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