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Workshops: Streaming Media: What is Streaming Media?
What Is Streaming Media?
Streaming media is scary. Despite the ever growing use of streaming
media, I still find a great deal of intimidation in Web producers
when it comes to working with streaming media. HTML seems easier
to understand than transmitting an audio or video signal to the
other side of the world. In their mind, streaming media borders
on pure wizardry.
But streaming media is easy. These days, it is simple to create
and to implement in your Web site. In fact most producers will find
it far less intimidating than their first work with HTML or JavaScript.
The only challenge is in understanding the range of choices and
directions the streaming media industry offers.
We'll start with the basics. What is streaming media? How does
it work? Where are the standards? Where is it going? We'll take
a look at the major players. We'll look at Windows Media Technologies,
QuickTime, and RealNetworks. How do you make something in a particular
streaming format? How do you add it to your Web site? Along the
way, we'll take some side trips and make a few new discoveries.
What Is Streaming Media? (2)
So what is streaming media?
Let's start at the beginning. What is streaming media?
To understand the role of streaming media, you need to understand
the functioning of the World Wide Web. Web servers are often described
as "stateless." What that basically means is that the
Web server takes a request for information, pushes that information
out the door as fast as it can, completes the transaction, disconnects,
and goes on to other requests by other users. On the client side,
your Web browser takes the information it receives, assembles it
on the screen, and then ignores the Web server until you click on
a link. In all, Web transactions between the server and client are
pretty much like the end of the evening in a singles bar: A quick
exchange and a rapid parting in the morning.
This stateless approach works very well for media like graphics
and text. Feed them into the browser and simply slap them on the
screen. But moving images and sound are problematic. Unlike a graphic,
video, animation, and sound have a time element to them. With that
time dimension, often comes a larger file size. Under the stateless
approach, a Web user would need to download the entire video clip
before it can be viewed. But with the large file size that comes
with even a short video clip, the wait becomes unbearable. Another
solution is needed.
Enter streaming media. With streaming media the goal is to bypass
the limitations of the World Wide Web. Using Internet based technologies
that are mostly proprietary, media data is fed to the user as the
media is viewed. So rather than a stateless data connection, streaming
media is more of a continuous connection. There is a commitment
there. Much like TV or listening to the radio, you receive the images
or audio just before you see or hear them.
Paced out over time, the file size of the clip becomes less of
an issue. But that is not to say that it is not still an issue.
The reality is that raw file sizes for digital audio and video are
absolutely huge. So to get them down to a size that works for a
modem or LAN, compression is used. The goal of streaming compression
is to throw away data that you don't need. That makes the file size
much smaller. But it also begins to degrade the image and sound.
So much like other Internet based forms of delivery, working with
streaming media is all about compromises. How much data can you
throw away and still find the media streaming cleanly to a modem
or LAN user? Who does the best job of throwing away that data and
maintaining the integrity of the clip? How can you get more out
of the compression? If you're asking these questions, I know I have
you hooked for the next couple of sections.
What Is Streaming Media? (3)
What about quality?
Media producers, especially those with television backgrounds, often
criticize the quality of streaming media. They miss the whole point.
Streaming media isn't about quality. It's about access. It's about
being able to sit in an office in Paris and receive content on-demand
from Anchorage.
Surprisingly, most Internet users do get the point. Throughout
the history of all forms of media, the new medium has often paled
in comparison to the old one. But the new medium offers some capability
that the old one does not. With streaming media, it is all about
the access. The pictures may be fuzzy and the sound occasionally
garbled. But when a Web user clicks on that link and gets media
on-demand, that is power.
Fortunately, the streaming tools are rapidly growing more and more
powerful. The quality today is significantly better than the quality
six months ago. And it continues to improve at a phenomenal rate.
But what about all these formats?
One of the things that forces improvement in any technology is competition.
That given, Web producers are often frustrated that there is no
one fixed streaming standard. To that I ask, so what?
Let's think about our world for a minute. Look around you and the
world is full of differences. There are different types of computers,
different types of pets, different types of cars, different languages,
different types of religions, different types of people. For all
this talk about standards, the human race is pretty nonstandard
group. In every crowd there is usually quite a few who see things
differently. So while standards are an important goal, human nature
(and money) will mean that something will always be unsettled.
Streaming media is all about making choices. What format does the
best job in your situation? What technology do you like working
with?
What Is Streaming Media? (4)
So where is this streaming stuff going?
In my opinion, the traditional Web world is stagnant. Sure, there
have been improvements made behind the scenes in server/database
integration. But for the traditional media producer or designer,
the Web is quickly becoming a pretty boring place.
Streaming media (including FLASH media which is not going to be
covered in this document) is the next big step. A multimedia Web
experience is far more powerful at selling, informing, and educating
than the Web as we know it today. New languages, technologies, and
approaches in streaming media are about to replace the world of
stagnant Web design with multimedia dreams.
So what are these new languages, technologies, and approaches?
Are you hooked yet?
Good!
That means it's time for the next section: an introduction to Apple's
QuickTime technology.
Return
to Main Workshops Page or Continue
with QuickTime
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