Streaming media technology enables the real
time or on demand distribution of audio, video and multimedia
on the Internet. Streaming media is the simultaneous transfer
of digital media (video, voice and data) so that it is received
as a continuous real-time stream. Streamed data is transmitted
by a server application and received and displayed in real-time
by client applications. These applications can start displaying
video or playing back audio as soon as enough data has been received
and stored in the receiving station’s buffer.
There have been a number of Internet video streaming
technologies introduced in the past several years, none of which
compare to today's 'broadcast quality' standards. However the
technology is improving and video on the Internet is an area of
intense research and interest at this present time. UHD is looking
forward to heralding these improvements in audio and video streaming
and their use in education and faculty support.
Streaming video on the Internet generally comes
in two varieties, those that are downloadable and available 'on
demand' and those that follow a more traditional live television
broadcasting or 'streaming' approach to distribution. In truth,
the most recent advances in Internet video technologies generally
adhere to a mixture of both approaches listed above, but it is
still helpful, at this time, to understand the differences and
applications of each type. First, 'Video On Demand' technologies
offer the ability to view archived material at any time, similar
to any other type of data that is acquired on the Internet. Generally
these offer the best image quality as the files do not have to
be created in real time. High quality video files relative to
today's available Internet bandwidth, download times may be much
longer than actual program times of the individual files being
downloaded.
By contrast, 'real-time' streaming (also referred
to as Webcasting or Netcasting) creates a video stream of a live
video event or archived material in real time. These files download
to the desktop while they play. Although webcast events can be
archived for later viewing, the Live stream is, a real time event
that must be viewed while it is being broadcast. Also, to account
for bandwidth limitations, Live streaming files must be much smaller
than those of their On-Demand counterparts.
There are a number of different video streaming
technologies currently available and each offer their own strengths
and weaknesses. RealMedia is a widespread well-established, cross-platform
streaming system, which provides a reliable player with good service
and at no cost to the end user. That is why UHD has decided on
RealNetworks as our standard for delivering and playing streaming
media.
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