As streaming media enters its second decade, it’s not all that often that we get to explore a totally new topic. But now we do, as I recently took my first look at cloud encoding. What is cloud encoding? At a high level, it’s an intern
Read More »Streaming Gets Smarter: Evaluating the Adaptive Streaming Technologies
In its “2008 Consumer Panel Broadband Survey,” IDC reports that 25% of all participants can successfully download a 1,200Kbps file, while a startling 69% of all respondents can retrieve a 2,400Kbps file. If you’re a media or ente
Read More »Producing VP6 Video – What You Need to Know
Though overshadowed by H.264 in the news, On2’s VP6 is still the most widely used streaming codec in the world today. In this short article, you’ll learn what you need to know to produce video using the On2 VP6 codec, including the
Read More »Silverlight: What you Need to Know
Microsoft Silverlight has gained lots of recent attention as a platform for live event streaming applications, and soon may have sufficient penetration for other web sites to consider using. This article tells you what you need to know about Silve
Read More »H.264 for the Newbie
A comment on one of my posts inspired this collection of H.264 resources for the Newbie. If you learn best by reading, check out Producing H.264 Video for Flash: An Overview, which is a general article that covers why H.264 is the "it" codec and the
Read More »Some things I’ve done on Final Cut Studio 3
I was fortunate to get an early look at Apple's new Final Cut Pro 7, and wrote several articles that you might find of interest. Millimeter - Apple Final Cut Pro 7: First Look Review. A good overview of the key new features. StreamingMedia.com - Appl
Read More »Smooth Streaming – Silverlight’s Trojan Horse
I’ve written before that most consumers couldn’t care less if Microsoft pulled the plug on Silverlight, primarily because from their view -- that of the user -- it does little that Flash can’t do. I know, I know, there’s lot o
Read More »Review: Kulabyte XStream Live 2.1
If you’re producing a live streaming event, you have three choices when it comes to encoding: You can hire out the work, buy a streaming appliance, or build your own streaming encoder. If you choose the third approach and want to stream HD H.264 video via Flash, Kulabyte’s XStream Live 2.1 Flash video encoder needs to be on your short …
Read More »Shooting for Streaming: Designing Your Set and Dressing Your Talent
My first foray into digital video, circa 1994, went like this: I hired a professional crew to film a tutorial on video compression. The set they designed featured a rosewood desk against a gray fabric background decorated with plants, and graduate
Read More »Lighting for Streaming
Without question, lighting is the single most important determinant of streaming quality. Shoot a well lit scene with a consumer camcorder, or a poorly lit scene with the latest HD wonder with 2/3” CCDs, and the consumer camcorder wi
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