Using the Q helix UI to create a custom streaming radio application

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Charlie Owen posted an item on the Media Center Sandbox site today that I wanted to draw your attention to if you haven't seen it yet. He took the twisted helix UI from the Q sample application that is a part of the Windows Media Center SDK, created a custom color skin for it, and added some calls to the Windows Media Center PlayMedia API to create an internet radio playback application.

This application is a Windows Media Center Presentation Layer web application, so you do not have to install anything to try this out on your Windows Vista RC1 system. You can use these steps to try it out:

  1. Download this ZIP file and extract the contents to your RC1 system
  2. Run the file named setup.veronicasradio.cmd by double-clicking on it
  3. Launch Windows Media Center, navigate to Online Media | Program Library and then click on Veronicas Radio

This is just one simple example of the type of UI and functionality you can create in a very short amount of time using Media Center Markup Language. Hopefully you'll give it a try and then create your own application using the Windows Media Center SDK for Windows Vista....