Streaming Media Hosting

Streaming media or webcasting has quickly become the most popular form of content on the Internet. Web streaming on our streaming servers keep visitors longer and companies large and small have discovered the incredible time and cost savings of communicating to employees and clients at the comfort of their own desks.

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What FWHN needs to know:

If you sign-up for Streaming Media with FWHN, we need to know the following:

What is Streaming Media?

Streaming Media makes CD-quality audio and near-broadcast-quality video available in real time to homes, businesses, and PDAs worldwide, effectively changing the way we conduct meetings, experience news, listen to the radio, and watch movies. There is no file to download or take up space on the user's hard drive, resulting in a streamlined format that allows truly interactive, on-demand media.


With streaming media, the beginning of the file is downloaded and begins playing while the rest of the file is downloading. This alleviates the aggravation of waiting minutes, or even hours, for audio or video files to download. Video and audio can now be experienced as they are happening, allowing for virtual meetings, international broadcasts, and free or pay-per-stream live events. Streaming media can also be used to transmit pre-recorded media files on demand from a server.

Streaming Media: An Introduction

Streaming, also known as Webcasting, is a term that describes the transmission of specially encoded digital multimedia content—audio, video, animation, graphics, photo images, and text—over the Internet to end users. Streaming files begin to play immediately and are discarded after playback, so no permanent storage is necessary on the computers of those watching the stream.

Streaming is done in two ways: live and on-demand.

Live streaming is the broadcast of an event in real time over the Internet. On-demand streaming is the playback of an archived file that is accessed via a link imbedded on a Web page. With on-demand streaming, a Website visitor can access a streaming file at any time

Here’s a look at how streaming is done.

On-Demand Webcasting

1. Video, from videotape, electronic file, or transmission via cable or satellite, is delivered to Hostcentric’s broadcast operations center where it is converted to streaming media files through a process known as encoding.

2. The encoded video files are then transferred to our streaming media servers.

3. A link to the encoded files is placed on the customer’s Web site.

4. When an end user clicks on the link, the streamed video is played directly to their computer providing seamless, non-branded access to the content.

Live Webcasting

1. Live footage is filmed with a video camera from a boardroom, or concert hall.

2. Video signal is fed from the camera to an on-site server or PC, which is connected to the Internet (ideally via a high-speed connection such as a T-1 or DSL line).

3. Live feed is transmitted to our broadcast center

4. Feed is relayed to users via Hostcentric’s high-speed fiber-optic/satellite network.

An authoring software program, called an encoder, is required for the creation of the streaming media files:

RealNetworks Real

With the release of the first RealPlayer in 1995, RealNetworks became one of the true innovators of streaming media. The current versions of the widely-used RealPlayer, RealServer and RealJukebox incorporate SMIL and Macromedia Flash to create a more interactive user experience.

QuickTime

Real-time streaming provided by QuickTime Streaming Server delivers media in real time over the Internet, from modem rates to broadband. First delivered in October 2000, Apple’s real-time streaming features Skip Protection, a patent-pending collection of features that gives viewers an interruption-free experience.