Digital Media Buzz > The Pros and Cons of Data Streaming

The Pros and Cons of Data Streaming

By James Zipadelli

Watching streaming video on a mobile phone or Internet-ready television continues to be perfected and is a trend that will continue. It’s a big win for the consumer, Akamai Technologies Suzanne Johnson says, because “Consumers are dictating when they want to consume content, where they want to consume content and on what device.”

Benefits of streaming
“The most exciting thing that has come to mobile audience is live video,” Johnson continues. “Not only can you watch clips on demand but broadcasting live events to your phone, so it’s almost like mobile TV. Apple has built in their OS to do this type of video. Akamai has built a service that allows content providers to use our servers and our network to deliver videos to the iPhone.”

Johnson says the iPhone has developed technology to make video accessible though carriers. “The iPhone has really opened it up for video,” Johnson says. “Content owners are excited to put content on the iPhone. Apple has introduced a new technology called adaptive rate technology. Because the technology fluctuates, you get three or four different stream rates and the iPhone is smart enough to play each one. Not only have they done what they’ve done with form factor of the device, but they’ve also introduced new technology to ensure playback experience is optimal, called adaptive bit rate streaming.”

Cyle Gage, a developer for Emerson College, also says there are several benefits to streaming. “One of the benefits of streaming is that it can automatically determine which quality is best to stream to the end user, creating a more seamless experience,” Gage says. “While streaming usually requires more disk space for varying qualities of files for streaming, it allows for users to view content on their own computer that would normally require a TiVo or a DVD to watch. Thanks to the advantages of streaming, sites like Median could be created to securely allow students at Emerson College to share their work under protected conditions, and we can watch movies over Netflix without having to rent the physical media.”

Challenges of streaming
“For mobile devices, the biggest challenges are still network quality and inconsistent network coverage,” says Bob Mason, chief technology officer for Cambridge-based Brightcove. “With Internet-connected TVs, there’s no standards on how to connect the video streaming services to the TV. Each manufacturer has a different process. If you’re interested in the Yahoo! TV Widget, they’re trying to create a consistent platform for connected Internet television. The issue is that not all TV manufacturers support Yahoo!’s platform yet.”

Emerson’s Gage says academic institutions have to consider copyright protections, licensing and fair use limitations. “The traditional method of progressively downloading media as the user watches it is easily exploitable and has never been a viable option for large distribution companies that demand their work be strictly copyrighted and protected,” Gage says. “Likewise, it has never been an adequate solution for academic institutions, since the limits of copyright and fair use are still very uncertain. Streaming makes it much more difficult for the end user to capture and save what they’re watching, which is why services like Netflix, Hulu and even more independent sites like South Park Studios, stream their protected content over the Internet rather than allow it to be viewed on a site like YouTube, which does not stream media.

“The challenge of streaming is putting in place those security measures beyond streaming itself, i.e. encrypting the stream so only certain players can play it, or making the website inaccessible to the public (like Netflix). Another challenge is having to deal with the wide range of users’ bandwidth. South Park Studios, for example, has three different streaming quality automatically-switched options depending upon the bandwidth available to the user, and each setting changes the clarity of the streaming picture. Typically with normal progressively downloaded videos like on YouTube, the end user merely downloads the video as fast as their bandwidth allows, which may mean waiting for the little progress bar to fill up before you can watch the movie. YouTube allows you to download a higher-quality version, but this is a choice on the user end.”

Brightcove’s Mason adds, “For most content owners at this stage, there are not many technical challenges they have to work through. An online video platform like Brightcove can allow a simple turnkey solution for media companies to do online streaming directly to consumers.

All experts agree that the benefits of streaming outweigh its challenges.