Streaming

What is streaming? It is the process of delivering audio and video over the Internet and have it play at the receiver whilst it is still downloading. This allows for "live" events over the net or Webcast. Webcasts are fantastic for time sensitive content such as news, market announcements and sport. The typical webcast has a lot more people involved that a delayed stream and therefore becomes more expensive.

Streaming began back in 1995 when the company Real launched Real Audio. Stew Art Media got involved in 1998 becoming Australia's first Real Networks partner and syndicating our content to them. In late 1998 Microsoft saw the opportunities that streaming promised and they launched the Windows media Player.

Whilst the bulk of the 300,000 or so streams we delivered each month were Real Networks streams, in 1999 that all changed with Microsoft's Windows Media Player 7. Quite rapidly it became the dominant player in the streaming market.

A Streaming server also allows you to deliver the content that is suitable to your bandwidth. A good stream will work on any bandwidth from a 56k modem to fibre multigig speeds. It all depends how you encode the file and configure your server for the audience.

Videoblogging and podcasting also have their place but streaming gives you much better control of your media.