Live Versus On-demand


Two delivery options are possible when streaming: live broadcast and on-demand. When to use each option depends primarily on the event itself, but there are other factors to consider as well.

Obviously, a live broadcast is necessary when an event of great importance takes place and viewers want to see and hear the event as it occurs. Examples might be a presidential election, a farewell performance by a beloved singer, breaking news, or a high-profile sporting event. If you intend to stream events such as these, you must ensure that you have the infrastructure to support it. This infrastructure includes encoders to compress the content, enough bandwidth to accommodate all the concurrent stream requests, multiple servers to distribute the load and to provide redundancy in case one or more servers go down, and, on networks where it is possible, routers that have been configured to support a special kind of broadcast called “multicast.”

Streaming on demand is the appropriate choice for all the other times when the message is not time-critical. Streaming on demand enables you to re-broadcast a live event to those users who may have missed it the first time. They request the stream when they have the time to watch it, and they control the playback by rewinding, fast forwarding, pausing, and so on, to meet their needs. On-demand streaming potentially has lower bandwidth requirements because you are not required to service hundreds (or thousands) of concurrent streams.




Microsoft Windows Media Resource Kit
Microsoft Windows Media Resource Kit (Pro-Resource Kit)
ISBN: 0735618070
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 258

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