Streaming media are multimedia that are constantly received by, and normally presented to, an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider (the term “presented” is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback). The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather than to the medium itself. The distinction is usually applied to media that are distributed over telecommunications networks, as most other delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g., radio, television) or inherently non-streaming (e.g., books, video cassettes, audio CDs). The verb ‘to stream’ is also derived from this term, meaning to deliver media in this manner. Internet television is a commonly streamed media.

History

Attempts to display media on computers date back to the earliest days of computing in the mid-20th century. However, little progress was made for several decades, primarily due to the high cost and limited capabilities of computer hardware.

From the late 1980s through the 1990s, consumer-grade personal computers became powerful enough to display various media. The primary technical issues related to streaming were:

• having enough CPU power and bus bandwidth to support the required data rates
• creating low-latency interrupt paths in the operating system (OS) to prevent buffer underrun.^{[citation needed]}

However, computer networks were still limited, and media was usually delivered over non-streaming channels, such as by downloading a digital file from a remote web server and then saving it to a local drive on the end user’s computer or storing it as a digital file and playing it back from CD-ROMs.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Internet users saw:

• greater network bandwidth, especially in the last mile
• increased access to networks, especially the Internet
• use of standard protocols and formats, such as TCP/IP, HTTP, and HTML
• commercialization of the Internet.

These advances in computer networking combined with powerful home computers and modern operating systems made streaming media practical and affordable for ordinary consumers. Stand-alone Internet radio devices offer listeners a “no-computer” option for listening to audio streams.

In general, multimedia content has a large volume, so media storage and transmission costs are still significant; to offset this somewhat, media are generally compressed for both storage and streaming.

Increasing consumer demand for streaming of high definition (HD) content to different devices in the home has led the industry to develop a number of technologies, such as Wireless HD or ITU-T G.hn, which are optimized for streaming HD content without forcing the user to install new networking cables.

Increasing consumer demand for live streaming has prompted Youtube to implement their new Live Streaming service to users. In 2008 Steve Chen reported to Sarah Meyers of ‘Pop17’ that “Live video is just something that we’ve always wanted to do, we’ve never had the resources to do it correctly, but now with Google, we hope to actually do it this year.” ^[1]

A media stream can be streamed either by live or on demand. Live streams are generally provided by a means called true streaming. True streaming sends the information straight to the computer or device without saving the file to a hard disk. On Demand streaming is provided by a means called progressive streaming. Progressive streaming saves the file to a hard disk and then is played from that location. On Demand streams are often saved to hard disks and servers for extended amounts of time; while the live streams are only available at one time only (e.g. during the Football game).^[2]

Streaming bandwidth and storage

Unicast connections require multiple connections from the same streaming server even when it streams the same content

Streaming media storage size (in the common file system measurements mebibytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, and so on) is calculated from the streaming bandwidth and length of the media using the following formula (for a single user and file):

storage size (in mebibytes) = length (in seconds) × bit rate (in bit/s) / (8 × 1024 × 1024)

since 1 mebibyte = 8 × 1024×1024 bits.

Real world example:

One hour of video encoded at 300 kbit/s (this is a typical broadband video in 2005 and it is usually encoded in a 320×240 pixels window size) will be:

(3,600 s × 300,000 bit/s) / (8×1024×1024) give around 128 MiB of storage.

If the file is stored on a server for on-demand streaming and this stream is viewed by 1,000 people at the same time using a Unicast protocol, the requirement is:

300 kbit/s × 1,000 = 300,000 kbit/s = 300 Mbit/s of bandwidth

This is equivalent to around 135 GB per hour. Of course, using a multicast protocol the server sends out only a single stream that is common to all users. Hence, such a stream would only use 300 kbit/s of serving bandwidth. See below for more information on these protocols.

Protocol issues

Designing a network protocol to support streaming media raises many issues, such as:

• Datagram protocols, such as the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), send the media stream as a series of small packets. This is simple and efficient; however, there is no mechanism within the protocol to guarantee delivery. It is up to the receiving application to detect loss or corruption and recover data using error correction techniques. If data is lost, the stream may suffer a dropout.
• The Real-time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) and the Real-time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP) were specifically designed to stream media over networks. The latter two are built on top of UDP.
• Reliable protocols, such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), guarantee correct delivery of each bit in the media stream. However, they accomplish this with a system of timeouts and retries, which makes them more complex to implement. It also means that when there is data loss on the network, the media stream stalls while the protocol handlers detect the loss and retransmit the missing data. Clients can minimize this effect by buffering data for display. While delay due to buffering is acceptable in video on demand scenarios, users of interactive applications such as video conferencing will experience a loss of fidelity if the delay that buffering contributes to exceeds 200 ms.^[3]
• Unicast protocols send a separate copy of the media stream from the server to each recipient. Unicast is the norm for most Internet connections, but does not scale well when many users want to view the same program concurrently.

Multicasting broadcasts the same copy of the multimedia over the entire network to a group of clients

• Multicast protocols were developed to reduce the data replication (and consequent server/network loads) that occurs when many recipients receive unicast content streams independently. These protocols send a single stream from the source to a group of recipients. Depending on the network infrastructure and type, multicast transmission may or may not be feasible. One potential disadvantage of multicasting is the loss of video on demand functionality. Continuous streaming of radio or television material usually precludes the recipient’s ability to control playback. However, this problem can be mitigated by elements such as caching servers, digital set-top boxes, and buffered media players.
• IP Multicast provides a means to send a single media stream to a group of recipients on a computer network. A multicast protocol, usually IGMP, is used to manage delivery of multicast streams to the groups of recipients on a LAN. One of the challenges in deploying IP multicast is that routers and firewalls between LANs must allow the passage of packets destined to multicast groups. If the organization that is serving the content has control over the network between server and recipients (i.e., educational, government, and corporate intranets), then routing protocols such as PIM can be used to deliver stream content to multiple LAN segments.
• Peer-to-peer (P2P) protocols arrange for prerecorded streams to be sent between computers. This prevents the server and its network connections from becoming a bottleneck. However, it raises technical, performance, quality, and business issues.

From Wikipedia

Windows Media Servers

Why Use Web Servers?

Basically, the only reason to use standard web servers to deliver streaming media is the fact that existing infrastructure can be used. For the ISP, that means no new hardware or software (although it can be argued that the extra load on the existing web servers would necessitate additional hardware anyway, at least partially negating this advantage). And, no new software or hardware installation is required, thus saving time.

For the audio or video producer, it means less work preparing the files, as well as a possible cost savings: no need to pay additional fees for a specialized streaming media service. Again, this advantage may be outweighed by the fact that delivering any substantial amount of audio or video data may require increased bandwidth, which often results in extra cost.

The poor end user enjoys no advantage, as web server streaming never operates as well or as smoothly as dedicated media server audio and video streaming.

Windows Media Servers

As demonstrated by the example of Windows Media servers, the use of a dedicated streaming media servers provides many benefits:

Higher Bandwidth
Because Windows Streaming media servers can utilize UDP technology, they maximize whatever speed connection is available, without wasting time and bandwidth trying to re-send lost data, or calculate the speed of transmission. So not only does the user get a better experience, but network bottlenecks are reduced overall.

Better User Experience
As the Streaming Server is in constant contact with the user’s browser, it is able to adjust the quality of the outgoing audio and video to ensure uninterrupted play for the user, with at worst only minimal reductions in quality.

Additional Features
Detailed reporting, user control of the media (seek, fast-forward, rewind, etc.), live video webcasting, and multiple streaming delivery are just some of the capabilities of a dedicated media server. (While some of the options may be possible with a standard web server, they are, in a word, “clunky.”)

Scalability
Streaming media servers have two size advantages: they can more easily deliver much larger audio and video files, and they can deliver those files simultaneously to a much larger group of viewers than standard web servers (this is also known as Multicast).

Content Protection
Standard web servers download their content into a user’s computer, making those files available to users for capture and distribution. On the other hand, streaming media servers deliver data directly to the player — data which is never written to the user’s computer.

Options for Delivery
Windows Media servers use optimal technologies, like UDP and Multicast, whenever possible. But they can use TCP and HTTP/TCP protocols should the need arise, such as delivering media through a firewall. And it is all handled automatically by the media server.

Final Notes

While there may be a few short-term advantages to streaming media via a standard web server, the benefits of dedicated audio and video streaming servers are numerous. Luckily, the extra cost of such servers can be absorbed by a specialized streaming hosting company. At a nominal cost, these services offer the benefits of dedicated media streaming to all content producers with none of the headaches.

Web Server / Streaming Server Comparison, Part 1

Video Streaming Overview

Using A Streaming Server

Uploading and Storing

Similar to the processes used to prepare and upload files for web server streaming, media produced for dedicated streaming servers is also compressed and then transferred to a specialized servers. Links to that media are then placed on web pages which exist on a standard web server.

NOTE: It is possible to run a standard web server and specialized media server on the same computer. However, as will be pointed out later on, this negates one of the advantages of having a dedicated streaming media server, which is to deliver media without bogging down web page delivery.

Delivering the Files

It is at this point that the two technologies (web server streaming, and media server streaming) diverge significantly. While standard web servers deliver their files in a “passive” mode, utilizing discrete “bursts” of data, streaming media servers operate in a much more flexible and dynamic manner.

Streaming servers employ an intelligent methodology that involves delivering their data at a rate tailored to the compression of the audio and video files. Unlike standard web servers, the streaming media servers maintain close and active contact with the clients (users’ browsers) during the process. Thus, they can receive feedback from the clients, and act accordingly.

Streaming Server Technology

Both the HTTP and TCP technologies employed by standard web servers are also available to streaming media servers. However, the streaming servers can, in addition, use alternate technologies such as User Datagram Protocol (UDP). Much faster than the traditional TCP technology, UDP is superior to TCP in its handling of data, and has a vastly improved way in which to re-transmit any lost data.

TCP ploddingly re-transmits lost data, regardless of what this might do to the smoothness of the player on the other end. UDP technology, on the other hand, only re-transmits data that it senses can reach the user’s player in time to be incorporated without interruption of the viewer’s experience.

But there’s more: due to the way TCP operates, UDP traffic actually gets priority over TCP traffic, which gives it an advantage.

How They Stack Up

Because of their inherent differences, web servers and dedicated streaming media servers offer unique capabilities to producers and end users, in terms of how simple they are to set up and manage on the producer’s end, and what the experience is like on the user’s end.

In order to delve more deeply into those dichotomies, let’s take a look at one particular format: Windows Media. To learn more about the specifics of delivering Windows Media files via a standard web server and a media server, read the next article in the series:

Web Server / Streaming Server Comparison, Part 4

Windows Media Servers

Using A Web Server

Uploading and Storing

While it may appear vastly different to the user, the use of a Web server to stream audio and video media is actually only slightly different from the outdated model where an entire file is downloaded before it can be played. First, the deliverer compresses the audio and/or video into a combined media file, slated for delivery over a specific bandwidth. (For instance, the producer may create one file for low bandwidth like 28.8K phone lines, one for medium speed connections such as low lever DSL, and a third for high-speed access points like cable or FIOS.)

Next, the producer uploads those files onto the same server that hosts his/her web pages. From this point, all the producer needs to do is add a link to any one of those media files from any one of his/her web pages. As you’ll notice, not only is this relatively simple for the producer, it’s also essentially no different form the old download-then-play model. Where does the streaming come in? Actually, it happens on the other end of the procedure: within the user’s media player.

Delivering the Media

The difference between the old model and the web server version of streaming lies in the buffering process of the user’s media player. Buffering is a process whereby the media player collects the initial portion of a file, then begins playing that file, while still collecting the rest of the file from the web server. Because there is a small stored portion of data, the media player can continue to play the file, even though the speed of delivery may vary. Not every media player supports this progressive model of data delivery and playback, but the major ones do.

There are two technologies involved in web server streaming: Hyper Text Transport Protocol (HTTP), and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). Both technologies are well established in the Internet world.

Web Server Streaming Technology

HTTP, used by all web servers and browsers, enables communication between the server (web server) and client (user’s browser). This works in conjunction with TCP, which basically takes care of all the data transfers. TCP was actually developed to handle procedures that are not “real time,” the most important one of which is file transfer.

TCP’s main purpose is to deliver data over the Internet at the highest rate possible, while maintaining the integrity of that data. The way it achieves this is to start transferring data at a relatively low speed, then gradually increase that rate until it detects that data is being lost. When that happens, it “shifts” back down to a lower transfer speed, and begins the process all over again. In addition, any portion of the data that has been “lost” during the transfer is re-sent later. And therein lies the main drawback of using this technology to “stream” media: the lost data may not be detected and re-sent in order to keep time with speed of the media player. Thus, user’s experience interrupted playing of files, which is very frustrating.

A much better way to stream video is by using a dedicated streaming server, as detailed in the next article:

Web Server / Streaming Server Comparison, Part 3

Using a Streaming Server

Video Streaming Overview

Currently, video and audio content is delivered over the Web in two primary ways. The first, and older, method, involves using a normal web server to provide video or audio files to a media player. The second, and more recently developed, format, employs a dedicated streaming server, which has been specifically designed for the task of delivering audio and video media.

While there are some advantages to using a standard Web server (the two chief ones being cost and ease-of-use), there is no doubt that a specialized streaming media server is a far more powerful way of delivering media. In the end, the most important factor — the user’s experience — is vastly improved via the use of a streaming media server.

A Little History

Most of the time the Web has been in popular use (about 15 years, now), the only way to deliver audio and video on the Web was through downloading: the user would download an entire file to their computer, than play it back through a local media player. This greatly hampered the advent of audio and video on the Internet, since these files were inherently large, took a long time to download, and then provided a very short and unsatisfying user experience. Anyone who has been on the Web for a number of years remembers waiting half an hour to download a video-clip that would then only last 30 seconds!

However, in the last few years, the introduction of “streaming” video has changed all that. In streaming, when the user clicks on a file, it begins to play almost instantaneously; while the user is watching or listening to the file, it is being delivered “in the background” at the same time. As long as the media is delivered online faster than it is being played by the viewer’s media player, it provides a continuous experience for the user.

The development of a streaming process has created an explosion in the use of audio and video media over the Web. And, it has promoted the development of two different methods of streaming. One is the use of a standard Web server (such as those used to host the bulk of the sites on the Web), and the other involves a server which has been specifically tailored to the delivery of audio and video files.

Both methods have advantages and disadvantages, and in fact are in wide use throughout the online community. However, before evaluating which method is right for your purposes, it is first important to understand the details of how each of the processes works. To learn about it, go to the next article in the series:

Web Server / Streaming Server Comparison, Part 2

Video Streaming Overview

You’ve seen the results of streaming video that is poorly prepared for the Web: starting and stopping, jerky motion, bad resolution, etc. Though your video may look great when you watch it on your own computer, that won’t necessarily translate well when you deliver it to other over the Internet. So no matter what you plan to use your video for, if you expect people to watch it online, you need to follow certain guidelines. Below are a number of hints to help.

1) Make Your Video Short

Seems simple, doesn’t it? But this may well be the most vital tip of all, for a number of reasons. First, most people won’t stick around for a long video. And it doesn’t matter how great it is if your viewer’s “bug out” half way through. Second, the longer your clip, the more encoding, streaming, and bandwidth problems you’ll run into along the way. If you feel like you really have to run a longer clip in order to get your point across, consider breaking it up into several shorter clips.

2) Avoid Excessive Camera Movement

If possible, use a tripod to hold the camera. If you must move the camera while shooting, keep that movement slow and even. Not only will your video look better in general, but it will also compress more effectively for the Web. Why? Every portion of your clip that does NOT change frame-to-frame eases the strain on your compression program, and results in a smoother looking video.

3) Keep the Background Simple

A corollary to #2, this means that the plainer and less complex your background is, the smoother the final product will be. Complicated backgrounds, especially those that involve patterns like stripes or other geometric imagery, cause problems for full-sized video; this is exaggerated when compressed and reduced to a small size for streaming video on the Web. So avoid blinds, wall paper, art, and other unnecessary graphics in your background. A simple flat wall, or photo backdrop — accentuated with a color gel, if needed — will highlight your main image, and keep the “interference” to a minimum.

4) Stay Close

Remember that your video will be shown at a relatively small size on someone’s monitor. Fill the frame with the image that needs to be there, and “crop out” anything unnecessary surrounding it. For instance, if what’s important is to see someone speaking, then capture their head and shoulders, and make them as large as possible in the frame. To make your main image even clearer, pull back with the camera, but use the zoom feature to increase your main subject’s size. This will throw the background out of focus, which makes the foreground stand out more, as well has helping in the compression process.

5) Watch the Lighting

There’s a reason why lighting directors are so critical to films and TV shows. Good lighting can make or break the look of video. While you may not be able to have a high-priced pro lighting director on your shoot, the one thing you should do is to keep your lighting on the “bright” side. Bright lighting will lower the grain of your video, and make the final compressed version a lot clearer. You may have to experiment a bit to find the right balance: lighting bright enough to make your image clear, but not so bright that everything looks “blown out.”

Every video host tends to come up with their own names for the [often times similar] services they provide. Sometimes it makes you feel like you’re comparing apples to lava lamps! As a good starting point, you should consider the points below.

What Delivery Options Are Provided?

Many web hosting companies, cognizant of the growing importance of video and audio media delivery, will promote their service as “streaming,” even though what they are actually offering is progressive downloading from a web server. While this mimics some of the qualities of true streaming, it really is less effective.

In order to offer true streaming, the host must deliver from a specialized media server. So, how can you tell? One way is to ask to watch a “live” broadcast, as the only to do this is with true streaming. However, not every company will have live events readily available. In that case, ask them some pointed questions. Such as . . .

What is their protocol?

In the case of Flash Video streaming, for instance, it must be RTMP. If it’s not, the provider may be offering Flash Video progressive download, as opposed to actual Flash Video streaming.

What Video Formats Are Supported?

It may seem odd, but many providers do not support all of the most popular media delivery formats: Windows Media, Adobe Flash, Quicktime, and RealMedia. After all, it is expensive and time-consuming for the provider to keep current with all the latest upgrades and technologies.

So, make sure that the Streaming Hosting company you go with supports any format you are currently using, and any format you may want to use in the future. Of course, the safest thing for you is to choose one of the companies that supports all the formats. That way you’re covered.

What Kind of Reports and Stats are Offered?

Any serious company will have a proprietary reporting system, so it can be challenging to compare them. However, the first step is to make sure they do, in fact, have a web-accessible system. Secondly, find out what kind of details they provide, and how deeply you can “drill down” into each category.

If you’re using your video and audio content to generate revenue, than it’s particularly important to be able to get robust stats so that you can tailor your marketing efforts.

What is the Support Like?

Let’s face it: there are always going to be challenges when doing production for the web. What’s important is, how will the company you choose help you through them? Do they offer e-mail or online support only? While there’s nothing wrong with e-mail support, it doesn’t do you much good when you’re 10 minutes away from a big event and you need help now!

Make sure the company offers phone support — and the closer to 24/7 support, the better. There’s nothing like being able to pick up the phone and get your problem addressed in a timely fashion.

Final Notes

Of course there are many other feature offered by some of the leading Video Hosting companies, like automated transcoding from one file format to another, user-friend management systems, secure links, and more. But if you start with the basics, it will help you narrow your search.

These days, SEO has become such a key word (no pun intended!) that everyone knows about Search Engine Optimization. In short, it is the process via which people can find the pages of your site when typing in your key words (or, more accurately, key phrases).

But with the explosion of videos on the Web, and their inherent effectiveness in presenting your product or service, search engines have now begun to deliver video clips in response to user searches. This article gives you a list of ways to make your videos found more easily.

1) Get Inbound Links
The more good, on-topic links going to your videos from other sites, the more value search engines will place on these. A good place to start is social media (facebook, twitter, blogs, etc.)

2) Create SEO-Friendly URLs
One way you can do this is to use the mod_rewrite function.

3) Write Transcripts
Though these may be time-consuming to produce, they can be useful not only for SEO, but for users as well. Be sure to include relevant titles, as well as a summary paragraph that describes the clip. Last but not least, publish the transcript.

4) Organize
If possible, put all your videos in one folder, and don’t display more than one per page.

5) Use Video Meta Tags
Write titles, keywords, and descriptions for each video. Also, be sure to include the word “video” in each of these areas.

6) Check Keywords
Look at your stats to see if people are finding your videos through search engines. If not, try an online tool like WordTracker to find more popular terms, and change yours.

7) Build Sitemaps
Put all of your videos into your sitemap, and be sure that the search engines are indexing (and updating) that sitemap.

8) Check the Thumbnail
Search for your video, and see what frame the search engines are grabbing. Could be the first one, or one from the middle. You may want to adjust your clip so the thumbnail is one you like.

9) Avoid Flash
Since Flash is quickly becoming one of the most popular video formats on the Web, this poses a dilemma. Two possible solutions are: 1) offer an alternate format version which gets indexed; or 2) Use coding features to make your video accessible.

10) Use Feedback
Allowing users to submit comments. Beside helping your SEO, it will also make the videos more interactive, and therefore more effective.

The evolution of streaming video formats has been going on for years, and will continue for the foreseeable future. Currently there are four formats in popular use: Flash, Windows Media (WMV), Quicktime, and Real. Of the four, Real is arguably the weakest, and will most probably continue to decline.

On the the, hand, the Flash video format appears to be in the lead, and continues to gain market share. The reasons for this are various, and are detailed below.

A Matter of Numbers

More computers and browsers have the Flash player installed than any other format. Though not every user will have the latest version, the fact is that Flash is quickly becoming ubiquitous. Since most computer users tend to use whatever is easiest, this gives the Flash video player a definite edge.

On the other side, more and more content deliverers are choosing Flash simply because it gives them increased audience reach. Obviously, trends like this are self perpetuating, as the two sides tend to reinforce each other.

Compatibility

Flash works well on Macintosh, PC, Linux, and just about any other popular computer system. The experience is consistent within every format, which means that both users and deliverers benefit. (One of the parameters in which this is especially helpful is Flash’s adept handling of a broad range of connection speeds.)

Yes, other formats are designed to work across all platforms, too, but the reality doesn’t match the theory. For instance, Mac users can, supposedly, download a version of Windows Media for their machines. However, in additional to the extra effort required to find, download, install and configure that player, it doesn’t always work the way it should.

Improved Video Streaming

While all four video formats can stream, Flash seems to do it more effectively than the others. Without a dedicated server, Flash certainly delivers the best progressive download. With a dedicated server, Flash still provides the smoothest experience for the user.

As far as the quality of the video delivered, there are many different opinions on the subject. But there are so many factors involved, including the quality of the original video, compression methodology, delivery speed, user’s computer, browser, and monitor, etc., that it is difficult to make a judgement. Suffice it to say that there is no definitive answer regarding the comparison in quality between Flash, Quicktime, Windows Media, and Real.

Additional Capabilities

We’ve all seen the cool, multi-layered features contained within Flash websites. Now, Flash has built the same kind of capabilities into their video player, including overlays, pop-ups, sweeps, and other features that make the video experience far richer than with a standard, “flat” video players.

NOTE: Like all video delivery formats, only with a dedicated server can Flash video files be “protected.” When delivered via a standard web server, video files are downloaded into the users computer, and can be captured.

Wrapping Up

While the situation regarding video formats is — like much of technology — in flux, at this point in time, the Flash Video format has emerged as the clear winner regarding video streaming.

If you are planning on streaming video, audio, or both, from your website, then you should take a number of factors into consideration before choosing your web hosting company. Some offer advanced streaming capabilities, while some don’t permit it at all. In between are a number of companies that will allow you to stream, but with some pretty hefty limitations.

Here’s a checklist you should use when making your hosting decision.

Streaming vs Downloading

Though downloading is, over time, becoming the less popular option, many ISP’s work this way because it’s easier on their end. Basically, they treat your audio or video file as just that — a file. When the user clicks on it, the file downloads to their computer, at which time they can decide to play it “locally.”

Streaming is a technology that plays from the server, not the user’s computer. When the user clicks on the audio or video link, that file begins to play almost immediately, and the server “streams” data to the user’s computer as the file is playing. All in all, a much better experience for the user, which is why it has gained in popularity.

Audio / Video Formats

The four most commonly used formats are: Flash, Windows Media, Quicktime, and Real. Many ISP’s will offer one or two of these, in which case you have to make sure that your file types are supported.

NOTE: Each format has its advantages and disadvantages, which are covered here: Video Format Article. As an added bonus, some audio / video hosting companies will actually provide you with a facility to re-encode your files into different formats — this is called “transcoding.”

Traffic Capacity

Should you anticipate a small amount of traffic — for instance, your audio files might get played only once every few days — then bandwidth is not an issue for you. But if you think that your audio and video files might very well see a lot of action, then there are two facets to your streaming hosting provider that should concern you.

The first is overall bandwidth. All ISP’s put a limit on the bandwidth you can use per month. Video files, especially, use up a lot of bandwidth, and could cause you to incur extra charges. There’s a handy formula for calculating this, here: Bandwidth Calculator.

Second is the amount of concurrent streams your host can offer you. Most ISP’s will let, at most, 10 listeners listen to your audio files or view your video files at one time. But what if you do a big promotion, and dozens of fans try to view your content at the same time? The result: long wait times, delivery glitches, or just plain lack of access. Not a good idea!

Your ISP, or a Dedicated Streaming Host

While your website host may offer some limited streaming capabilities, they will probably never match up to a “specialty” streaming host. These are companies which have the latest servers, and virtually unlimited access to bandwidth, both data delivery and concurrent viewers. Surprisingly, they’re costs are quite reasonable because they deal in volume. What’s more, they allow you to use their servers to deliver your files without the view ever being aware of a 3rd party.

The upshot is that if you’re counting on any substantial traffic to your audio and video files, you should seriously consider a dedicating audio and video streaming hosting company. You’ll be glad you did!