Multicast streaming and remote control

[axiomx11]

I've got (or will have) a room with 72 student PCs, and one Teacher PC.

What they want is for the teacher to be able to start a video, and have it play on all 72 student pcs, weather it is off his HD, dvd, or vhs (via capture card).

I see that the multicast in VideoLAN would serve me well here. My question is hot to control the student pcs. I see that there is an http server with a web interface, but is that any good for controlling 72 pcs?

I also see that you can connect a client pc to a stream via the command line, so I could write some sort of script to start VLC.

I don't mind if it is always running, and I just bring to the front or something. I also have a feeling this might work better if the clients were running Linux, but I'm not sure if I'll be allowed to do that.

Ideas, helpful pointers appreciated.

[dionoea]

If you're listening to a multicast stream, you could just ask all the students to open a VLC when class starts. It will show video when you're streaming some, it'll just show an empty controler whenever you stop streaming. That should be easy enough to use without requiring scripting.

(you could even give the students a m3u playlist which they'd only need to double click in order to start listening to the multicast stream)