So Jun Heider who I have the pleasure to work with just updated the build of the REDBug testing tools (http://www.redbugtool.com) with some Flash Media Server Testing tools I made a while back. One of the tools had been in there for a while though not talked about and the other is something I use a lot but had not been previously released.
The first and pre-exisitng module was the RED FMS Tester module. This module is a multi-purpose FMS testing tool – primarily focused on video testing. The first accordion view is for testing a connection to a FMS application instance. The application at a whole provides all the client side net status feedback in a running log window and is beneficial for testing initial setups.
The second accordion tab is the Camera and Microphone tab and its general purpose is stream testing. It is valuable for testing existing streams by simply specifying the stream name to play and pressing the Test Recorded FMS Stream button at the bottom. Along with the log text display on the right, there is a button to show the current FPS of the video stream overlayed on the video as it plays. Another valuable feature for pre-existing or live video broadcasts from the application is the scaling mode drop down list. This will change how the video is scaled per the the width and height settings above, or user free scaling of the video window when it is above. It is valuable to test the different scaling impacts on the performance and quality of a stream. Toggling the Use Smoothing can also have a big performance impact.
The other obvious main use of this view is testing camera quality settings locally or publishing directly from a camera feed to the Flash Media Server. There are able controls to change all of the audio and video quality settings here and preview them before publishing live.
This module will also attempt to store your previous settings so that when it is relaunched they remain. To force saving the settings press the SAVE SETTINGS button on the top.
The second module added is one of my favorites and hints at more goodies to come. It is the RED FMS CONNECTIONER module. This module is focused on FLash Media Server connection management and testing. It is driven by our FMS connection management framework that will likely be released openly in the future. It simplifies the process and extends the functionality for advanced connection management with the Flash Media Server. It allows for sequence and shot gun connections to multiple servers/protocols/ports. To use this module add all the connection targets you wish to use by typing in the full uri in the first text input control then clicking ADD TARGET. You can then reorganize them by dragging and dropping in the list if you want to change the prioritized order if using the sequence connection system. You can then choose to automatically stop after a successful connection and if you want to automatically run a bandwidth detection after initial connection – you will also have the option to manually perform bandwidth connections for specific successful connection on the next tab after the connections have be intiialized. One recommendation is don’t perform an auto bandwidth detection if you are not stopping after a successful connection since they will be less accurate as they may compete with other connections or bandwidth tests occurring simultaneously. You also load preselected and outputted configurations via an XML file – we will talk more about that later 
After the selections are complete click the Initialize Connections button and you will see the log run at the right – reporting any net status info and such. After the run is complete it should automatically take you to the Connections Details accordion tab. There is should show you the basic details of the connection and the time it took to connect as well as graph that on the right. If you did auto bandwidth detection as well you should see that as well on the lower right. If you want to perform a manual bandwidth detection simply click the successful connection in the data grid to select the row and a bandwidth detection will occur.
The last feature of this module is on the Output accordion view. This view will allow you to write out an XML file with connection configuration options specified in the Initialize view. It can be loaded back into the module ata later time for testing or used with the RealEyes Connection Management framework – yet to be released. With the connection management framework all you have to do is instantiate the manager then set the path to the xml file and it does the rest, as well as provide AS3 standard event dispatching for all the nasty NetStatus events otherwise made difficult to ahndel with long switch..case statements. Of course the connection management framework can also be used by standard AS3 without the XML config file, and the config file itself can e extended to have additional connection params sent to server side actionscript for the FMS application – BUT that is a story for another day.
If anyone is interested in the RealEyes Connections Management framework let me know and I may be swayed to release it sooner rather than later.
