Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

streaming media/blatant eclipse plug

Author:mat wrigley
Posted:8/10/1999; 1:58:22 PM
Topic:Today's scriptingNews Outline
Msg #:9318 (In response to 9271)
Prev/Next:9317 / 9319

jakob nielsen is right about video and streaming media... it still has a way to go... the problem lies not just with the pictures but also with the sound... that's what takes up the majority of the stream capacity at modem dialup levels...

at http://interface.pirate-radio.co.uk we stream both audio and audio/visual so that our listeners can choose... (some ppl complain if they can't see the dj!)...

the audio takes up 16kbps on both streams, while a target bitrate of 20kbps on the video stream leaves only 4kbps for the picture, giving less than 1fps (frame per second)... with a few 'tricks' we can up this a bit but not much...

real's g2 system is supposed to get round this by allowing one to stream at a higher rate and getting the player at the other end to adjust for whatever connection you have... we have not tried this yet for the reasons stated in the nielsen article... there are still plenty of ppl out there using realplayer5... with the $150 realproducer plus g2 it is possible to encode with a simultaneous real5 stream... i understand we may be trying this in the next month or so...

meanwhile, i find myself today in a house in cornwall in a small junk cupboard with isdn line fitted in it... we are here to netcast ‘outside-in’, an performance art event that coincides with tomorrow’s solar eclipse (appx 11am uk time)...

we’re not broadcasting sound, so we intend to kick out 3 or 4fps in full, glorious colour!...

cornwall is the first landfall of the shadow, so this will be one of the first opportunities to see the last total eclipse of this millennium (pedants note that the next one takes place in 2001)... more info at...

http://www.shoevegas.com/outside-in/index.html (flash) http://interface.pirate-radio.co.uk/events/outsidein/outsidein.html (non flash)

see you there!...

There are responses to this message:

This page was archived on 6/13/2001; 4:51:48 PM.

© Copyright 1998-2001 UserLand Software, Inc.