True Streaming with a media server

Streaming means the ability to read parts of the content without loading it in whole. In the sense of web, video streaming means the ability to play video without having to download a file first.

Protocol based streaming or as it is called true streaming, uses a specifically designed network protocol to send packets with video data over a network connection. This approach requires a network server which implements this protocol and provides stream data to a client(player). This type of servers are called “Media Servers” since they generally serve media in the form of video and audio streams (and it was good marketing started by Macromedia).

The use of a media server allows more control of the connection. And allows the server to adapt by reducing bandwidth usage and skipping frames when the connection is not good enough to run the full stream.

Media server streaming is required for live video broadcasting as a real time feed have to be distributed to clients in real time. Media servers can connect to other media servers and replicate their streams to increase capacity and serve larger number of clients.

Pros of true streaming vs. progressive download

• Ability to broadcast live video.
• Ability to adapt the connection speed to user’s connection i.e. adapt quality to maintain.
• Access any part of the video (Fast Forward) without having to read a file up to that part.
• Built in DRM capability.

Cons of true streaming vs. progressive download

• Harder to implement, manage and scale. Hence higher price.
• Can’t use variable bitrate (VBR) hence slightly lower quality.
• Requires compatible server and player
• Cannot serve offline users or slow connections. With progressive download you can wait for a video to load in case you’re on a very slow connection.

The most popular media server protocol is Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) used by  Flash Media Server (FMS) by Adobe (former Macromedia Flash Media Server) and several other media server software implementations like  Red5 and Wowza. The high popularity of the platform comes from the client, which is the hugely popular Flash Player (by Adobe/Macromedia), rather then the server software itself. The FMS platform supports all types of flash remoting like chat,video,audio and raw data transfer, which makes it easier to add video to other types of applications.

Microsoft has it’s own set of solutions in the face of Windows Media Player, Microsoft Media Server (MMS) and Silverlight. The model is similar in concept to Adobe’s. Microsoft’s solutions white technologically slightly superior are not very common on the web … for a few good reasons. I will not go into these technologies since this blog is about web video in the first place.