The Technology of Video and Audio Streaming, 2nd Edition

16Applications for streaming media

Introduction

In a period of ten years, streaming has evolved to become a primary medium for the delivery of video and audio content. It sits beside television for use in applications where the audience is too small or dispersed to warrant conventional broadcasting.

Other communications media now are finding that the codecs developed for Internet streaming have many other applications. Streaming demands highly efficient compression for the limited bandwidth available. These efficient codecs also can be used to reduce very high data rates – high-definition television – or for the very low data rates of mobile wireless applications. We see MPEG-4 and Windows Media being adopted for high-definition DVD coding, and ...