Full stream ahead: A look at the future of media

With broadband Internet connections becoming the norm, the range of content on the Internet is growing exponentially. Content, being the Internet’s most powerful resource, has for some time been limited to static text documents and images. Streaming animation technology such as Macromedia’s Flash and Shockwave has allowed a more interactive way of pushing information with motion graphics and audio. Many see this as a stepping-stone to the Internet’s holy grail – streaming audio and video on demand.

Streaming content will continue to make the Internet a powerful resource and repository of information but it will also facilitate its ascension as a true form of media rivaling radio, television and cable TV. Since the Internet is inherently an altruistic medium to be shared by everyone who can get access, streaming media will soon level the broadcast playing field. We are approaching a time when everyone will have the technology to produce and broadcast their own audio and video content for a fraction of the cost that traditional media companies have to spend for their shows.

Streaming technology has been around since the early days of the popular Internet. Back then, however, the cumbersome dial-up connections and 14.4kbps to 28.8kbps modems could hardly support the bandwidth demands of even stamp-sized online videos. Personal computers then had but a fraction of the processing power available today and this also slowed down the process considerably.

These days, data compression technology, advanced streaming software and fat pipes by way of DSL and cable connections are making it possible for video and audio to be accessed by more users. Today’s PCs are also multimedia powerhouses whose processors can slice and dice audio and video with speed and ease. Intel’s latest Pentium IV and rival AMD’s Athlon chips are veritable monsters that were built around multimedia access, playback and even editing. While hardware is essential, it is streaming multimedia software which has advanced rapidly these past few years. There are three main products that are engaged in a free-for-all to be considered the premier streaming media vehicle.

Apple’s old reliable

Apple’s QuickTime technology has been around since the time of the earliest browsers. One can say that QuickTime has historical experience which has made it the de facto choice of studios and multimedia companies. A short visit to Apple’s QuickTime trailers page (http://www.apple.com/quicktime) will yield a staggering list of the latest movie trailers available for viewing. QuickTime also holds the record for streaming the most downloaded clip, Star Wars: Episode I, the Phantom Menace, which received unprecedented 25 million downloads.

QuickTime’s technology has made it possible to squeeze video files smaller for broadcast online and access more easily while maintaining good quality. Another feature placing QuickTime at the forefront of technology is RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) that downshifts the video stream’s quality to match the viewer’s connection speed. In the past, a low connection speed would result in failure of access, which many users found frustrating.

QuickTime engineers made sure that the application would be deployed easily. This was why they made sure that it would run on most platforms and would not need a specialized server. On the user side, the QuickTime plug-in which could be downloaded for free was small, stable and very easy to use and configure. The plug-in came with built-in links to numerous QuickTime TV stations as well as links to a sizeable body of online content ranging from commercials to animated shorts. Apple’s QuickTime server and client programs are powerful applications which have evolved with the Internet and its users.

Media Player XP

Software giant Microsoft’s answer to QuickTime is the equally formidable Windows Media Player, which is not surprisingly touted as the most popular media player in the United States. Windows Media Player is integrated into the Windows operating system so it comes free with each new machine.

Windows Media Player is no slouch; it can perform audio and video playback tasks easily and effectively. On the server side, the Windows Media Services application gels well with Windows NT and Windows 2000 servers and can easily enable 9,000 simultaneous narrowband streams.

For copyright fanatics, Windows has also included a Digital Rights Management (DRM) component which allows content creators to secure their intellectual property. Windows Media Player came behind QuickTime and RealPlayer but it managed to borrow some of the best interface and functionality aspects of both, thus making it a viable alternative for propagating streaming technology.

Real veteran

Real Networks is the third and also the oldest streaming vendor on the Internet with statistics to prove it. Over 140 million registered RealPlayer users and an 85 percent presence in all streaming sites make Real the player to beat in streaming technology. Among its products are easy-to-use content editing, encoding and production tools which allow anyone to grab video off a CD or VHS tape and spin it into data for Web access. Real has innovated the way content producers prepare streaming media files; they can now tweak either audio or video depending on what is most necessary, bringing precision editing to the Internet which has only been possible in a studio setup. Unfortunately, special server setups are needed to run it, and they can be expensive.

For serious enterprise streaming, Real will be the most suitable application to consider, especially since the company focuses primarily on streaming applications and not on operating systems.

BitStop in focus

One of the most qualified experts on streaming technology is Wilson Chua, owner of BitStop Computers of Dagupan City, who has successfully streamed audio and video for many local content providers. He discusses the present and future of streaming media in this Q&A:

NetWorks: What sort of streaming media services does BitStop Computers offer and who are your clients?

Chua: We do live and on-demand audio and video streaming for our clients. They include the likes of Crossover, MonsterRX, dwRT, dzBB, dwKY, Klite, Wave89.1 and recently, Regal Films. We offer consultancy and turnkey services. For these, we were lucky to have been associated with projects at Microsoft, ePLDT and DLSU.

NetWorks: What constitutes an effective streaming media setup? What are the elements that are needed to work together?

Chua: The most important factor is a network with lots of bandwidth and 24x7 support. (The last EDSA II used up more than 90mbps of outgoing bandwidth on both of our infrastructure partners – DigitelOne and Infocom/PLDT.)

Next we need to consider the hardware and software needed to run the server side application. Here, we always use ASUS motherboards with Dual Intel CPUs and chipsets, and Windows 2000 server for its fault tolerance and ease of use. The media server comes free with each copy of Win2k.

For encoding content, we suggest you use original Soundblaster sound cards and Osprey 500 video cards. These are fully compatible with Windows streaming services.

NetWorks: Aside from entertainment, what are the other applications of your streaming technology?

Chua: For education, we are collaborating with CREM at DLSU with Bro. Mike Rapatan and Sammy Mallare. There, the existing DLSU video content is digitized and stored in a Windows Media Server for instant access to its student population, much like a video library on demand. For IT education, Windows Media has a screen capture that encodes content for 28.8 connections. In the future, the DLSU can probably open this up to the Internet community for online distance education.

We also recently secured the online rights to Keystone’s video training materials for IT certification courses like Microsoft, Cisco, Lotus, Novell, A+, Oracle and others. The pricing model will be significantly lower than what is presently available in the market.

NetWorks: How long has BitStop been offering streaming services? Were they part of the company’s initial services?

Chua: We have been offering our streaming services for about two years now. They are part of our ISP operations here in the North. We realized that the Philippines was heavily dependent on foreign content. We needed to create localized content that was even more compelling than those from abroad. We hope that one day, 80 percent of the Internet will be sourced locally and thus, lower the cost of Internet for the Philippine Internet and computing community.

Radio stations, on the other hand, needed to have more listeners. Happily, all parties have benefited from this system – radio stations got wider audiences, and the ISPs got local content. We used this streaming platform to disprove a myth – that you have to be hosted abroad for your content to be "visible." Creating content that used up 90mbps wouldn’t be of much use if the Philippine infrastructure wasn’t up to it. We now have the logs to prove that at the height of the usage, our streams reached people in the US, Taiwan, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and even Ethiopia.

NetWorks: In a country such as the Philippines which is spread out and made up of remote islands, what will be the benefit of pushing streaming technologies?

Chua: eLearning is the first application that we have in mind. For example for DECS, we will suggest that instead of the annual budget spent on printing textbooks, why not spend it in modernizing the Internet infrastructure and the computers in each school, and reformat the textbooks into streaming media. It will cost a lot initially, but the operational savings and efficiencies will make up for the cost in a few years.

Think about it. If DECS has the infrastructure to deliver streaming multimedia online, students will get consistent quality instruction from top-grade teachers that will never get tired! The materials will include text, audio and video that will make learning more fun and interactive! Plus some other advantages as well: the materials need to be updated only once at the server, and be quickly propagated out into the outlying areas via the Internet! This process is instantaneous, as opposed to a semester or a year under the old system.

NetWorks: What is to be expected in the next wave of technology for streaming media?

Chua: As PDAs’ cost falls and cellular companies roll out their GPRS and 3G cell phones, we can deliver any video/audio content over these PDAs or cell phones. Learning, communication and collaboration will really be anywhere, anytime!

NetWorks: Do you believe that with a strong infrastructure, the Internet can serve as an additional content provider where even small groups can create their own shows and movies for online viewing?

Chua: Strong infrastructure? Hmm, now is a great time to plug one of our pet peeves. Why is it that ISPs are not allowed to own the last mile facility? Neither are we allowed to go into VoIP. While telcos can own the last mile, they can also compete against ISPs by being ISPs themselves. Some will say this is unfair competition. Ask PISO. What will happen if ISPs are allowed by our government to really compete against the telcos?

NetWorks: Are there any security dangers or copyright loopholes for streaming content? Can the content be pirated like the way MP3s are?

Chua: Unfortunately, yes, there are security holes available to the most determined hackers to bypass copyright protections. Microsoft has made a lot of headway on DRM (Digital Rights Management) but as long as there is a wide cost differential between the cost of original and pirated products, we will continue to see ways around copyright protection schemes.

NetWorks: Do you believe there is a future streaming content beyond the desktop, say, for cell phones or PDAs? How will this be useful?

Chua: Yes, definitely! We are closely looking into the GPRS rollout dates of Digitel, Smart and Globe.

(The author is chief executive officer of Softrigger Interactive Inc., an Internet solutions company.)