If you are planning to publish video on your website you first need to Encode your video file for Windows Media, Real Player or Apple Quicktime formats so that they can be played smoothly in web browser. Once you encode your video file you just need to upload these files on a server running streaming media software so that all your video files can be delivered to all webusers.
You can consider a streaming server as a special server which is responsible for ? true streaming ? True streaming have following advantages as :
- They are specially designed for handling large traffic for all video embedded sites.
- They can detect users internet connection speed and will accordingly send data at your user end.
- They are capable for broadcasting LIVE VIDEO events such as Live Sports Matches, Live Shows, Live Presentations etc?
You have two different ways for getting a Streaming server, either you purchase/lease your own dedicated server and set it for streaming video files by installing some video streaming software or you can signup with a host offering you video streaming hosting package for fixed rent.
If you are planning to get a standalone server which can be used as streaming server then you need to get and install some streaming server software on your server or on your existing server. You have range of Streaming softwares which can be installed on both Linux and Windows Hosting Server platforms.
Following are most common video streaming software which are widely used by all webmasters
*) Helix Universal Server from RealNetworks : This server supports a variety of formats, including RealMedia, Windows Media, Quicktime and MPEG-4.
*) Apple Quicktime Streaming Server : Support few video formats which includes MPEG-4 and 3GPP.
*) Macromedia Communication Server : Commonly used for all Flash-based video and interactive multimedia presentations.
Each of above streaming technologies have their own proprietary server and types of media files that they use. Each have their own corresponding server designed to stream files in a preferred formats.
