort of events in the past. However, with the sure volume of upcoming technologies coming out of Redmond, these events tended to focus on a plethora of topics and give you a taste of each one. With our Windows Phone 7 Boot Camp events, we tried something different. Focus on one topical area and give developers an opportunity to kick the tires in a semi-structured environment. We’ve taken some of the feedback with these events and have brought more of these free learning opportunities to you:

I’m happy to announce the upcoming Boot Camp series of free developer training events including: Web Camp, Windows Dev Boot Camp and Azure Boot Camp.

Web Camp

Microsoft’s Web Camps are events designed to teach you all about building websites using ASP.NET MVC, WebMatrix, OData and more. There are 1-day and 2-day events being offered with interactive sessions on:

• Introduce ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Web Pages and WebMatrix; discuss possible uses of these
• Explore new features of ASP.NET MVC 3
• Take a dive deep into jQuery
• Facilitate an in-depth discussion on when to migrate ASP.NET WebPages applications to ASP.NET MVC
• Discuss configuration and deployment of web applications.

Clark Sell has more details on the Web Camps taking place in the Central US.

Windows Dev Boot Camp

The Windows Development Boot Camp is a one-day deep dive class on client development. The event covers developing for Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9, and Silverlight 4 out of browser. The class includes a trainer with deep real world experience presenting content, as well as a series of labs so you can write some code and practice what you just learned.

Interactive sessions will include topics from throughout the Windows development platform. We will look at application compatibility and transitioning your applications to Windows 7, integrating with the Windows taskbar, developing for IE9, utilizing the cool functionality in the Sensors and Location Platform so that your application better responds to its current environment, leveraging the multi-touch capabilities (especially in kiosk scenarios), and creating Silverlight 4 out of browser applications.

Azure Boot Camp

Windows Azure Boot Camp is a two day deep dive class to get you up to speed on developing for Windows Azure. The class includes a trainer with deep real world experience with Azure, as well as a series of labs so you can practice what you just learned. The agenda will cover:

• Introduction to Cloud Computing and Windows Azure
• Web Roles and Worker Roles
• Queues, Tables and Blobs
• Convincing the Business to use Windows Azure
• Diagnostic and Management API’s
• SQL Azure
• App Fabric
• Cloud Scenarios

For details and locations for each of these events, visit the respective website for each boot camp.

Have you wanted to check out all the technical goodness that the Windows Azure Platform gives you but didn’t want to pluck down a credit card? Have no fear!

You can get a 1-month *free* pass to kick the tires of Windows Azure and SQL Azure.

Once you’ve requested your pass, there is a plethora of training material to lead you down the Windows Azure path, including:

• Learning all about Windows Azure as a cloud computing platform
• Great tutorials to get you publishing your first Windows Azure application
• Watch videos about SQL Azure
• Learn how to publish your PHP Apps on Windows Azure
• Read up on how to Develop a Windows Azure Application
• Watch a series of Web Casts to lead you down the path of Windows Azure
• And by all means… download the Windows Azure Training Kit!