Streaming Servers: The Intelligent Choice
Streaming servers is one of the major methods used for streaming audio and video over the Internet. Although web servers are also used for streaming audio/video over the web but streaming servers are more efficient and flexible. This efficiency and flexibility provides a better experience to the user.
Streaming with streaming servers involve posting and hosting which refers to the process in which the uncompressed audio and video is compressed to form a media file that is delivered over a specific network bandwidth. For example, 28.8 Kbps modem. The media file is then copied to a specialized streaming media server. Then, a web page with a reference to the media file is made and placed on a web server.
Then comes the data delivery. Actually the data delivery is very different in streaming servers. Generally, it is done through web servers where a burst methodology is employed.
Here are some helpful and informative facts relating to streaming servers:
1. In streaming servers, the data is sent to the clients in an active and intelligent way. This means that the content is delivered at an exact data rate which is generally associated with the compressed audio and video files. 2. The delivery process is designed in such a way that the server and the client stay in close touch and the client can get a feedback from the streaming servers. 3. Streaming servers usually use the web servers' HTTP/TCP protocols. They sometime use some specialized protocols like an User Datagram Protocol (UDP), this enhances the overall experience of streaming . UDP is faster than TCP, it is also a lightweight protocol and it does not have any data-rate management or re-transmission functionality. 4. This quality of UDP makes it an ideal protocol for transmitting data in the form of audio and video. In addition UDP traffic enjoys a higher priority in comparison to the TCP traffic, due to the back-off policies involved in a TCP protocol. 5. Streaming servers also use an intelligent transmission scheme. This quality facilitates a resend feature. This is a feature which helps in retransmitting lost packets to the client in due time. This ensures that the file gets played smoothly. There are various types of streaming servers provided by different companies such as Microsoft and Apple.
Microsoft provides a windows media server which is a part of the Microsoft windows server . It allows the users for streaming media. It only supports formats such as; jpeg, mp3 and windows media. Apple provides the Darwin streaming server which is the open source version of Apple's QuickTime Streaming Server technology. It allows the users to send streaming media to the clients over the Internet by using RTSP and RTP protocols. With such rapid advances in technology, it is a proven fact streaming servers are the best way to stream media files over the Internet.
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