Operation Manual

Niagara SCX User Guide
ViewCast 127
Appendix A: An Introduction to
Streaming Media
A live video stream refers to sending online video and audio signals real time to any number of
viewers. No matter what the live content is – sporting events, local interest stories, government-
mandated open meetings, specialized business opportunities, or training sessions – there is a
local or global audience for it. With streaming technology, viewers can watch and listen to
media while it is being sent to their browser, instead of waiting for it to download completely
and then play it.
Harnessing the power of streaming technology can take your business to the highest levels.
First, you need to understand why streaming media is a compelling way to capture your
audience and the technologies behind it.
Streaming media types
Streamed content can be in a variety of types - news and entertainment being perhaps the most
familiar. However, it can also be educational media, as in Distance Learning. For a large
enterprise, the video may be a corporate CEO presentation to global employees. For
governments, it may be streaming a city council meeting. Internet Radio is streaming without
video. Ministries use streaming media to reach out to home-based viewers. In addition, a lot of
less well-known applications exist for video streaming, including traffic cameras and surveillance
in high-crime areas.
A number of applications use the streaming technology. When video, or a combination of video
and graphics, is delivered over the Internet for a defined and somewhat closed audience, it is
often called webcasting. These tend to be live events; viewers watch the event from start to
finish as it is happening. When streamed content is delivered as continuous news, sports or
entertainment to Internet-connected viewers, it is often called Internet TV. Those tend to be
channels, rather than events (viewers can tune in anytime), much like a broadcast television
channel.
Another variant, IPTV, is associated generally with delivering premium movie content to viewers
on demand, usually to home televisions. This type tends to be one-to-one streams from a stored
media library to individual viewers.