Hands-On Guide to Windows Media

CHAPTER 2

Streaming Media Basics

You’ve successfully encoded your first media file, and you’re excited to learn more about streaming media technology and production. As with all new information and skills, you need to start with the basics. This chapter discusses the fundamental concepts behind streaming media and introduces you to streaming’s four steps: capture, encode, distribute, and playback. In addition, you’ll learn about the two main kinds of streaming: live and on-demand.

This chapter will also discuss your audience, the most important component in any kind of communications activity. You’ll evaluate your audience’s needs and how well you can meet those needs with streaming media. You’ll also evaluate your content, that is, the media ...