Video Streaming

Have you looked at video or listened to audio on the web lately? Streaming video and audio on demand is beginning to make headway on the Internet thanks to faster computers and improvements in compression technology.

The concept behind streaming technology is to compress the digital video and audio files in such a way that they can be played over the web as fast as they can be downloaded.

Streaming media requires special software on a web or video server to pump out highly compressed video/sound files. A matching player, packaged as a plug-in in Internet browsers, is required for viewing the streaming files.

While quality, resolution, image size, and frame rates for streaming audio and video files are limited by variables such as bandwidth, data rate connections, and the speed of a user's computer, the technology is providing some very promising results.

Creative Communication Services (CCS) is now working with clients to provide streaming audio and video files on the web for news/information, teaching and continuing education. Using Vivo software, CCS-Instructional Media is able to compress digital audio and video files for playback on any web server. Examples of streaming technology on campus can be viewed at .

If you are interested in learning more about video and audio on the web, you can contact Paul Ver Wey (paverwey@ucdavis.edu), Jon Gorroño (jpgorrono@ucdavis.edu) or Michael LaPera (mlapera@ucdavis.edu) from Creative Communication Services.