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Streaming
Server
Hosting
Take the Pain Out of Streaming
Streaming
server hosting is an excellent way to manage your streaming media
content.
Streaming media content can be delivered over the web in two ways
- Through the use of a web
server
- With the help of a streaming server.
Although advocates for both will debate the issue, there are various
advantages and disadvantages of both.
Web servers are good to work with media
like text and images. However, these are generally not the
best for audio and video
files on demand.
There is a
better user streaming experience when streaming servers use protocols
like
User Datagram Protocol (UDP). UDP if compared to Transmission
Control
Protocol (TCP) has less overhead of retransmission and connection
maintenance.
UDP has less demand on the network as well as on the
streaming server. This makes it an ideal protocol to transmit audio and
video on-demand. Also UDP traffic has a higher priority than TCP
traffic on the Internet.
If a streaming
server hosting service like Video Desk is used, there is more efficient
use of the
available bandwidth. TCP based transmission retransmits dropped packets
and in this way consumes bandwidth.
Following a packet loss, it
re-estimates the throughput that can be supported by the network
connection. Streaming server software like that found with
Video Desk results in better media quality for the viewer.
Streaming
Server Hosting Comparison
- Before streaming
became popular, the viewers had to completely download a file before
running it.
- On slower applications a 30-second
video clip could need thirty minutes to download.
- Thus, the time needed
to download was more than that required to view the file.
- On the other
hand, if a streaming technology was used for the same video
clip, there would
be a five or ten second lag after clicking “Play” to start the video.
But then the power of streaming technology would take over and
make the video available instantly.
Streaming
Server Hosting Process
- The process begins when a media file
is created and saved in a streaming format.
- This streaming media file
is hosted on a streaming server (such as Video Desk).
- The web page
containing a reference to the media file is stored on the web server.
- Communication with the player is handled by the
streaming servers quite
differently from web servers.
- Streaming servers provide an
uninterrupted high quality media to online viewers on demand.
- The
streaming of the file to the client is active and intelligent.
- When the
file is created, a bit rate is decided. This determines the amount of
data sent per second.
- During the streaming process, the server and
client computer are in continuous communication.
- Any feedback from the
client can be responded by the server.
During the streaming process, the client and the streaming server
continuously communicate with each other. Thus, any alteration in the
network environment can be dynamically responded by the server.
Streaming server hosting enhances performance by
optimizing the process of how media files are read from the disk,
buffered in the main memory and streamed onto the network.
For
additional streaming
server concepts such as the streaming server hosting
section here, please check out the
related
topics: streaming
audio servers, streaming video server,
video web server, windows
media server and streaming
server software.
And for
more streaming media info, don't
forget to visit the streaming
media hosting, broadband
tv, online
video sharing, video teleconference, video
streaming information and video email sections.
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