--- Forwarded Message from Ray Rojas <[log in to unmask]> ---
>Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 09:25:23 -0700
>Subject: Streaming Media solutions
>From: Ray Rojas <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
Hi everyone,
I'm doing a comparison study and am looking into alternatives for media
digitization and streaming online. In general, I would need something
that could do the following:
- digitize video, preferably MPEG-4 for size considerations, but any
digital resource would be fine.
- be able to cap bandwidth usage or at least manage it
- no caching to the users computer, this would cause lots of additional
copyright problems
- needs to be robust, I'm anticipating 100-200 hits/day with higher
peaks during midterms and finals (estimated 300-500 hits/day)
- must be compatible with multiple platforms, with Windows, Mac and
Linux support at least.
- must be high enough quality to display at full-screen and,
occasionally, for projection in classrooms
Right now, we are using a little company called VideoFurnace as a pilot
program and it works very well. The only problem is the cost (probably
around $80,000 or more to start up and another $12,000 a year for
licensing for our current configuration, double if we want to expand).
The player that this system uses doesn't cache the video to the users
computer so it was a unique solution as far as we could find. If we
cache to the users computer then we are sending a copy to them and, for
copyright reasons, this is not acceptable. Currently we are streaming
class reserve videos on-campus and the students and faculty love it.
Part of this comparison study is to justify the cost and part is simply
to see what else is out there that may be easier or less expensive.
I know that Apple's streaming server is good (and free) but it caches
to disk, doesn't it? Same problem with Real Server and Windows Media
Server (plus the problem of cross-platform support).
Any information you can provide or point me in the right direction for
would be very helpful. Thanks,
Ray Rojas
UCLA Media Lab
270 Powell Library
(310)206-1211
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