Streaming Video by Alan Barker Antony Voznesensky Chris Harris What is Streaming? Real-time transmission of video + audio signals over the Internet CNN sample stream Benefits of Streaming Companies Consumers Academics Consumers HDTV Digital Cinema Video on demand The American Past Time: Television Digital TV “As the 500 channel universe becomes a reality, broadcasters are looking for ways to ensure viewer retention and enable new viewer acquisition. Digital television allows them to accomplish this by not only delivering better video and audio quality to their viewers, but by also allowing them to differentiate their service offerings through combining interactive television applications with traditional television programming content.” What is Digital TV? The digital reception of a program on a television monitor. Advantages of Digital TV Greater Picture Quality from digital signal HDTV Watch any program at any time, without interruptions. TIVO Interactive TV--Internet Capabilities, ECommerce opportunities from your TV Ultimate TV. Interactive TV 2.2 million households are projected to have the interactive TV service by the end of the year [Forrester Research] Nearly one-quarter of all U.S. households will be using Interactive Television by 2004 [Forrester Research] Interactive television advertising revenues are expected to reach $11 billion in the U.S. by 2004 [Forrester Research] Interactive television advertising revenues are expected to reach $11 billion in the U.S. by 2004 [Forrester Research] Three-quarters of all television commercials will be interactive within five years [Forrester Research] Interactive TV Things inhibiting us from having Full Digital Television with all its wonderful capabilities. Failure to yet develop “the magic box” Companies must combine Technologies to get to this Level AOL time Warner Microsoft – Ultimate TV Playstation Regulations of Digital TV May 2002, all television stations are supposed to be able to transmit digital quality. 2006, all Analog Signals in the United States are to be cut off entirely. By this time all Americans must have a Digital Television, or a digital converter box, otherwise America’s favorite past time, TV, will come to an end. Future Limitations With the Laissez faire economics this conversion will probably not take place as quickly as government would like. TV stations are not willing to go to digital because, consumers do not have capabilities to receive digital transmissions. Consumers, are not willing to purchase costly digital setups because there is not enough use for them. Chicken and the Egg. Companies Video conferencing Content delivery – cheaper, faster, more effective B2B The Digital Pocket PC Price • • • $169.99 take pictures on your handheld fits in your memory card slot for hp jornada 520, 525, 547, 548 Benefits and Limitations Able to play movies Able to play video email Able to take digital pictures Unable to record digital videos Academics Video on demand Distance learning Prerecorded Prerequisites Network decongestion 24/7 availability and reliability VHS or higher quality Network Decongestion WAN Backbone Metro (MAN) Local Loop DWDM for WANs Backbone technology 400 Gb/s vs. 20 Gb/s non-DWDM Multiple channels 1,400 nm spectrum or band Switching MANs DWDM Cisco ONS 15454 & 15327 optical transport platforms Free Space Photonics Up to 5km radius Capable of 2.488 Gbps transfer rate Extremely secure Very small and easily installed Local Loop Cable 10 Gigabit Ethernet 2 Mbps (10GbE) Shared Scheduled for 2002 xDSL DWDM compatible SDSL (2 Mbps) ADSL (7Mpps/1.5Mbps) Consistent with RADSL (rate adaptive) LANs VDSL (55 Mbps) Reduced packet Satellite size – throughput Limited bandwidth DSL Deployment Growing Source: Converge! Network Digest (http://www.convergedigest.com/DSL/numbers/totalDSL.htm) DSL vs. Cable Source: Converge! Network Digest (http://www.convergedigest.com/DSL/LastMileDSLNumbers.htm) Reliability/Availability •Global reach •99.9% uptime guarantee •Quality of service •Redundancy •Professional staff Source: Digital Island (http://www.digitalisland.net/services/streaming.shtml) Quality of the Streams Uncompressed video = 240Mbps MPEG: The most popular codec for streaming apps Free open end standard Generally “better-quality video than competing formats” (Webopedia, MPEG). Developed by the Moving Pictures Experts Group, an ISO subcommittee MPEG-1 First to come out - 1992. 352 x 240 = standard TV, VHS quality 1-3 Mbps – DSL, cable, T1 Prevalent in corporate LANs MPEG-2 DVD, set-top boxes, HDTV up to 100Mbs 720 x 480 full-screen resolution Bitstream scalability Studios and cable companies MPEG-4 Better compression rates than MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 at the same bit rates Totally scalable Increased fault tolerance Multiple layers Interactive content Enormous flexibility 5-384kbps for slow LANs and wireless < 2Mbps for film and TV Up to 38Mbps for broadcast services MPEG-4: What’s possible Source: Overview of the MPEG-4 Standard @ http://www.cselt.it/mpeg/standards/mpeg-4/mpeg-4.htm Conclusion: The Future of Streaming Video Cuts cost, shortens the distribution channel, and brings greater flexibility to rich media. Available now but will grow in popularity with improvements in network, TV, and mobile technology Benefits business, consumers, and academics