The Benefits of Online Video Streaming

Video streaming has quickly gained popularity in the online world and is now the most sought after type of online content. There are many ways in which webmasters have chosen to distribute video content on their websites and the method that has shown the best results is Video on Demand (or VoD). This technology works by allowing users to access streaming videos via their web browsers. There are also many other ways in which you can make use of the streaming video technology. Once you find out exactly how it works, you will be able to come up with your own ideas for implementation.

Video on Demand is currently the most popular use of the video streaming technology. You can host video files on any server and they will become available to anyone who has a computer connected to the internet. This does not only benefit people who are looking to entertain themselves by searching for media online but it is also a very useful tool for schools and universities that give teachers and opportunity to present their courses with rich media materials. Better yet, students are able to access the media files anytime. This is great especially for universities practicing distance learning.

When it comes to distance learning, video on demand is a very good tool because it allows the user to pause and rewind the video in case he or she missed something. This is also the reason why video streaming is in some cases making the learning process more effective.

Video streaming can also be done live. This technology can be very useful for broadcasting live events such as premieres, live concerts, political speeches, etc. Live video streaming is also great as a security tool because it allows monitoring of remote locations in real time. This way anyone on the planet who has an internet connection will be able to watch a live broadcasting with this technology.

Video streaming is also doing great in the world of internet marketing. When it comes to marketing online, video streaming is one of the most powerful tools available, provided you know how to take advantage of this media. Just the way that television commercials are the best advertising media, the internet streaming videos can also be used to capture a large number of audiences.

However, users need to take on a different approach with their videos in order to capture online audiences. While on the television people only need to see flashy videos and catchy music to stop what they were doing and watch a commercial. In the online world things are rarely that simple. Here you need to get a little more creative. What you need is to create a viral effect with your videos. The so-called viral videos benefit from the best exposure in the online world. Videos need to be funny, creative and interesting in order to get people to watch them. However, even if you can’t manage to put together a video that has any of these things, your internet marketing efforts will surely get a lot more attention from prospective buyers when you are making use of video streaming.

It is not enough to have a technical knowledge of how video streaming works if you want to be successful with video streaming online. You also need to get more creative and able to give your potential customers a better view of what you are selling. Good commercials are the ones that keep visitors curious and wanting to come back for more.

Whether you are looking to stream videos for teaching purposes or you are trying to advertise your product online then you will need to find a video streaming service. Although there are plenty companies out there that offer such services, the important thing is to make sure that they are reliable. It really can’t be good for your business if the service is crashing frequently. Before actually investing in such a service you should first test out the company’s services and see how responsive their support is. If you are pleased with them then make your purchase and begin streaming videos online.

You should also take into consideration that there are several platforms for onlin

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Checklist For a Video Streaming Website

As an IT personnel servicing multiple clients, it’s not unusual to receive requests for products upgrade from customers. The Internet has indeed evolved, from text-based websites to multimedia-rich contents. And as with every progress made, you either adapt or get left behind.

So the case turned out during a meeting with a client, who having just heard of the new way of transmitting live video over the Internet, requested that it be built into his website. He had an upcoming seminar and in order to break the distance barrier, the event had to be streamed live over the Internet. This was an uphill task, since I had not researched much into the new technology called video streaming.

Transmitting a live event from a location to other places is not new, news outfits like CNN and Fox have being able to broadcast live using satellite links. Improvement in video technologies, higher computing power and lower bandwidth cost set the stage for live broadcast of audio and video contents over the Internet. Achieving efficiency with new technologies means a marrying of the old with the new.

The Internet set the stage for live video streaming, with its high speed Internet connection and advanced video compression techniques. To however broadcast video from your website, you may have to do a checklist so you can get the best out of your investment.

Before You Set Up Video Streaming

1. Whether to stream or not to stream. It is one thing to deploy cutting edge technology on your website, its usefulness is another thing entirely. Do not integrate video streaming into your website if it will not reinforce your design objective. The cost of video hosting and bandwidth required is much higher than that for a conventional website. If it is a business site, then the increased cost must be justifiable.

Alternatives could be using graphics and text to tell the story, or transcription of the videos into text versions. Another alternative is using YouTube, you can display an image from the video, write a summary and place a link to the video’s location on YouTube. On YouTube your videos are hosted for free, and they can be watched on-demand.

2. Live streaming or Video on Demand. On-line video streaming comes in two forms – live streaming and Video on Demand. Live streaming is real-time broadcast over the Internet; your viewers can only watch the videos as you broadcast them. A missed scene cannot be replayed, and the contents cannot be saved on the computer of the viewer. These are appropriate for high profile meetings, seminars, breaking news and other visuals that are best enjoyed when viewed real time.

For Video on Demand, the videos are saved on the server and can be watched at any time. Packaged programs, musical videos, adverts, are examples of videos suitable for Video on Demand. Videos on you tube are on demand, they can only be downloaded if you’ve got a download manager.

Live streaming requires more hardware – capture cards, web-cams, video recorders, video compression utilities, broadband Internet access etc. It requires more precision, leaving room for no mistakes. Video on Demand less hardware – usually a PC and Internet connection. Your kind of contents and presentation should decide the form of video streaming chosen.

3. Self hosting or hosting by Content Delivery Network. Most web hosts offer video streaming support, so you could host your videos directly on the server that hosts your site. You manage your video streaming from the same window as your website, and you’re completely responsible for the administration.

You could also use the services of Content Delivery Networks who host your videos separately. You are given a separate control panel to manage your videos, and this reduces the weight on your site’s administration and management.

The two options have their pros and cons, but you’ll have to decide which is best for you. Hosting and managing your videos yourself, or having your videos hosted by a separate platform.

One clear advantage of Content Delivery Networks is that they’re uniquely designed to manage your videos, so you should get better value per Dollar spent on video streaming.

4. Quality vs size of your videos. Bit-rate is defined as the frequency of data that is transmitted every second. A bit-rate of 64 k bps means that 64 bits of data is transmitted every second. Transmission of data is measured this way. As a rule, the larger the video file, the higher the bit-rate, and the higher the bandwidth needed to transmit it over the Internet.

Every time I compress a video file, I reduce the size and also the quality, so that the bandwidth needed for transmission is reduced. The reason for compressing video is cost, smaller bandwidth is cheaper. But while trying to reduce the size of the video, you should not lose sight of the fact that the quality would be compromised.

A factor also to consider when setting the bit-rate is available bandwidth for households. If in a bid to broadcast high quality videos, I choose a bit-rate of 512 k bps for my videos. Without considering that most of my audience only have access to 256 k bps or lower, I risk losing them.

5. Having your videos on your home page or other pages. Placing your video on your home page means your video has to be played each time your site is visited. Delay in loading means that your visitors might not wait to watch them. When they are placed on other pages inside your site, your visitors have the choice of visiting the pages to view them. That way they can wait even if the videos takes a longer time to play.

Having your videos inside your website is also cost saving. Since you are charged per download. If your video is on the home page, you are billed whenever someone visits the site. Most times they never stay to watch the video. However, videos embedded inside the website are billed as visitors click on their links to watch them. You get better value for your money because more of your visitors actually watch the videos.

The list is not exhaustive, but the points outlined are pertinent before setting up video streaming on your website. Other issues like which hosting platform, the streaming media, video file to support etc will be considered along the wa

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