Streaming Video Server Software:

Internet streaming media changed the Web as we knew it-- changed it from a static text- and graphics-based medium into a multimedia experience populated by sound and moving pictures. Now streaming media is poised to become the de facto global media broadcasting and distribution standard, incorporating all other media, including television, radio, and film. The low cost, convenience, worldwide reach, and technical simplicity of using one global communications standard makes web broadcasting irresistible to media publishers, broadcasters, corporations, and individuals. Businesses and individuals once denied access to such powerful means of communication are now using the Web to connect with people all over the world. _____ Chapter 5 of O'Reilly's Designing Web Audio, by Josh Beggs & Dylan Thede )

Why is it called "streaming"?
It's called "streaming" because the sound and picture data flow in a digital stream from a server computer to your computer, ready to hear or view in real time, without having to download all of the content before you can enjoy it. It comes to you in a stream of digital bits... hence the term "streaming."

What kinds of streaming audio or video are there?
Here are 4 main streaming media companies (with their media streams): The first three provide streaming media players for the Mac and Windows platforms

. All four provide "basic" free players. Some of them also have optional "plus" players that offer extra features - at extra cost.

What the importance of streaming content?
Audio and video files can be very large. You would spend many minutes or even hours waiting for them to be downloaded to your computer if they weren't streamed. Streaming media technology allows you to see or hear the content in just a few seconds, instead of having to wait for it. Your only wait is a few seconds for a "buffer" to be built up that helps avoid interruptions caused by Internet traffic problems. In the majority of cases streaming media is used to maintain control over the distribution of the media files (because it is difficult to capture streaming video and audio).

What special equipment do I need to watch streaming audio or video?
You only need a computer with a Web connection and capable of playing audio or video, plus player software that can receive and process audio/video streams. You may already have such software on your computer, but if not, it is available as a free download from RealOne, Windows Media Player, Quicktime Player and Winamp (FreeAmp, XMMS) The faster your online connection (modem, cable, DSL) and computer speed (in megahertz), the higher the quality of the streaming audio or video will be. A 56 Kbps modem is a practical minimum for video.

If I need a player, how do I get one?
Just download it using the links below! Remember, you only need the basic, free version of each player to enjoy streaming content. All of these companies sell upgraded versions with more features, but all supply a basic, free version too. They usually hide the free one, so don't buy the upgraded version unless you want to. Once you've downloaded the player, it will usually install itself. You may need to reset your browser preferences to use a new player.

• Download Windows Media Player
• Download RealOne Player
• Download QuickTime Player
• Download Shockwave Player

Is there any downside to streaming?
There are some potential problems, but we'll tell you how to avoid or minimize them.

While the high quality of MP3 has sent shockwaves through the recording industry, streaming formats like RealAudio remain the dominant audio technology on the Web right now. Indeed MP3 is being folded into multimedia streaming formats like QuickTime and Windows Media. The remarkable technology that allows a web site visitor to click on a button and seconds later listen to a sporting event, tradeshow keynote, or CD-quality music is the result of a rather simple but powerful technical innovation--streaming media. Streaming works by first compressing a digital audio file and then breaking it into small packets, which are sent, one after another, over the Internet. When the packets reach their destination (the requesting user), they are decompressed and reassembled into a form that can be played by the user's system. To maintain the illusion of seamless play, the packets are "buffered" so a number of them are downloaded to the user's machine before playback. As those buffered or preloaded packets play, more packets are being downloaded and queued up for playback. However, when the stream of packets gets too slow (due to network congestion), the client audio player has nothing to play, and you get the all-too-familiar drop-out that every user has encountered.

 Windows Media
In order to use Windows Media for streaming or downloading video and audio, you need to do three things (unless you already have a WinMedia file ready to go, in which case you only need to do the last thing):

  1. Choose a format
    Windows Media has several different file formats (ASF, ASX, WMA, WMV, WMVHD ). If you're not sure which format to use, WMV is the easiest for video. You may also be limited to the options in your editor, which brings us to...
  2. Create a video/audio file
    The easiest way to create a Windows Media file is to export a file from your favourite editing application. Open the original video clip, then look under File > Export to see what options you have.
    For an example of how this works, see Exporting WinMedia from Adobe Premiere.
  3. Place the files on a web page
    This involves entering some HTML code.

    RealMedia

Real Media video images tend to be slightly less sharp than other formats — this can be a good or bad thing depending on your preferences. Moving images are handled reasonably well but the finer detail can be easily lost. Overall image quality is perfectly adequate for most applications.

One big disadvantage is the difficulty in downloading the free Real Media Player. Real Media has struggled to maintain a viable commercial business model and they strongly encourage you to buy the full version. This has led many people to become disillusioned with the format and its reputation has not held up well over recent years. Of all the common formats, Real Media looks like the one which is struggling the most.

   Quicktime

Quicktime (www.apple.com/quicktime ) is a well-respected format which has been around since the beginning of digital video production. In many ways Quicktime is more complicated than Windows Media or Real Media, but for most producers the complexities don't actually matter. The average web designer only really needs to know how to deal with Quicktime's .mov (movie) files.

If you are keen to explore Quicktime's advanced features, you'll find that you can create interactive video, panoramas, virtual reality settings and more.

Some producers swear that Quicktime is the king of video formats, others just can't seem to be able to make it work. Our opinion is somewhere in between. It is certainly a good format with many unique features. Getting good quality video can be a challenge however — we find that default settings are rarely good enough and experimentation is essential.

One nice thing about Quicktime is its integration with other products. It is widely supported by many editing, authoring and general interest applications.

Streaming Video Files with Quicktime

Hyperlinks to Quicktime Files
The simplest way to add Quicktime to a web page is to make a hyperlink from the page directly to the video file like so:

<a href="video01.mov">Click here to view video</a>

When the end user clicks this hyperlink, the video file will begin downloading. In some cases it will begin playing once a portion of the file has been retrieved, but in other cases the entire file will need to be downloaded first. For this reason, we do not recommend using a simple link.

Embedding Quicktime Files
A better method is to embed the Quicktime movie in a web page with something like this:

<OBJECT CLASSID="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" WIDTH="320"HEIGHT="180"
CODEBASE="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
<PARAM name="SRC" VALUE="videofilename.mov">
<PARAM name="AUTOPLAY" VALUE="true">
<PARAM name="CONTROLLER" VALUE="false">
<EMBED SRC="videofilename.mov" WIDTH="320" HEIGHT="180" AUTOPLAY="true" CONTROLLER="false" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/">
</EMBED>
</OBJECT>

Notice that this method uses two tags: <object> and <embed>. This is for maximum browser compatibility. You will need to set the file name and attributes for both tags.

1. Streaming video recording software (streaming media recorders)

When talking about broadband streaming, the phrases 'capturing streaming video', 'recording streaming video', 'downloading streaming video', 'saving streaming video', 'ripping streaming video' all refer to the same process of keeping the streamed image on a hard drive in a format that allows you to play it back again and again.
You can store/save/rip/capture/record/download broadband streams like live streaming video, streaming news video, streaming movies, streaming music videos with software called Stream Recorder:

Apple Computer's Darwin Streaming Server 4, Microsoft Corp. Media Services, and Real Networks RealSystem iQ, provide good desktop quality, and all three let video traffic run at lower bit rates that hardware encoders require, but there are trade offs in quality. Still Apple's Darwin Streaming Server and Quicktime Player 5 package took top honors edging out its competition by a slim margin.(Network Computing, March 18, 2002, p.42f)

Apple's Streaming Server is free, and is available for several operating systems (Intel powered server running FreeBSD, Macintosh G4 PowerMac running Mac OS X) as a compiled binary, or as source code. It produced the best quality images. A browser based interface is available to create playlists as well as amanage the server and set up downstream proxy servers.

From a recent posting on the uwebd list in response to a query about Streaming Media Services:

Question: We are investigating what it would take to do streaming video for some of our Spring events. Not knowing where to start, I was wondering if anyone out there could give me a breakdown of hardware/software needed, or point me to Web resources that would have more information on getting started
with producing live streaming video.

Best UWebD list Response was from Jared Smith

If you get or have a Windows 2000 Server box, you can easily stream
Windows Media and Quicktime on the same box with no problems. Beyond
Windows 2000 Server, the cost is $0. Windows Media service comes
native with 2000 Server and we're using the free Darwin Streaming
Server. We've found that these two options hit almost 100% of our
audience because every Windows user has Windows Media Player and every
Mac has Quicktime. Linux users have found ways to to use both.

Setting up live broadcasting with each is quite easy and you can even
set up a complete live broadcasting facility with 2 computers - 1
encoder running Quicktime Broadcaster and the media server. Setting up
on-demand media is as easy as encoding the file (with the free Windows
Media Encoder or the $30 Quicktime Pro), uploading the file, and
creating a link.

Though RealServer is a very viable option, the cost is sometimes
prohibitive for smaller operations (around $5000 for Helix Server with
unlimited bandwidth).

You can view the archives at
http://listserver.itd.umich.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=uwebd

Rresources given recently on this topic are:

http://www.usask.ca/its/courses/cai/realsystem/

http://www.realnetworks.com/resources/contentdelivery/documentation/httpstream.html

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/training/default.asp

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/products/qtss/qtssfaq.html

I would suggest getting a Windows 2000 Server box. Install Windows
Media Services and the free Darwin Streaming Server. This will handle
the majority of your audience quite easily and beyond Windows 2000
Server, is totally free.

Encode your media with Windows Encoder (free) and Quicktime Pro
($29.99). For live Quicktime streaming, use Quicktime Broadcaster
(free, Mac OSX only) or Sorenson Broadcaster.

Jared Smith (WebAIM.org, Utah State University)

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Pre-recorded Video:

To play pre-recorded video, you just copy the file to the server. The server can handle several simultaneous or staggered requests to play the video.

Live Video Streaming Video:

For live video, the Windows users can use a Winnov Videum 1000 capture card ($249) to capture the live video on a Windows 2000 computer. And Sorenson Media's Broadcaster ($249) compression software with Sorenson 3 Professional encoder ($499) to encode the video at the desired bandwidth and send it to the streaming server. Sorenson also has a version of the software for Mac OS based systems.

  1. If a digital video camera is the source, the Macintosh solution is better as a direct firewire (IEEE1394) connection can be made between camera and computer and you won't need a capture card. Broadcaster lets you specify the bandwidth along with frame rate and size but you can also specify the optimal Sorenson 3.
  2. After configuring Broadcaster, the streaming server needs to be told of the video stream that will be sent to it via an SDP (Session Description Protocol) file that is created and FTPed to the server. Creating this file is done by clicking on the "announce" button in Broadcaster and telling it where to save the file on the encoding computer, then copying the file to the streaming server. (Performing multiple tests with various bandwidth and quality settings can be tedious.) Even more annoying is a bug requireing editing out the line of each SDP file that specifies timing for the stream before the server would send the video to the the players. Either Sorenson needs to delete this line, or Apple needs to ignore it.
  3. the players need only be told of the path and filename before the streaming video begins.

Resources:

Streaming Servers

QuickTime (QuickTime Streaming Server, QTSS)

Windows (Windows Media Server, WMS)