Streaming Video Simplified

Streaming video is a form of streaming multimedia which allows Web site visitors to view video files and listen to accompanying sound in compressed form immediately, without having to download the files.

A stream of data in form a Flash-encoded (Sorenson Spark or VP6) or H.264-encoded video file travels from the server over Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) to the Flash player, which works as part of the Web browser. This form of streaming video inherently provides more content security than progressive download of video files over HTTP because it leaves no copy of the content on the client computer. Streaming video allows a viewer to seek to different parts of the video quickly in a familiar TiVo-like fashion.

An video stream can be made available in two different ways:

On Demand: - The video file is stored on a server, available to be streamed when the user requests it.
Live: - The video delivered from a live TV broadcast, live music event, or speech at a particular time.

The main benefit of incorporating streaming video into a Web site is that visitors can preview video clips of movies or music quickly, view lectures and other educational videos, and enjoy live TV or events directly on their computers. Affordable and practical, streaming video is becoming an increasingly popular way to disseminate information to site visitors.

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