In this last article, I introduced Azure Media Services and showed how to create an Azure Media Services (AMS) account.

In this article, I will show you how to add video and/or audio assets to an Azure Media Services account. This is often the first step in sharing media online.

An Asset points to an Azure Storage Blob Container containing one or more files. These files contain either media or metadata about media. We distinguish between Input Assets (assets provided to AMS via a user or other external source) and Output Assets (assets produced by AMS jobs). Fig. 1 illustrates this relationship.

ams01-AssetsContainer
Fig. 1

Let's look at how to upload a video file from your local computer as an Asset, as illustrated in Fig. 2.

ams02-PublishDiagram
Fig. 2

Open the Azure Portal and navigate to the Azure Media Services account, as shown in Fig. 3.

ams03-OverviewBlade
Fig. 3

Select "Assets" in the left menu to open the "Assets" blade, as shown in Fig. 4.

ams04-AssetsBlade
Fig. 4

Click the [Upload] button (Fig. 5) to open the "Upload new assets" dialog, as shown in Fig. 6.

ams05-UploadButton
Fig. 5

ams06-UploadNewAsset
Fig. 6

At the "Storage account" dropdown, select the storage account in which you want to store the media file.

Click the "Upload files" icon and select the video file or files you want to upload.

More fields display for each file selected, as shown in Fig. 7.

ams07-UploadNewAsset-Completed
Fig. 7

Enter a name for each asset; then, click the [I agree and upload] button to begin uploading your video.

When the upload is complete, the asset will be listed, as shown in Fig. 8.

ams08-AssetsBladeWithAsset
Fig. 8

Click the link in the "Storage link" column to view the Storage Blob container and files associated with this asset, as shown in Fig. 9.

ams09-Container
Fig. 9

In this article, you learned how to upload a video file to create an Azure Media Services asset. You will want to encode this in order that others can view it. I will show how to encode in the next article.