Snow Leopard™ Server

Chapter 29. QuickTime Streaming Server

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Introduction to QuickTime Streaming Server

• Planning streaming media services

• QuickTime Streaming Server setup and configuration

• Managing and monitoring QuickTime Streaming Server

Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server carries forward QuickTime Streaming Server, Apple's streaming server technology for delivering live and on-demand media streaming.

With streaming, rather than delivering media files to your audience, QuickTime Streaming Server is used to send a media stream via Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) and Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP).

QuickTime Streaming Server is used to broadcast AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) or MP3 audio and MPEG-4 video, including the standard H.264 video codec and 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) content targeted at simpler mobile phones.

QuickTime Streaming Server can deliver streams of:

• Broadcasts of live events

• Media files on demand

• Playlists of pre-recorded content

When initially released alongside QuickTime 4 in 1999, QuickTime Streaming Server was attempting to catch up in the new gold rush then centered around the streaming broadcast of Internet audio and video.

Apple had pioneered video playback and editing on the desktop with QuickTime, but the emergence of the commercial Internet in the mid-1990s put a lot of momentum behind rivals with streaming technology Apple lacked in QuickTime, led by RealNetworks, with a determined effort by Microsoft to take over the market with Net Show.

Apple worked to ...