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| The Ultimate Resource for Rich Media Advertising |
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by Pamela
Parker
Amid the dreary doldrums of the online advertising business,
a few bright spots do exist -- arenas in which there's seen to be great
potential for development and growth. Among those areas is streaming media,
which can wow consumers with audio and video advertisements that arguably
pack the emotional wallop of comparable radio and television spots.
Streaming media, then, is like radio or television. Then again, it's
not. As part of TurboAds.com's everlasting quest to demystify the
latest online marketing vehicles -- their capabilities and the technology
behind them -- we present Streaming Media 101, an exploration of
this emerging form of rich media aimed at getting newcomers up to speed.
Today, in part one, we get down to the bare bones -- the basics of the
technology.
Don't be scared. We're not going to make you learn super-techie terms
that you'll never use, but understanding the difference between a server
and a sniffer script might just make your job a little easier. Or, if
all of this is old hat to you, this might be the ideal opportunity to
educate your boss, co-worker, employee, or client about streaming.
Let's start at the beginning, with the stream itself. In the beginning
-- and instances of this still exist -- there was the file download. If
you wanted to watch a video or listen to a song, you had to download the
entire file to your hard drive, and then play it locally. Some still advocate
this type of experience, because the playback is usually smoother -- you
don't have to concern yourself with the vagaries of net congestion.
But downloading an entire file just takes so darned long, hence the development
of streaming -- a technology whereby the audio or video can be played
as the file is downloaded. That content can be either live or pre-recorded,
just like radio, television, or cable. Coincidentally, streaming is a
big hit with people concerned about digital rights management, because
the audio and video isn't actually stored on the user's computer. People
have access to the content, but they don't actually own it and they can't
copy it.
To make all this work, the audio or video content is first compressed
using what's called a codec (short for compressor/decompressor) which
makes it small enough to travel over the Internet. Then, when a consumer,
using a streaming media player -- the most common being Real Player,
Windows Media, and QuickTime -- requests that file, the
appropriate file (that is, the one compressed in such a way to be decompressed
by the user's particular type of player) is sent out across the Internet.
The person's player decodes the file on the fly, and, voila, the audio
or video plays.
An important thing to remember is that each stream is served up in response
to an individual's request. That means it costs more -- in terms of computer
power -- for each person who is listening or viewing. It's a very different
proposition than radio or television, where you have the initial technology
investment and then it doesn't matter how many people are receiving the
signal.
There are advantages, though, over broadcast radio and television. As
on the Internet, advertisements can be targeted to the individual that
receives them. Different ad serving systems have differing capabilities,
but it's technologically possible to deliver an ad to that one individual
that you know is dying to buy your product. Of course, you may not want
to come up with creative for all of those particular individuals, but
that's beside the point.
The other main advantage, of course, is interactivity. Once the prospective
buyer receives the ad, he or she can click to buy the product or to seek
more information.
So, now that you know the basics, let's dive into the jargon.
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