A streaming
video website continuously delivers and publishes video and
associated audio content on the webpage. The end user is able to view
the media contents in real time without having to download the media
file. Streaming video refers to the mechanism of the distribution of
medium and not the media itself
Streaming videos on computers, as a concept had emerged around 1970s.
However, due to inadequate technical capabilities and high cost of
resources the advancements were a little staggered. Today, with
techniques like true streaming and HTTP streaming, more websites are
taking advantage of video streaming. When designing a streaming
video website , one needs to understand that the concept of
having streaming videos basically lies on two factors - video file
format and the streaming technique:
- 'Windows Media', 'Quicktime', 'RealMedia',
'MPEG', 'Flash objects' are some of the file formats that can be used
for streaming videos. The choice of a file format is very crucial as
the website might cater to a wide spectrum of users across geographies.
Thus it is necessary to understand the type of internet bandwidth,
hardware and software resources so that all the users are facilitated
with the information that your website wants to provide.
- Other factor important in video streaming is
the streaming method itself. 'Downloading' is the most basic and simple
method, where the video file is downloaded to some temporary folder and
is then played in the media player installed on that computer. The
other method is 'streaming' in which the waiting time is ideally
negligible. The video is displayed as and when it gets downloaded.
However, certain amount of buffering can take place depending on the
speed of the internet connection.
Streaming video is widely used in real time broadcast of live events.
This is also referred to as webcast or netcast. Streaming video
websites use special types of streaming servers. It is possible to have
your own server setup or have it purchased from several providers. You
need a robust web server with streaming software installed on it. Some
of the video streaming software available includes 'Macromedia
Communication Server', 'Apple Quicktime Streaming Server', 'Helix
Universal Server', and so on. Apart from these resources, a conversion
software is also required that will convert the video file to required
format which can be easily published and broadcasted on the internet.
'Final Cut Pro' and 'Adobe Premiere' are some of the widely used
conversion tools. Video streaming is also governed by various protocols
that bring under consideration technical performance, quality issues,
reliability, cost factors, and legal and social issues. Multicast,
Peer-to-Peer, IP Multicast, Unicast, User Datagram Protocol, and
Real-time Transport Protocol are some of the protocols that are
considered when
Video streaming websites need to consider the cost factor before making
a decision on having a streaming video broadcast. Make sure that video
streaming is absolutely necessary for your business, as having a video
streaming website with live broadcast is really a costly affair. The
transfer of data, specially multimedia is very expensive and usually
charged in terms of gigabytes.
Article Source: http://
www.articlesbase.com/video-articles/streaming-video-its-impact-
on-websites-382631.html About the Author
Jeff Smith is the managing director of Karma
Technologies, a company that specialises in building quality websites,
ecommerce sites, desktop applications and company Intranets. Jeff feels
strongly about implementing ways to be green into their business
practices, to a point they are almost a paper-free company. At Karma
they feel strongly about green issues. |
