Tips and Training >> Definitions >> Video Streaming
What is Video Streaming?
Video Streaming is creating and delivering an electronic transmission of video and/or audio from a source to viewers or listeners on their personal computers, smart phones and mobile devices. The term Video Streaming is an Internet corollary to the television term "TV broadcasting" which is to mean that the Internet is used as the medium to transmit signals from source to destination. This is different from audio-only streaming which is closer in scope to radio broadcasting.
In general, the process of using the Internet to stream real time content by encoding source video and audio into a number of decodable formats is called Video Streaming. This is live Internet or local area network broadcasting where the source content is encoded in formats that can be transmitted over the Internet (or over a LAN) and decoded by software players.
Advantages of Video Streaming
Video Streaming (also called: Live Streaming or Live Webcasting) is a low cost way to distribute a message to a wide audience of PC, Mac and Smart Phone viewers and listeners. The ability to stream live content can be paired with the ability to archive the content for later playback using what are called Video On Demand services. In this way, a Live Video Stream's relevance can be extended and its useful life increased.
Disadvantages of Video Streaming
Player irregularities between PC's, Mac's and Smart Phones complicate the ease of creating successful and widely viewable live video streams. Often some viewing platforms simply cannot receive or decode the video format and therefore users cannot always view content as expected. Additionally, Video Streaming, because it presents moving video images can appear choppy or fuzzy depending on the speed of transmission and the player window and display resolution. This can generally be resolved by increasing the bit rate or bandwidth at which a stream is transmitted.
How do I get started with Live Video Streaming?
For commercial video streaming support we recommend contacting a service provider with experience managing live events and, specifically, streaming events. TKO VideoConferencing can assist you with planning for a successful video streaming event.
Video Streaming for personal interest is supported very well by Google's YouTube services for Video On Demand use. In addition to Google, personal video streaming is also supported by Apple, Inc. through "Podcasts". User communities are growing and a number of video and audio streaming blogs currently offer recommendations for personal video and audio streaming. We recommend searching the Internet for blogs related to live personal streaming.
What does a Video Streaming cost?
Streaming services, including Live Video Streaming for commercial business use is priced per hour. One hour of video streaming for commercial use costs $2,500 USD to $5,000 USD. Additional hours of video streaming cost $500 to $1,500 USD per hour.
Important factors that affect Video Streaming costs include:
- User/Viewer registration and conditional password access
- Starting page special requirements or layout
- The Number of encoding formats
- Live event support that may be required to capture video
- Presentation of slides with the live video and audio
Contact TKO for help today
