A Complete Guide to Web Design

Bibliography

Table 19-1: Streaming Audio SummaryTechnology

FileType

ReferenceFile Type

LiveBroadcast

Video

Player

Encoder

Server

Delivery

1

BandwidthOptions

RealAudioRealNetworkswww.real.comRealNetworks hasannounced itsnew G2 system; itwas not availableas of this writing.

.ra

.ram

yes

yes

RealPlayer 5.0(free) or Real-Player Plus (com-mercial product)(Windows 3.1/95/NT, Mac)

RealEncoder orAdobe PremierPlug-in(Windows 95/NT,Mac)

RealNetworks BasicServer 5.0 (free) andBasic Server Plus 5.0(full-featuredcommercial product)(Win 95/NT, mostUnix)

UDP orHTTP

Optimized for14.4 and 28.8Separate files arerequired for specificbit rates.

Liquid MusicSystemLiquidAudiowww.liquidaudio.com

.lqt

n/a

no

no

Liquid Music-Player CD(Windows 95/NT,Mac)

LiquifierPro(Windows) orLiquifier Plug-infor Pro-Tools(Mac)

Liquid MusicServer3.0(NT, Sun, Solaris,SGI)

UDP

Multiple bit ratescan be stored in onefile.

StreamworksXingTechnologieswww.xingtech.com

.mp2.mpa

.xsm(embedded).xdm(non

• embedded)

yes

yes

StreamworksPlayer(Windows 95/NT,Mac)

Xing MPEGEn-coder(Windows 95/NT)This is a commer-cial product

Streamworks Server(NT, Linux, Solaris,Irix, HP-UX, Unix)

UDP,TCP,HTTP

Aimed at 250kbpsand higher; files canbe “thinned” toserve multiple band-widths, but sepa-rate files arerecommended forspecific bit rates.

Shockwave AudioMacromediawww.macro-media.com

.dcr

n/a

no

no

2

Shockwave Plug-in to NN 2.0+, IE3.0+

3 , AOL 3

(Windows 3.1/95/NT,Mac)

with ShockwaveAudio Xtras inDirector 5.0, 6.0,or Sound Edit 16,version 2.

n/a

HTTP

14.4 through T1;separate files arerequired for specificbit rates.

QuickTime AudioApplewww.quicktime.com

.mov

n/a

no

yes

QuickTime Plug-in to NN3.0+ andIE3.0+(Windows 95/NT,Mac)

Many tools avail-able, inludingMoviePlayerPro(part of Quick-Time 3.0 upgrade)

n/a

HTTP

n/a

1 UDP continuously pushes data through an open connection stream; however, UDP connections are problematic for some firewall configurations. Some vendors have respondedby adding the capacity to revert to HTTP delivery if the UDP connection fails. 2 The filetype fully supports interactive multimedia presentations. 3 Shockwave Plug-in for Internet Explorer does not operate on the Mac platform.