Audio & Video Streaming Servers

A streaming server or Video streaming or Audio Streaming are the terms used in many places and people usually strive to find them and most of the time they are presented some thing not what they need to understand. Specially in Dubai & Pakistan video streaming is thought to be either too easy or too dificult. My IT experts do not try to seek the actual need of the client and suggest video streaming right away. Here are some basic concepts and their solutions.

What is Streaming

It is multimedia that is constantly presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider. Rather than video streaming it is actually called "Streaming Media" because it involved not just video but it can be Audio, pictures or other such formats of media. In simple words when some video audio or pictures are presented contineously to many number of receipients at the same time we call it "Streaming" For Example a radio station can stream its programs so people on the internet can listen to them.

What is Streaming Server.

Streaming server is a software or application which runs on a server machine connected to a network. This is often referred to as "true streaming", since other methods of delivering media content only simulate streaming. True streaming has advantages such as

Streaming can handle larger traffic loads as same stream of media is being seen by many people.
You can detect users' connection speeds and supply appropriate files automatically.
Live events can only be telecasted by Video or Audio Streaming.

There are 2 option for running streaming server or streaming your media:

1. Operate you own server i.e. Install the necessary software and hard ware in your own premises
2. Sign up for a hosted streaming plan with an ISP or Hosting Company

Operate your own server

Many people do dream about doing this but the bandwidth costs implementation of servers and the IT experts bring about such huge bills that only few can actually affoard it and generally it is way too big a solution for start ups.

To run your own streaming server, you can either purchase a standalone server machine or purchase a streaming server software package and install it on an existing web server. Streaming software is available for all common server platforms such as Linux, Windows, etc.

Popular streaming media Software:

http://www.realnetworks.com/products/server/
Helix Universal Server from RealNetworks. This server supports a variety of formats, including RealMedia, Windows Media, Quicktime and MPEG-4.
Apple Quicktime Streaming Server, supporting a few formats including MPEG-4 and 3GPP.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/products/qtss/
Macromedia Communication Server, specializing in Flash-based video and interactive multimedia.
http://www.macromedia.com/software/flashcom/

Sign up for a hosted streaming plan
In much the same way that you sign up for a website hosting plan, you can get yourself a hosting plan which specializes in streaming media. This is a far more realistic option for most people.

Some examples of hosted streaming media plans

RealNetworks Managed Application Services (MAS)
Apple Quicktime Streaming Services
Macromedia Communication Server Hosts

Be warned: True video streaming in any form can be an expensive business. Unless you really have a need for it, you are probably better off starting with basic HTTP streaming...

Streaming & Transcoding

Shoutcast is one of the most popular streaming servers available and is used by many thousands of Internet radio and TV stations, both professional and amateur. We provide stable Shoutcast hosting solutions for online radio stations. Whether you need a server with the ability to support 5 or 5000 listeners, we have the right solution for you.

Stream transcoding is where the audio is taken from your main server and split into more bitrates in real time and re-streamed to another Shoutcast server. This is not only limited to bitrate changes, but we can split your stream into different formats as well so that you can offer your listeners a wide range of alternatives including high and low bitrates using MP3 and AAC+ streams.

Shoutcast Servers
Transcoding Servers Auto DJ & Playlists
Auto Archiving

Shoutcast Servers

Bit Rate Price Per Listener
320 0.80
256 0.70
192 0.60
128 0.50
96 0.40
64 0.30
32 0.20
24 0.10

Small Business IT Consulting
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