Nonstreaming (Static) Audio 335AudioNonstreaming (Static) AudioWeb Design in a Nutshell, eMatter EditionStreaming Audio Components
Streaming media technology involves several software components:
- Theencoderis a piece of proprietary software that converts audio to the
streaming format (also proprietary). The source can be an existing audio file
in one of the standard static formats, or it might be taken from a direct audio
signal, as is the case in live broadcast.
•Aplayeris required on the user’s end to play the audio content. Vendors dis-
tribute their players for free. These are generally also available as browser
plug-ins.
- Many streaming audio file formats require special audio server software.
Streaming media companies make their money by selling the server software
and often licensing a certain number of streams (the number of connections
that can happen concurrently). This software is usually quite costly.
Advantages
- Audio begins playing soon after the stream begins.
- Sound quality doesn’t need to be as severely sacrificed.
- Artists and publishers can control distribution and protect copyright because
the user never gets a copy of the audio file.
Disadvantages
- Potentially high cost of server software.
- Requires a dedicated or preconfigured server, which may be problematic with
some hosting services. - Sound quality and stream may be adversely affected by low speed or incon-
sistent Internet connections.
Which Should You Choose?
As noted above, there are benefits and drawbacks to each of these approaches to
web audio. As a general rule, if you want to add audio to your web site that is
professional-quality and more than one minute in length (music, in particular), you
should consider investing in one of the streaming media solutions. If you are
building a web site that is based on your audio offerings and expect a fair amount
of traffic, you should consider a separate server machine dedicated to audio.
If you have a personal or small commercial web site and would like to add a
greeting or some other small audio sample, making simple audio files available for
download is a fairly easy task.
Nonstreaming (Static) Audio
This section looks at static audio file formats, tips for optimizing audio files for
download, and how audio files can be linked to HTML documents.