Streaming Video

STREAMING VIDEO FROM YOUR WEB SITE

There are now three ways to stream video: from your own web site's server, from a Content Delivery Network, or from a video host like YouTube.

To use true streaming capability you need to use a special streaming software on a server.

Windows Streaming Services is a program that can be added to any Windows Server, but most hosting companies won't spend the money on it.

Flash video streaming requires Flash Video Streaming Service (FVSS) which uses software on the server called Macromedia Flash Communication Server MX.

You would therefore load your files on a streaming server hosted by what's called a Content Delivery Network, described below.

Content Delivery Networks specialize in streaming most, if not all, formats of streaming video and are normally set up close to an Internet backbone. You add a link in your website to your video content on the CDN server.

With the Content Delivery Network you can set two or more streaming rates in one file and the CDN will send the appropriate speed and in some cases monitor the download rate and adjust the content as necessary.

They are usually spread out across the globe so that America, Asia and Europe get video streamed from the closest server, making the service faster.

You will be interested in Video or Web Media On Demand rather than Webcasting. The best one we've found is Playstream.com  It starts at $10/month, although their prices on bandwidth go up in a hurry.
 

DELIVERING YOUR OWN WEB SITE VIDEO

Since you probably don't have streaming server software through your web host you need to do what's known as a progressive download. You set a fixed bit rate for the stream and add a buffer so that the viewer can start viewing when, say, 10% of the video has downloaded. You need larger buffers for dial-up and smaller buffers for broadband.

To control the download you need a video player to embed your video into. One that has a free version (with their logo, paid version for your own logo) is flowplayer.

You can also upload your video to a video web host (see below) and embed it into your website.

For a WordPress blog you can use any of a number of video plugins. Two of the newer ones that differentiate between HTML5 capable browsers and older browsers are Video For Everybody and the Degradeable HTML5 for Audio and Video Plugin from Soukie.net

Amazon S3. If you are streaming a lot of video and running into bandwidth limitations on your web host another option is using an Amazon S3 server to store and stream your videos to your web site.

You pay something like 15 cents per GB per month for storage and 17 cents per GB streamed. Thus, you only pay for what you actually use and it's scalable to any size.

If you are streaming worldwide you can also sign up for their CloudFront service which copies your video files to servers across the globe and streams from the server nearest the client, much like a CDN.

How  To Stream Video Using Amazon S3

VIDEO HOSTS

The other option for getting your video on the web is a video host like YouTube

How to post your video to YouTube and embed it on your web page

You Tube Features that can help your business

There's also Yahoo! Video and, not to be outdone, Microsoft has logged in with Bing Video which is mostly TV clips and lots of ads. All of the other sites will give you all the information you need to upload videos by clicking on Help.

None so far will accept Flash videos, which are what you want to use on your own server, but will accept .wmv, .mov and usually MPEG videos which they then convert to, presumably, Flash or mp4. The specs for each video host are in their site Help sections. You can link to your videos from your web site and some hosts will also show you how to embed the video into your web page.

There are now many additional video hosts in addition to these. If you want to publish your video once and load it into many video hosts check out TubeMogul which auto-loads the video into hosts you've previously signed up for.

It has a limited free version for uploads, plus a free basic video analytics package with options for higher, paid versions of both.

If you want to create your own "live TV" broadcasts or video blogs check out Mogulus.com, blogTV.com or Kyte.com

If you want to create interactive videos with menus and callouts take a look at Asterpix.com